A quick question which I may answer in the question.

My brother has a Fabia vRS with a Jabbasport st 1 remap, approx 175bhp and 311 lb ft of torque.

He has a clutch slippage at peak torque, but it is easy to drive around (having driven the car I can confirm this)

His car is identical in most respects to swmbo's car, and comparing the two it is quite obvious slippage occurs under full load at the point where torque peaks.

His car is just turning 40k.

Now, I've made an enquiry! and was advised to change both the clutch plate AND the DMF.

Jabbasport said a standard clutch is well within the torque handling capabilities of their st1 remap, and think the previous owner probably abused the clutch, although to be fair I was told that standard clutches can slip for no apparent reason.

Obviously I won't know if there's any sign of wear on the DMF until it's removed.

If there is no obvious sign, could he get away with changing just the clutch plate or should he always change both?

In addition, would he be getter looking at say a Darkside Developmemts Sachs kit at £575 which is uprated to 375 lb ft of torque?

Any answers gratefully accepted, I will pass them on to little brother.

Anyone?

I've had one company say you should always change the DMF, another says thee is no need (they would check it when replacing the friction plate) and a third that quite frankly didn't seem to know.

I'd be grateful of suggestions or experiences in order that I may report back to little brother....

Considering the size of the job, it's better to cover most bases and replace the lot. Especially if higher mileage. I've had slippage on mine and mine's torque limited to around 270, also on a Jabba map. Given enough thumping they will slip.

 

Ideally, peak torque would be lowered to offset slippage. This need not affect peak power.

Appreciate that, not sure what people consider 311 lbft torque to be, low, average or high?

His car is just about to turn 40k, so very similar to SWMBOs, which has no issues but the same map....

Appreciate that, not sure what people consider 311 lbft torque to be, low, average or high?

His car is just about to turn 40k, so very similar to SWMBOs, which has no issues but the same map....

I'd have though 311 lbft on a stock clutch from just a remap is pretty high. That's just me though.

Only going by the rolling road readout, however I do know Jabbasport changed their RR since then which produces lower figures, so it may be all horse feathers....

I'd suggest their previous RR read high.

The torque holding capabilities of the standard DMF & clutch are a bit of a mine field IMO. General consensus on here used to be that 300lbft is about the limit. However failures regularly occur below that threshold and many (inc me) have reported running much higher figures than that without failure.

If you suspect previous abuse then I'd stick a new stock clutch and new DMF in. If you plan to give it some serious stick yourself then get an uprated clutch with DMF or SMF.

Does the price you mentioned for the Darkside kit include VAT?

The DMF is known to be fairly questionable so I'd change it. They usually last 60k

vRS Joe, The £575 is inc vat according to the website, plus £200 for fitting.

Having read various threads, it would appear that the clutch can, as you both suggest, give up or be perfectly fine, so there appears to be no real common ground.

I guess little brother will have to have the DMF checked when it comes to change the clutch.

Well, I had my clutch replaced at about 65k because as soon as I remapped it it started slipping I only changed the clutch left the dmf in but then about a year later the input shaft bearing failed so had the box reconditioned and new clutch again, then about a year later the input shaft bearing failed again and box was sent to another company for recon and they said failure was down to excess play in the dmf so had gearbox reconditioned again bit with new clutch and dmf total bill just over a £1000 they guys that reconditioned it the first time round said the mdf was fine and no need to change it, moral of the story is you never know, for the sale of £300 extra for a mdf it's worth a punt but I'd recommend going up rated though it cost a few more quid than standard but it has a higher tolerance

Even if only going std again for the price ide get a dmf at same time. A std one from cp4l is around 200 for a sachs one.

Not worth just putting a clutch in as said the dmf are prone to go due to moving parts.

Pete, Billy, thank you for the advice, I will certainly pass that on.

Guess that's similar to having new brake discs and old pads....

yea mate, sort of, just its easier to get at the brakes so the cost is not too bad there but the clutch and gearbox are all coming off so might as well do the fly too seen as its a lot of hassle getting to it again.

 

plus for the slight extra its well worth it. if you go solid smf then its not needed but be warned a smf will make the gearbox chatter and also put extra stress on the box. no matter what people say, it will shorten the life of the box.

 

My smf was over 100k old when we took it off and it was knocking slightly.

 

all in I got a std kit off CP4L for around £300 and in my shark 1 map its perfect.  done 3k+ so far and it was perfect out the box.