Hi again guys, got a 1200 6 valve 2002 polo, (I know its polo not fabia, but you guys are so much more helpful than elsewhere!), and the clutch went on me yesterday.

Now it just slips into gears, if the revs drop at all :(

I need to change the clutch, but have been quite unfortunate with quotes... £290 being the best one...

I want to change it myself, have done it on a MK2 golf before, was easy enough, but have never attempted it on my polo obviously, so..

Can anyone give me advice of any special tools / expertise needed for the job? Anything to watch out for? Is it totally not worth tempting?

I can get the clutch kit for £50 thru my work, which is good, and its a Valeo clutch kit

What you guys reckon?

Ta very much!

Ollie x

I had a clutch fitted in my favorit for £138 by A1 clutch's in tipton, where are you from?

I fitted a clutch in a punto last weekend (not the one just gone) only bit that was awkward was taking the gearbox off as there was no room to do the job in situe. It's a case of unbolting the old clutch and pressure plate and bolting on the new one, but it needs to be lined up properly for the spline to go through the hole in the middle of the clutch plate and seat into the flywheel properly, I did it by eye and looked down the hole in the middle and got it looking near and bolted it back together and it was all fine.

I wouldnt advise trying it if you dont know much about the way things work, or if you are not very mechanically minded. It took me a day to do it on my own and it takes a clutch centre a couple hours tops. Plus if you cant line it up properly you cant get it back together and working properly.

Annd I just read your post properly from before and realised I have stated the obvious because you have done a clutch before! I think the difference will be that the polo will be hydraulic and the golf would of been a cable clutch, so it may be more awkward.

Well, I have a haynes manual (as good.. not as they are!!) and have read through it several times!

The only thing that puzzles me is the gear selector adjustment thingy which is quite strange! Other than that the clutch will be the same, changing the clutch plate itself should be p*ss easy, and I know about lining the clutch up etc, thats easy as well, it all makes perfect sense to me, but I don't want to end up with half the box off and needing a special tool or something to undo something... I'll take the under engine belly pan off and checkout all the nuts / bolts and see for myself at the week-end. I might well go for it myself you know there's plenty of space in there, its only a 3 cylinder so space shouldnt be an issue at all

Thanks for the reply

Oh I also know about the hydraulic clutch, that's easy, all part of the braking fluid, they share the same reservoir!

Ta!!!! Olz xx

Yep well I cant see you needing any special tools, just a ratchet and a good set of 6 sided sockets to save rounding off any bolt heads. You may also benefit from doing it with the gearbox held up with a jack and slid to the side to save undoing all of the hydraulics.

Hope this was helpfull!

Well here we go,

I'm ordering in the new clutch tomorrow ar work, as a 3 piece kit (pressure plate, friction disc and release bearing)...

As well as all the engine and gearbox mounts! .. And bleeding the clutch / brake fluid...

That should sort the 90,000 miles service?

I'll let you know how I get on..

Hello DubNutty.

If you have done a MK2 golf then this is a walk in the park.

Dont worry about bleeding it, just undo the slave cylinder from the gearbox and leave the fluid line connected and hand it up out the way. Cables should pop off the box (no need to touch any adjustment). Driveshafts unbolt in the same fashion as the MK2, flanges stay in the box so no gearbox oil issues.

Cool thanks so much for that (at last!!!) most reassuring message!

The fluid needs changign anyway, when I changed the pads last year, the fluid pushed back into the rservoir was black!!! Not very good :s So that needs changing, which is no problem!

So no special tools other than a good set of 6hex sockets! Get in!

Got a very good torque wrench as well, so hopefully (got my fingers double, triple crossed!!) it'll be a doddle!

Just one thing I failed to mention... The golf never made it back onto the road, as the subframe got bent when the engine / box came out! Oopsi!!

totally unrelated, but....

i had a polo 1.2 3 cylinder jobby last week as a hire car, and it was awesome fun!

austrian hire company ripped me off, so i ragged the poor little polo's nuts off to make myself feel better! Made an excellent autotest car!

great little car, and the engine sounds nice and raspy.

But it's crying out for a turbo, please give yours one! She needs a good blow job!

HAHAHA excellent!

I'm always thrashing the nuts off mine, all the time, im just addicted to it now! (And ive been thrashing her for over 50,000 miles now!!)

Unbelievably strong engine actually, its got 90K on the clock, and for two years I did motorway trips twice a day, holding a good speed! Won't say what speed but she'd hold 5,000RPM all day long! Even 5,500 sometimes, but that was pushing a little! (Consider the rev limiter kicks in at 6K hehe)

All I got is a slghtly rattly gearbox when she's cold and erm.... Very slight rattly kind of sound in the engine from time to time on tickover, other than that she still goes brill! I'll stop praising her now otherwise something will go wrong!

They do sound lovely tho dont they, Ive stuck a small cone air filter on, and the difference in sound in UNBELIEVABLE! With the standard filter on, it sounds like a bit of a sewing machine, filter off= Rally sound! Just needs a bigger zorst now.. I dont want loud, but want a nice deep rumble.. Hence why I'm fitting a TDI box and if thats not enough then a fabia vRS rear box

Ooh here's me rattling off loads of crap!

Yes, turbo is planned for the future, but not until ive paid off the finance.. Turbo is a bit tooo much for a car i dont completely own yet :P

I dont know what kind of turbo to go for tho, poss off a 1.4tdi? Not something big, but something to give it another 20odd hp

Of course I'll be sticking on a twincam head, and fit bigger valves / bore out the inlet / exhaust ports in the head :p

I'll let you guy know when I do it!!

Ollzey xx