This Q. as when relating my tale of clutch woes, many people had not heard of cars with this feature.
Are they few & far between?
Is there any advantage, or otherwise, to this system?
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My Focus has a hydraulically operated clutch and they dont come more common than that. In fact I cant remember the last cable clutch car I owned. I do remember fitting a clutch slave cylinder seal kit to my first car, a 1960s MINI. Can you still get seal kits? On second thoughts I think SWMBOs SEAT Arosa may have had a cable clutch.
Edited by Old Navy on 22/09/2008 at 14:52
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The last car I had with a cable was a 1990 Cavalier mk3, everything since has been hydraulic.
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My Mark1 Mini c 1960 had one iirc.
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I cannot thing of any with cable clutches nowadays.
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My 2006 Suzuki Ignis has cable clutch.
Advantages of hydraulic clutch: they are self adjusting with clutch wear. Don't require adjustment like cable clutches.
Disadvantages: you need to top up with clutch fluid, more complex and expensive to repair when things go wrong.
Edited by movilogo on 22/09/2008 at 15:28
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Modern cable clutches are self adjusting.
eg Citroen Saxo/Peugeot 106 are cable..
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My Cortina 1600E had one with a plastic pipe that looped over the engine and close by the four branch exaust and thus to the slave cylinder.
One day I dipped the clutch to move off and a cloud of white smoke was produced from the engine compartment.
The pipe had touched the exhaust, melted, spewed fluid and to my utter amazement returned to its normal position and the pipe had resealed itself.
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The pipe had touched the exhaust melted spewed fluid and to my utter amazement returned to its normal position and the pipe had resealed itself.
Lovely red oily fish.
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The only car I've ever owned which didn't have a hydraulic clutch was a 1947 Triumph Roadster. It had a pedal pivotted on the chassis, with a rod linkage to a crank on the bell housing. Cleverly, the linkage was in several parts so it compensated for gearbox movement relative to the chassis.
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The pipe had touched the exhaust melted spewed fluid and to my utter amazement returned to its normal position and the pipe had resealed itself.
Be very, very wary when this happens to hydraulic lines.
tinyurl.com/54mmtv
Fluorolastomec, or venton, is a material used to make brake seals, fuel pipes, gaskets, 'o' rings and other seals for motor vehicles. When used under their design conditions fluorolastomers are perfectly safe. If however, they are exposed to temperatures exceeding 400 degrees the material does not burn but decomposes. Burnt fluorolastomec melts into a highly corrosive acid (hydrofluoric acid) which, if it comes into contact with skin, cannot be removed - the only treatment is amputation.
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I'm surprised about the Suzuki above having a cable-operated clutch.
I was under the impression that the last large manufacturer to cease making cars with a cable-operated clutch was Nissan, and they stopped in 2003 when the new Micra came out.
Certainly my 2000 Primera is hydraulic, whereas my 1994 Sunny was cable.
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There were some cars with hydraulic clutches that needed manual adjustment.(length of pushrod IIRC).
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Don't most small cars have cable clutches? Hydraulic ones required for heavy diesels and large petrols?
A lot of Citroen Xantia and Pug 405/6 have cables.
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Vauxhall Vectra A was amongst the first to buck the trend and return to hydraulic clutches.
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Our 05 Berlingo with 1.9D IDI engine has a cable clutch.
Other car, a 2000 Xantia HDi 110 has a hydraulic clutch according to Haynes, but HDI 90 would be cable. However, the clutch fluid header tank, mentioned in the mfrs handbook, is absent from my car!. Clutch is still biting fine at 110k miles but suffers from release bearing (or possibly g/b input shft) rattle when cold.
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My Kia Rio 1.5 diesel has a hydraulic clutch.
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>If it comes into contact with skin, cannot be removed - the only treatment is amputation.<
Yes, but ... any HF produced by thermal decomposition of a polymer will be a gas and might make you choke a bit. To require amputation you would have to wallow in some liquid. But it does attack just about anything including skin and glass.
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And what about the ahead-of-its-time Simca 1000, which had a pneumatic clutch? (IIRC)
Presumably prone to leaks and therefore ditched...
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Citroen Xsara Picasso, LHD cable operated, RHD hydraulic operated !
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>>RHD hydraulic operated !
That's not so daft if you've ever seen the routing on the clutch cables of some RHD French cars!
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Including the Citroen Synergie.
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Honda Civic 1.4 (2002) has hydraulic clutch.
Brand spanking new Hyundai i10 has a cable.
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This problem affected my Renault 18 Estate so much that I always carried a spare clutch cable. On one trip to see the Belgium GP at Spa it showed the tell-tale signs of imminent failure on the way down the M20 to the ferry. Made it to Spa though and got the AA 5-star mechaniste to swap cables while we watched the GP.
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I do remember fitting a clutch slave cylinder seal kit to my first car a 1960s MINI. Canyou still get seal kits?
Yes, the seal kits are alive and well! Fitted one to my Allegro which would probably be identical to your mini.
Boy, I loved using the "Gunsons" eezibleed to push the fluid through. Firm pedal, maximum satisfaction.
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2.0 HDi Berlingo Multispaces seem to have cable clutches - and the cable needs to come at the front of the gearbox from the passenger side, so it loops all the way around the engine bay. This leads to a heavy clutch and was a big reason in us not buying one earlier in the year (my wife's bad back + heavy clutches don't go together) - we went for a Picasso instead - same approach to the clutch on the gearbox, but hydraulic, so nice and light.
The cable operated clutch on Xantia / ZX / 306 1.9TD etc is an infernal thing - the clutch is pull operated, and the OUTER of the cable moves at the gearbox end. Most confusing, and prone to going heavy with worn cable / clutch combo - which breaks the plastic pedal clip on the Xantia leading to a 3 hour repair to replace the £5 part!! At least the HDi 110 has a hydraulic clutch, but this is a sealed unit which costs £400 for a replacement, and I hate to think how much time / money to fit. Hope mine never springs a leak......
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