how do you tell...

**hadiislam** · 9th January 2012, 01:29

how do you tell if it's the gearbox or clutch that's went on the car? or even both?

Thanks in advanced

**hadiislam** · 9th January 2012, 10:21

anyone?

**Rebellion** · 9th January 2012, 10:55

Gearbox would probably give trouble in specific gears, maybe even just one gear; whereas a failed clutch would stop it going into any gear. Did you get any rumbling noises in the days prior to the failure, perhaps a noise that disappeared when you pressed the clutch?

**hadiislam** · 9th January 2012, 11:06

Well, it's struggling to go into gears unless I put it in neutral pump the clutch and then put it in gear :/. And yeh it was making a noise and soon as the clutch was pressed the noise would disappear?
Thanks

**pedro26** · 9th January 2012, 11:15

NB The following comments are not specific to the vectra.

Excessive clutch wear is sometimes seen by engine revs increasing with no corresponding increase in actual vehicle speed. This is usually most apparent in say gears 1-3 when settting off and travelling uphill.

Clutch contamination (oil etc. on friction surfaces) can cause sticking of the plates. Here you might experience a little jolt when engaging first gear, when stationary with the clutch fully depressed. This can also make gear selection more difficult when moving.

General clutch wear can also cause difficulty in gear selection.

Gearbox failure.

Here you can lose certain gears totally so the box only can select a restricted numbers of gears. I have known people lose third gear and drive temporarily using gears, 1, 2, and 4.

Quicker than normal clutch failure can occur if you ride the clutch a lot, e.g. always use the biting point to the hold the car, or slip the clutch to move in a queue, instead of using handbrake/change down/ stop, slipping the clutch gives a smoother ride with less things to do, but some people call it 'lazy' driving, but in queues sometimes you never get chance to fully disengage the clutch, so to some extent its unavoidable if you always 'keep up' with the car in front. That's why you see some people adopt the gap-drive attitude to save on clutch wear in the all too common queues.

Gearbox bearing failure is sometimes preceded by bearing whine. Catastrophic gearbox failure can occur when a gear tooth breaks off and jams the cogs. There's usually a large bang and bits of the gear can burst through the gearbox case.

You would not mistake this for clutch failure.

An unusual cause of this these days is an imperfection in the steel gears, more often its lubrication failure or abuse ('crashing' the box) changing gear when the clutch is not fully depressed. Syncromesh tries to avoid the gears crunching into each other by getting the to be meshed gears spinning at the correct meshing speeds.

A failure of the syncromesh in the gearbox can also mean that every gear change (often between two gears in particular, not all of them) is accompanied by a crunch.

Hope this helps you to decide what the problem is.

BTW Clutches adjust automatically these days to compensate for wear of the friction surfaces, but on some cars you could tell the state of wear of the clutch by the postion/travel distance of the clutch lever (which brings the release bearing into contact with the 'fingers' on the pressure plate).

**dh.dti** · 9th January 2012, 11:18

If it's rattling then it's most like the dmf is failling & if you are having to pump air out of the clutch in order to get it to work then the master cylinder is probably shot too, unless you have fluid loss then it could well be the slave...

edit: i have just looked at your profile & if it's the 1.8, i don't think you have a dmf

**hadiislam** · 9th January 2012, 11:29

Originally Posted by dh.dti

If it's rattling then it's most like the dmf is failling & if you are having to pump air out of the clutch in order to get it to work then the master cylinder is probably shot too, unless you have fluid loss then it could well be the slave...

edit: i have just looked at your profile & if it's the 1.8, i don't think you have a dmf

it's not really rattling as such. its more of a whining kinda of noise :S as if all the pressure from the clutch is dissapearing :S, and yeah i've been told the 1.8 petrol doesn't have a DMF so thanks **** for that :| lol is the clutch an expensive job? I've been quoted by my local garage £100 for the job if i get the parts... you think thats reasonable?

**Rebellion** · 9th January 2012, 12:01

£100 labour is a very good price.

**pedro26** · 9th January 2012, 13:48

£100 !!!???

On the old astra there were a lot of jobs you could do without engine removal and I think the clutch may be one of them. I have vague memories of buying a special tool and doing jobs with the passenger side front jacked up, road wheel removed, axle stand in place and off you go.

On vectra B the engine/gearbox arrangement was re-designed and such work i.e. without the engine removal was no longer possible. on Vectra C dunno ? has GM/Vauxhall reverted?