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1994-2002 [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
I am not saying the is a glaring problem per se. But I got this explanation a long time ago from Swedecar, and I thought it makes a LOT of sense. The way our clutches are designed, you will be somewhat hardpressed to see them fail like a traditional clutch (slipping). They do not really slip all that often. The first sign that it might be time to replace the clutch is a very hard to press pedal, and repeated braking of clutch cables. Each the clutch plates come in contact a small amount of dust is generated. This dust accumulates in the grease of various lubricated parts, including the base of the clutch arm.
I am not certain what element it is in the clutch assembly that gather incredible amounts of grime, but something in there, definitely gets dirtier and dirtier as time goes by. With this grime comes a reduced mobility/effectiveness of lubrication of the clutch arm. This means the arm becomes increasingly harder to move. Did you know that you are supposed to be able to move the arm with some strong hand pressure? Apparently something in there, could be the throw out bearing, could be something else, gets so incredibly dirty that moving the arm requires incredible amounts of force. In my case, I needed a crawbar to move my clutch arm. I never knew it was supposed to be much easier to move the arm. With that in mind, there is no cable that will live through the constant bending and the constant pressure of moving that arm for extended period of times.
The solution is to have the clutch cleaned and lubricated. However, no one in their right mind will drop a tranny to simply clean and lubricate the parts in a clutch. As a consequence, you end up tying several things together: 1) sick of changing cables 2) enough miles in the clutch 3)MAYBE, perhaps unlikely, deteriorating performance of your clutch, 4) a leaky rear engine seal. Put them all together and you might gather enough courage to cough up the dough for a clutch replacement, although in reality the clutch might have several thousand miles of life left in it.
If done by a professional (read someone who knows saabs well, and has a clue as to what to lubricate, not neccesarily a Saab tec; could be an expert DIY) your new clutch installation/lubrication will give you once again 90K miles in 1 new clutch cable. The pedal (read moving the arm) becomes once again very smooth. Of course, until the grime settles in there in another 100K miles :)
posted by 208.50.1...
, Wed, 12 Jan 2005 21:36:35, Wed, 12 Jan 2005 10:22:04
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