hello everyone. forgive me as i know nothing about cars.
i have a fiat and it was making a strange squealing noise when use the clucth.
i asked my friend martin to have a look at it as he knows all about cars and he said that it needed lubricating so he sprayed it with wd40.
now the problem has got worse! the clutch squeals all the time and the car is going slower. can anyone tell me what the likely problem is? unfortunately martin is away for two weeks and i need the car for work
harry
"Martin" knows far less about cars than he thinks. I notice in another post of yours he said it was OK to put used oil down the drains in the road! Please IGNORE anything Martin says about cars in the future.
A clutch relies on friction to work, like brakes, so lubricating it is the worst thing you can do.
Your clutch was probably worn to start with causing the noise, but is now lubricated and worn, and slipping more than ever. The only solution is to replace the clutch, and clean the oily mess from the flywheel while it's apart.
Give a clutch specialist a call and get them to quote on supplying & fitting a new clutch. Depending on the car I would expect it to be between £150 and £400.
Alan.
oh dear. :(
I can't decide if this is a troll or not...
Of course it is- 'Martin' oiled your clutch so it's slipping badly!
You mean 'fortunately' surely? Your friend Martin is an idiot- he oiled your clutch with WD40 FFS! Don't let him anywhere near your car when he comes back!
Get the clutch replaced at a reputable garage, problem solved.
Dave
Giving Martin the benefit of the doubt, I assumed he'd WD-40'd the clutch release mechanism, not the friction plate... But who knows...
Maybe he "oiled" the clutch pedal? Does the clutch itself squeal when the pedal is pressed and does it do it even when stationary?
I love the bit "I know nothing about cars. I have a fiat...." :-)
Says it all really.
Sounded like a whine from the clutch when taking up drive - classic symtoms of a worn clutch plate. The fact the OP said the WD40 made it worse and not better confirms to me that "Martin" lubricated the clutch plate and not the release mechanism.
LOL! To be fair, if one is prepared to tinker and has a small budget, a Fiat isn't necessarily a bad buy as they're usually so cheap. The JTD powered Puntos are not bad, nor is the 1.2 Sporting Punto.
OTOH, they're a bad buy for someone who cannot sort out niggling faults.
Dave
Has Peter changed his name to Martin?
The message from snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.co.uk contains these words:
Son of Peter.
Does it make a sort of pinking sound, d'yer reckon?
No doubt in my mind that it is. Mike.
garage just phoned to say they suspect clutch and firewheel contaminated with wd40.
i'm going to break martins legs when he gets back of holiday.
harry
If it makes a noise when you depress the clutch, it's usually the clutch release bearing. Celaning that with WD40 (which is at best a very light lubricant) would make the noise. Sounds though that if the car "is slower than before" that the clutch is slipping and it's likely that the clutch was knackered anyway. WD40 would probably burn off the clutch fairly quickly. Unless you've got some kind of weird adjustment problem it sounds like you need a new clutch and that would have been the case before or after the WD40.
'Flywheel', not firewheel.
There's a trick for 'curing' oil contaminated clutch plates, it involves 'riding' the clutch until it smokes and burns the oil off. Not that I'm recommending it, but it does work if you're desperate.
However, if your clutch is worn, this could do a lot of damage to the flywheel, which is a very expensive item. It also won't fix the original problem of a squealing release bearing.
The clutch likely needed replacing anyway, but he sounds a bit of a plonker TBH.
Dave
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