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Is my clutch on it's way out?

Posted: Wed May 31, 2006 9:29 am
by Adski
I've noticed recently that when puling away in 1st gear the clutch continues to slip for a short time - is this inherant with dry clutches or is it a sign of wear?

I think this is generally around the 4-5k mark so not massive revs, though more than my normal pace.
The bike's approaching 10k miles and is a '98 model.

cheers!

Adam

Posted: Wed May 31, 2006 10:19 am
by bigblackfalco
Sounds like it slippin to me.Check for oil leaks between the engine/gearbox crankcases.If there's any oil round here it could well be oil getting on the clutch friction plate from rear main engine seal or the gearbox input shaft seal.
The other thing to check is that the Clutch master cylinder(at rear of gearbox) is realeasing properly.It needs to be moving freely(sometimes they get dirty/rusty).Otherwise it's a gearbox/rear end of bike strip down.
Probably in excess of £600.00 at a BMW stealer!! :shock:
Bailey.

Posted: Wed May 31, 2006 10:52 am
by theseadog
Certainly sounds like clutch slip to me Adam, as Bailey has said check for signs of oil contamination. Only 10K on it, do you do a lot of town riding ? Don't want to put the wind up you but I reckon Bailey is being conservative with his 600 quid, before I replaced mine a few years ago I phoned round a few dealers to get an idea of cost as I really couldn't be arsed changing it and was quoted around £1000 give or take !

If you're keeping the bike and are either hard on clutches or do a lot of slow town work riding the clutch then consider the ceramic job that's available. It's not cheap at around £300 but you'll wear out before it does ! If not just get an ordinary one for around £100.

Do the clutch replacement yourself, it's not hard and shouldn't take you long. Just make sure you've got replacement header to cat/Y-piece bolts as they're more than likely buggered by now ! If you need any advice just ask as there are quite a few of us on here who've done the clutch replacement.

HTH


Toodle Pip
:wav:

Posted: Wed May 31, 2006 11:24 am
by Ade B
Sounds like it slippin to me.Check for oil leaks between the engine/gearbox crankcases.If there's any oil round here it could well be oil getting on the clutch friction plate from rear main engine seal or the gearbox input shaft seal.
The other thing to check is that the Clutch master cylinder(at rear of gearbox) is realeasing properly.It needs to be moving freely(sometimes they get dirty/rusty).Otherwise it's a gearbox/rear end of bike strip down.
Had the seal between gearbox & engine replaced on mine twice under warranty - never had any slip though, just got oil mist/slight drip along the joint..

Does sound like clutch slip although mine is on 33k does loads of town work and is fine so seems a bit premature.... unless its those racing starts 5k in 1st :wink: Lucky if I see 3k and get out of 3rd gear in town...

How long have you had the bike? if its from a BMW dealer there should be a 1 year S/H warranty (there was on mine which was bundled into the purchase price).

Ade

Posted: Wed May 31, 2006 3:42 pm
by jivebiker
My clutch let go about 18 months ago, it just started slipping one day.
BMW fixed it under warranty, but Sawbridgewoth couldnt work out what had caused it, but it was a little frazzled.

Now this is odd, because I am fantastically light on clutches, in fact Ive never worn one out (several over 100k miles). At the point it let go I had had the bike for 18 months, and it was not long after a service at Hughenden (where I bought it, but I didnt realise when I had the service that they were no longer an authorised BMW service agent).

In a conversation with a GS owner, he said "Hughendon Serviced?" before I could tell him!

Its all sorted now, and has been OK ever since, but I will be pissed if it is a regular occurrence as I have a back problem, and can no longer physically do these sorts of repairs myself. £1000 for a clutch job is bloody ridiculous.

Posted: Wed May 31, 2006 4:21 pm
by theseadog
jivebiker wrote: £1000 for a clutch job is bloody ridiculous.
That's a more sanitised version of what I said to the service departments that I spoke with :wink:

Their justification was that ( other than they obviously have a holiday villa in France to pay for ) it was a complex job to remove the rear end and invariabley they had to drill out the header to cat/Y bolts. They were correct about the bolts, that's what i ended up doing, now copa'slipped to heaven ! If I was doing another and there was any doubts about the bolts I'd have replacements ready and any problems I'd just dremel them out and replace, 10 mins tops.

It's certainly no more than a days work, and that's lots of tea breaks and taking it very easy, and a long lunch :)

Toodle Pip
:wav:

Re: Is my clutch on it's way out?

Posted: Wed May 31, 2006 9:29 pm
by boxerpan
Adski wrote: I think this is generally around the 4-5k mark so not massive revs, though more than my normal pace.
The bike's approaching 10k miles and is a '98 model.

Adam
Does sound like clutch slip especially at those revs (peak torque) since that's what will make the plates let go

Re: Is my clutch on it's way out?

Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2006 7:02 am
by Jason M
Adski wrote:I've noticed recently that when puling away in 1st gear the clutch continues to slip for a short time - is this inherant with dry clutches or is it a sign of wear?

I think this is generally around the 4-5k mark so not massive revs, though more than my normal pace.
The bike's approaching 10k miles and is a '98 model.

cheers!

Adam
Where are you Adam? You could come round and do it in my garage - I've done mine and last year replaced the gearbox too and it's not difficult, just very very time consuming :wink: Cost you about £80-100 in parts that way :wink:

Jason

Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2006 9:14 am
by theseadog
Look out Adam, he'll have you 'twating' things before you know it . . . . :wink:



'Twating' is a registered trademark Jason 2003

Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2006 6:13 pm
by Jason M
theseadog wrote:'Twating' is a registered trademark Jason 2003
"Twat" is such a lovely word, it just rolls off the tongue, like "bollocks", "bugger", "tits" and "bum"..... ahhhh the beauty of the English language :lol:

I had the 'super twatter' lump hammer out the other day changing the bearings on the Fazer. It also helped me change a load of skin on my thumb...which was nice... That after I had unsuccessfully tried the 'son of twatter' slide hammer on it :twisted:

If you come round Adam... we'll try to keep the twatting to an absolute minimum :D And there will be absolutely no "bugger"y at all :shock:

Jason

Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2006 6:18 pm
by gus
Jason M wrote:
theseadog wrote:'Twating' is a registered trademark Jason 2003
"Twat" is such a lovely word, it just rolls off the tongue, like "bollocks", "bugger", "tits" and "bum"..... ahhhh the beauty of the English language :lol:

I had the 'super twatter' lump hammer out the other day changing the bearings on the Fazer. It also helped me change a load of skin on my thumb...which was nice... That after I had unsuccessfully tried the 'son of twatter' slide hammer on it :twisted:

If you come round Adam... we'll try to keep the twatting to an absolute minimum :D And there will be absolutely no "bugger"y at all :shock:

Jason
Dont forget "cock" :lol:
gus
ps in the right context of course!

Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2006 11:50 pm
by theseadog
gus wrote:
Jason M wrote:
theseadog wrote:'Twating' is a registered trademark Jason 2003
"Twat" is such a lovely word, it just rolls off the tongue, like "bollocks", "bugger", "tits" and "bum"..... ahhhh the beauty of the English language :lol:

I had the 'super twatter' lump hammer out the other day changing the bearings on the Fazer. It also helped me change a load of skin on my thumb...which was nice... That after I had unsuccessfully tried the 'son of twatter' slide hammer on it :twisted:

If you come round Adam... we'll try to keep the twatting to an absolute minimum :D And there will be absolutely no "bugger"y at all :shock:

Jason
Dont forget "cock" :lol:
gus
ps in the right context of course!
A) I'm really glad you qualified that statement Gus
B) Bob has already said it's ROCK red ! :wink:

Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2006 5:01 pm
by Adski
Thanks for all the info and offers people! Hugely appreciated!
I'll see how it goes and if it gets any worse - I'll do some roll on tests too and see if that makes it slip, or it it's just when pulling from a standstill.
I've just done a 500 mile stint over the last two days and noticed no slipping, but then I wasn't thrashing her /that/ much.
The bike is covered under the year's guarantee that SLM and though it's a third party one and not the official BMW one but they've had no quibbles swapping a battery and starter motor.

I'm in Coulsdon if anyone's local it'd be nice to have a second opinion at some point, though I'm pretty busy over this next week.

Thanks again. :)

Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2006 9:36 pm
by Boxadog 2000
How did Cock red (sorry ROCK red) get in this post :lol:

Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2006 12:57 pm
by theseadog
Boxadog 2000 wrote:How did Cock red (sorry ROCK red) get in this post :lol:
You know what those randy brummies are like Bob, they'll get cock into anything they can ! :shock:


Are we allowed to say cock by the way Paul/Richard ? :wink:

Adam, when mine went I could ride 'gently' and keep it below 4500 and it wouldn't really slip, but as soo as you gave it either a handful or took the revs up, slip slip slip slip it went like a slippy thing......

Toodle Pip
:wav: