When Your Car Needs A Clutch Replacement?

How to know when your car needs a new clutch? To identify a worn clutch, you would certainly need a bag of tips. You should know that the clutch is one of the most crucial parts that connects the transmission with the engine. Simply put, it’s also one of the car parts that may experience big wear and tear due to the driver’s driving styles and the stop-and-go traffic conditions. But how can you know if your car’s clutch has worn out? If you find any of the below symptoms happening to your car, it’s time to have a clutch replacement.

1. How A Car Clutch Works?

People all know that a regular car needs an engine to propel it but not everyone knows about the car clutch and how it performs. In manual transmission-equipped vehicles, clutch is an important part that’s used to transmit the torque output from the car’s engine to the wheels. Simply stated, the car clutch functions as a mean of controlling the connection between the shafts from the engine and the shafts turning the wheels, allowing you to change the gears smoothly. One of the shafts will be the driving shaft that is connected to the engine while the other driven shaft provides the output. Therefore, the clutch is used to connect the shafts in a way that they can be engaged, disengaged and slipping.

2. Signs of a Worn Clutch

Slipping Clutch

Whenever you notice that the engine torque increases a lot before the car’s speed picks up, the car clutch might have worn out. In fact, the slipping clutch may cause a temporary loss of acceleration to your vehicle. This is the most common sign of the worn clutch that you can experience from time to time. This happens due to the power loss in the worn-out clutch, causing the transmission speed failed to match the engine’s speed. Apart from impacting the acceleration, the slipping clutch can affect the fuel efficiency of the vehicle as well.

Shuddering

Shuddering can be felt when the clutch pedal is released quickly, especially at slower speeds. When your car is shuddering, chances are there are some contaminations like grease, slud and water in the clutch system. If the symptom of shuddering doesn’t disappear after quite a long drive, there should be an issue with the clutch plate.

Grinding Noise

When you release the clutch pedal, if you happen to hear a grinding noise from the engine-transmission, then comes a problem with the clutch in your car. You may not hear this sound when the clutch is fully pressed but then returns when it is released. If you continuously notice the noise, it’s indicating your car needs a clutch replacement. If the worn-out clutch is not replaced by the new one, it can result in a bent clutch fork that can cause damaged clutch pressure plate problem.

Trouble Shifting The Gears

If your clutch is in good condition, you can shift the gears without any difficulties. However, if you have to use extra force to change the gear, this is another sign of a worn clutch too.

3. Clutch Replacement Cost

Clutch replacement is rather pricey, to tell the truth. The clutch replacement cost may vary from Rs 6,000 – Rs 12,000 depending upon its size and the vehicle. However, the cost can soar up to Rs 50,000 for imported products. Therefore, lack of maintenance and rough driving styles can make it faster to cause the clutch system failure. IndianAuto recommends that you should have your car maintained on regular basis and avoid extreme driving to keep the clutch in the longest lifetime.

4. Should I Replace The Clutch Myself?

The answer would be yes if you have enough tools and knowledge about the parts involved when replacing the car clutch. If no, it’s advisable to have it done at the service workshops. Clutch replacement is not an easy task that requires a lot of automotive expertise so we do not recommend you carry out this on your own.

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