Valeo SMF conversion noise

[Declan958]

Hi all,

 

just had had a valeo SMF conversion kit installed in my Fabia, now every time I’m on the bite or crawling at low revs I get a noise from the clutch itself 

 

also a noise when between 2-2.5k revs when accelerating. more like a wooshing noise

 

ive attached the video of the noise I mentioned first, the video is me pressing and releasing the clutch

 

sounds like a rattle/chatter of the springs but not sure

 

want to know if it’s normal and if anyone else has experienced it, hopefully someone can shed some light

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[sepulchrave]

What an enormous surprise.

 

Yes, it's normal for SMF conversion to be noisy and no, you can't cure it unless you go back to a DMF. I'm amazed no-one told you before the conversion, unless you didn't do any homework first.

[LB123]

Always been puzzled by this phenomenon. Well recognized that SMF conversions are noisy but I don't understand why. My seven, 2L petrol and 200 horses has classic style single mass flywheel which makes no noise at all that I am aware of. Why does a VRS with an SMF make such a racket, enough to make many regret doing the conversion?

[SuperbTWM]

I never experienced any noise with my Valeo single mass conversion on a very similar engine.

[sepulchrave]

Because the DMF is a harmonic damper, diesels used to need massive flywheels before DMF's were invented.

If you used a suitably massive SMF the vibrations would be dampened enough to get rid of the noise but the engine would be much more sluggish and thirsty.

Diesels have extremely strong combustion pulses at very low RPM, exactly unlike a 200 BHP petrol engine, this is a result of the very high compression ratio which makes them so thermally efficient.

[LB123]

Thanks. That makes sense.

[Declan958]

On 04/12/2018 at 16:00, sepulchrave said:

What an enormous surprise.

 

Yes, it's normal for SMF conversion to be noisy and no, you can't cure it unless you go back to a DMF. I'm amazed no-one told you before the conversion, unless you didn't do any homework first.

No, I understand SMF are noisy

but the valeo kit has been reviewed multiple times to have no noise at all, so was just asking the question as to if anyone else has had similar issues

[sepulchrave]

I've never heard of any VRS owner on here who did an SMF conversion who didn't admit to it being noisier, there are many who found it tolerable and some for whom it was absolutely unbearable.

I'm quite certain it isn't good for the long term reliability of an already fragile gearbox, but if you can put up with it then I wish you luck.