Clutch judder and new radiator hose…

[Jigger72]

Oh no! I picked up a 2005 Superb PD130 this morning (already posted a thread about it called 'Should I buy this?' and put it straight in to a VAG indy for a full service.

VAG mechanic has just phoned to tell me a few things before he goes ahead with the service:

1. He says there's clutch judder, which I never noticed but then I've never driven a diesel before. I took it for 2 test drives and tested if the clutch engaged properly. It seemed fine and didn't seem worn. Anyway, the indy is saying it deffo isn't right

2. There's a radiator hose leak, which is an easy fix but a bit annoying.

Anyway, do I have any rights with the garage I bought it from (an indy dealer just down the road)? I've got the standard 3 month engine and gearbox warranty but I bet that wouldn't cover it.

What could the clutch judder be? The VAG mechanic says they can't really say without taking it apart and a new clutch, fitted and parts, is £500 He says he'd be surprised if it needed a new DMF as it's only done 60k but you never know…

Aghhhhh, what do I do? :'(

[rotodiesel]

Before you condemn the clutch give it a workout. VAG clutches always seem to be on the verge of juddering on cold takeup, especially after a cold night when atmospheric water condenses on the cold cast iron running surfaces. I tow a lot and find after towing, the clutch is perfectly smooth. If I don't do any towing for a few weeks, the first few takeups from cold will show slight juddering.

I've not tested this, but apparently if the DMF is on the way out, the driver's door will shake at idle if you leave it wide open with the engine running. Easy enough test but could be worthless...

rotodiesel.

[Sinclair]

Before you condemn the clutch give it a workout. VAG clutches always seem to be on the verge of juddering on cold takeup, especially after a cold night when atmospheric water condenses on the cold cast iron running surfaces. I tow a lot and find after towing, the clutch is perfectly smooth. If I don't do any towing for a few weeks, the first few takeups from cold will show slight juddering.

I've not tested this, but apparently if the DMF is on the way out, the driver's door will shake at idle if you leave it wide open with the engine running. Easy enough test but could be worthless...

rotodiesel.

+1 I had clutch judder from new, dealer replaced clutch under warranty, still judders on cold mornings, but, usually goes after a few stops.

Sinclair

[Jigger72]

Thanks folks.

I've had a read around the subject and it sounds like a common problem, although the mechanic did say he does Passats and Superbs all day long and knows there's something wrong, not just damp/rust judder.

I don't think he's trying to con me into getting work – I believe he was genuinely pointing stuff out because he knew I'd just bought it and thought the quicker I tell the dealer, the more chance there is of finding a solution. I hope to God I haven't bought another £1k worth of work to do. I'm really quite depressed about it. After I thought I'd done all the checks I could, how did I miss this? :(

Anyway, phoned the dealer and he said, "Well, you drove it twice, and I've driven it and I never noticed anything" But he did say to take it to the garage where he gets his cars serviced for a second opinion. I think we all know what that opinion will be – "It's fine mate. Nothing wrong with that at all!" :S

Just out of interest, does anyone know how long a full fluid change service (incl. brakes), plenum chamber clear out and reseal of pollen filter housing, should take? I gave the mechanic the go ahead at 15.50 today, after going back and forth with the dealer, and he phoned at 17.20 to say it was all done Seems pretty quick to me for all that work.

[Supurbia]

Live with it until it finally goes, the dmf can fail earlier than 60k anyway, and it might not even be anything to do with the clutch, could be an engine mount, check around them for red staining, this will indicate it's leaking.

[skodanut]

I would have thought the battery took longer to get out !! Absolute pain to remove in order to access the plenum chamber, but when out, there is still remedial work to be done in order to get at the bungs, then the pollen filter removal and replacement is okish provided the work has been done correctly and put back carefully, otherwise the problem could be worst!! But like you say, it does seem pretty quick, considering it took me longer to get the battery out, bear in mind i did my back in removing it.

I also had slight clutch judder, but more noticeable in damp conditions, but when engine was hot, it wasnt quite so bad. It seems to be a common problem, unless of course the clutch is worn. I did have a new spigot bearing put in when the engine was replaced, and that smoothed everything from take off. So dammed annoying that our old superb 2.0 tdi which rotodiesel has no time for, actually drove better than the skoda superb greenline we now have, but we got shot of it while it was still an asset, and let some poor other owner find out later when the pump fails again.

[rotodiesel]

It's impossible to do a proper job of changing fluids, removing bungs and replacing the pollen filter holder outer seal in that time.

rotodiesel.

[skodanut]

4 maybe 5 hrs would be a rough estimate in order to do the work requested. Everything has to be checked and rechecked when putting the plenum chamber components back, or more serious water bourne problems will occur...he's either a brilliant mechanic or has a magic wand...or saw you coming!!

[Jigger72]

What have I done? :'(

[Fred Bloggs]

Mine has occaisional clutch judder for the first start of the day, did it from new. Now it has done about 74k miles and actually, I can't remember the last time it did it now I'm thinking. I wouldn't worry till it fails, and it might not.

[skodanut]

And bear in mind also that the 1.9tdi is a very robust engine, so no problems there..even roto will praise it, the superb like any other car will need periodic maintainance in order to give you miles of good use. You made a wise choice in getting the 1.9, as for the clutch judder i wouldnt worry too much about it, unless it is beginning to slip.Remember the torque is quite high, and the superb being a large car is not the sort to be pushed around quickly, though on the motorway that is where it likes to be, in top gear poodling at 70mph wafting you around in comfort!!

So enjoy the car also remember you dont have the dpf issues to worry about either

[Jigger72]

Cheers everyone.

I think the mechanic was ok actually. I dropped the car off at about 11 yesterday and he started the inspection with it up on the ramp and everything. Then he started the plenum chamber, but said it was pretty clear so he just pushed the bungs down. He didn't actually do the seal in the end. Said it was OK, but I'll look at it myself when I've got time.

When I phoned at 15.45 he'd done all the inspection and needed to do the oil change, anti-freeze, and filters. When he phoned at 17.20 he'd done all that, but forgotten to do the brake fluid change so he did that after 17.20. I guess he spent about 3 hours on it, so not too bad, and there were two of them because they were quiet. He also gave me two new indicator bulbs for free, and a spare. Yippeee!

Anyway, back to the clutch. The mechanic showed me what he meant and it's basically this:

At low revs, if you release the clutch slowly there's judder, through the car, not just the pedal. It's the same in reverse. Nothing untoward happens between gear changes from 1st through to 5th, it's only in 1st and reverse. If I apply more revs it doesn't seem to do it either. It's quite bad if I try and reverse slowly with low revs.

I took it to the dealer's garage but he was busy. Handily there was another garage next door. I asked the guy to have a quick look and he did the 'handbrake on, 4th gear stall' test. After another couple of 'tests' he said there's 'plenty of clutch there' but when I explained the problem above he said that's completely different, and mentioned the fingers on the friction plate, I think??? Does anyone know what he means, or what the symptoms might mean?

There's also a slight feeling of friction, like a rubbing, when I push the clutch down. It's just a 'feeling' through the pedal and my foot but nothing when releasing the pedal.

Does any of this make sense? :S

[rotodiesel]

You need to get the pollen filter holder outer seal replaced with mastic strip asap. It's not feasible for your "mechanic" to report that the seal is "OK" because you can't see it until the filter holder is removed from the scuttle. The VAG supplied foam seal will be split, wet and useless. Your "mechanic" clearly didn't want to bother with wiper arm and scuttle cover removal. Ignore this warning at your peril.

Your clutch may well be OK. A degree of pedal vibration is also normal with these cars as the flywheel concentricity is not always accurate. If you give the clutch a reasonably considerate workout and the judder disappears when it's hot, your clutch is probably OK.

Keep an eye on your "mechanic" and make sure everything is done properly with the correct parts and fluids. These cars don't tolerate bodging.

rotodiesel.

Edited 12 March, 2011 by rotodiesel

[skodanut]

Incidentally how many miles has your superb done? As for the rubbing when clutch is depressed, that could be just normal wear, bear in mind its possible you dont know the full history of the clutch itself.If it stalls pretty quickly, then yes the clutch friction plate has plenty of meat on the linings, and you wont have to worry about it for a few thousand miles anyway, and what ever the mileage actually is, remember its not a brand new car, and there is bound to be some unusual noises or sensations felt within the car. If it's any cosolation, i recently sold my superb comfort, and that had a new engine fitted, and comparing the drive to my present greenline superb mk2, it drove better and was more silent, and of course had a lot more power under the bonnet compared to the 1.9tdi engine.OF course I regret selling the car, but the engine has an inbuilt senario waiting to happen, and i wasnt prepared to worry myself to death wondering when it was going to happen again.

I think who ever buys it, will have trouble free motoring, but i will feel for him/her when the dreaded oil pressure light appears again in the years to come.At the moment i am more than happy with the present superb greenline, and when that goes back to motability, we might go for the seat exeo se tech, which hopefully will still have a fairly low deposit, yet be fully loaded

[Jigger72]

You need to get the pollen filter holder outer seal replaced with mastic strip asap. It's not feasible for your "mechanic" to report that the seal is "OK" because you can't see it until the filter holder is removed from the scuttle. The VAG supplied foam seal will be split, wet and useless. Your "mechanic" clearly didn't want to bother with wiper arm and scuttle cover removal. Ignore this warning at your peril.

Your clutch may well be OK. A degree of pedal vibration is also normal with these cars as the flywheel concentricity is not always accurate. If you give the clutch a reasonably considerate workout and the judder disappears when it's hot, your clutch is probably OK.

Keep an eye on your "mechanic" and make sure everything is done properly with the correct parts and fluids. These cars don't tolerate bodging.

rotodiesel.

Thanks for the advice rotodiesel, as always. You've put my mind at rest

I think I'll end up doing the seal myself next weekend, but of all the guides I've seen on here and elsewhere, there was no guide to getting the wiper arm and scuttle cover removed? Have you got any tips or links you can point me to? Is it fairly easy?

Cheers

[Jigger72]

Incidentally how many miles has your superb done? As for the rubbing when clutch is depressed, that could be just normal wear, bear in mind its possible you dont know the full history of the clutch itself.If it stalls pretty quickly, then yes the clutch friction plate has plenty of meat on the linings, and you wont have to worry about it for a few thousand miles anyway, and what ever the mileage actually is, remember its not a brand new car, and there is bound to be some unusual noises or sensations felt within the car. If it's any cosolation, i recently sold my superb comfort, and that had a new engine fitted, and comparing the drive to my present greenline superb mk2, it drove better and was more silent, and of course had a lot more power under the bonnet compared to the 1.9tdi engine.OF course I regret selling the car, but the engine has an inbuilt senario waiting to happen, and i wasnt prepared to worry myself to death wondering when it was going to happen again.

I think who ever buys it, will have trouble free motoring, but i will feel for him/her when the dreaded oil pressure light appears again in the years to come.At the moment i am more than happy with the present superb greenline, and when that goes back to motability, we might go for the seat exeo se tech, which hopefully will still have a fairly low deposit, yet be fully loaded

Cheers skodanut. Everyone on here has been brilliant and I'm glad I've got another Skoda so I can keep coming back

The car has only done 61k and has been serviced every year at a Skoda dealer, rather than variable servicing, so I'm fairly confident it's all pretty sound. I took it for a proper drive myself today, up the M11, and it loves pushing on. Lovely torque from 50mph +

It's a big difference from the Octy petrol turbo. The engine's a bit agricultural but I think I'm going to learn to enjoy it.

After all the advice on here I'm feeling better about the clutch thing, too. I just need to do the filter seal and then I'll be happy.

The only other thing that's playing on my mind is the cambelt. The original Skoda dealer that serviced it for 6 years said it was done in Feb 2009 and are willing to stamp the book if I send it in, but why didn't they stamp such a fundamental service in the first place :S I can only trust that they did do it if they're willing to stamp the book to say so. At the service I just had the mechanic said they couldn't see anything wrong with it but it's almost impossible to tell isn't it? Should I save up another £350 for peace of mind?

Ah, this new car thing can really make a man lose his mind :no:

[strongmanatforrestgym]

Oh no! I picked up a 2005 Superb PD130 this morning (already posted a thread about it called 'Should I buy this?' and put it straight in to a VAG indy for a full service.

VAG mechanic has just phoned to tell me a few things before he goes ahead with the service:

1. He says there's clutch judder, which I never noticed but then I've never driven a diesel before. I took it for 2 test drives and tested if the clutch engaged properly. It seemed fine and didn't seem worn. Anyway, the indy is saying it deffo isn't right

2. There's a radiator hose leak, which is an easy fix but a bit annoying.

Anyway, do I have any rights with the garage I bought it from (an indy dealer just down the road)? I've got the standard 3 month engine and gearbox warranty but I bet that wouldn't cover it.

What could the clutch judder be? The VAG mechanic says they can't really say without taking it apart and a new clutch, fitted and parts, is £500 He says he'd be surprised if it needed a new DMF as it's only done 60k but you never know…

Aghhhhh, what do I do? :'(

i there , hmm,

you got issues like me!

always nice to know im not the only one,

i bought a superb( questionable name)

approx 3 weeks ago , a 130 elygonce, seemed good, then the stephen king horror story started!

it hasnt turned a wheel since i left it on the driveway,well not really left, more like dumped in a great big huff,and i havent bothered with it since.

primarily because i cannot squeeze into the front seat because only a dwarf could get in,as the electric seat on the drivers side has run out of electricity!

why ?

because it can!!

then theres the lack of display on the dot matrix,its a bit secretive, like the kgb, commrade.

it did work,but then it decided to pack up, all in the space of covering no miles sitting on the drive!

then theres the front interior lights or lack of light

then theres the boot light light , again lack of illumination,

the car is in self destruct mode.

if i ever get round to getting enthusiasm to get it fixed , i wonder what else would have gone wrong in the meantime?

terminal rust, car disolving, engine gearbox faults , who knows!!!!

then i find that the cd boot changer was robbed

along with the brolly

no first aide kit

but i did get sodden underlay under the carpets with knackered wiring , BONUS !

hmm im actually working out its value against an insurance claim, lol !

but it could be worse.......

i have never been part of a online community with anything,i always thought it was a bit anoraky, this was until last week (not actually a week yet) when i joined and have had great help and insight from the poor unfortunates like us, giving helpful info on there findings and experience.

dont give up hope just yet

even though i have , for now anyway!

[rotodiesel]

Pollen filter housing seal: Remove wiper arms (nuts under plastic plugs) - a puller is usually necessary. Remove large plenum chamber cover. Release the 2 metal spring clips holding scuttle cover (which is around the wiper spindles) and also remove the 2 plastic trim pieces from around the bonnet hinges. 1 Torx screw each side.

Very carefully lever the scuttle cover away from the screen at right angles to it - use a blunt scraper or something similar to avoid breaking the screen. The scuttle cover is extremely brittle and if you bend it, it will break. Remove pollen filter housing by freeing the 3 10AF nuts now accessible. Lift housing off - outer foam seal now visible - remove and discard. Inner foam seal is an air seal, leave this alone. Replace outer seal with bead of 10 dia mastic strip fitting join at the top and merging the ends together. Check join is watertight by pouring water from a bottle around filter housing and checking none goes into the air passage. Reassemble.

This job is not at all hard but go carefully. It's easy to break things and these cars will not tolerate Ford/GM standards of workmanship. Best of luck.

rotodiesel.

[Supurbia]

Don't go moaning about the time, 2 hrs to do an oil change, change the brake fluid and change the seal seems ok to me, especially if you have ramps and power tools, I could do an alternator in 20 minutes once I'd done it for the first time, he probably dropped the oil, let it drain while he changed the fluid, then swapped the filter out before refilling and then hooking the battery out for the bung check, none of these jobs take long if you know how, what you should make sure is that the new oil is the right spec, if you intend to change at 10k it should be 505.01, and if you want to run longer 506 or 507, 507 only really needed if you have a dpf, which iirc you don't, anyway 10k is best for filter reasons alone, LL is simply a fleet pleaser measure to keep costs down, they should call it the carbon depositor service scedule tbh, because everytime you stop a hot engine that the turbo has been whizzing, it carbonises the oil in the turbo, and next start scraps it all off to find it's way around the engine.

Edited 13 March, 2011 by Supurbia

[Jigger72]

Pollen filter housing seal: Remove wiper arms (nuts under plastic plugs) - a puller is usually necessary. Remove large plenum chamber cover. Release the 2 metal spring clips holding scuttle cover (which is around the wiper spindles) and also remove the 2 plastic trim pieces from around the bonnet hinges. 1 Torx screw each side.

Very carefully lever the scuttle cover away from the screen at right angles to it - use a blunt scraper or something similar to avoid breaking the screen. The scuttle cover is extremely brittle and if you bend it, it will break. Remove pollen filter housing by freeing the 3 10AF nuts now accessible. Lift housing off - outer foam seal now visible - remove and discard. Inner foam seal is an air seal, leave this alone. Replace outer seal with bead of 10 dia mastic strip fitting join at the top and merging the ends together. Check join is watertight by pouring water from a bottle around filter housing and checking none goes into the air passage. Reassemble.

This job is not at all hard but go carefully. It's easy to break things and these cars will not tolerate Ford/GM standards of workmanship. Best of luck.

rotodiesel.

Many thanks again roto

I'll see if I can do a photo guide next weekend if it's dry

[Jigger72]

Don't go moaning about the time, 2 hrs to do an oil change, change the brake fluid and change the seal seems ok to me, especially if you have ramps and power tools, I could do an alternator in 20 minutes once I'd done it for the first time, he probably dropped the oil, let it drain while he changed the fluid, then swapped the filter out before refilling and then hooking the battery out for the bung check, none of these jobs take long if you know how, what you should make sure is that the new oil is the right spec, if you intend to change at 10k it should be 505.01, and if you want to run longer 506 or 507, 507 only really needed if you have a dpf, which iirc you don't, anyway 10k is best for filter reasons alone, LL is simply a fleet pleaser measure to keep costs down, they should call it the carbon depositor service scedule tbh, because everytime you stop a hot engine that the turbo has been whizzing, it carbonises the oil in the turbo, and next start scraps it all off to find it's way around the engine.

Cheers dude. I've been a bit stressed about the whole thing and probably panicking a bit, but I've used this garage before for my Octy and had no reason to doubt them then. Anyway, I'll check with the oil but he's put a sticker in my windscreen to indicate it's a 10,000 mile service so he should have done the correct oil for this.

Looks like I'm doing the seal myself though

EDIT: After careful consideration (I don't really have the time and I'm a bit worried about snapping something) I phoned the VAG indy this morning and booked in for Wednesday. £50 cash to do the job and a bit more peace of mind for me

Edited 14 March, 2011 by Jigger72