Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

Finally scraped together the money to have the clutch replaced in my S2, seems it is suffering from the dreaded rubber doughnut failure not friction plate wear. Plus the gear linkage on the transaxle needs replacing as the bush is worn causing the gear shift to be very imprecise and apparently the bush can not be bought seperately so you have to buy the complete linkage @£110. But would be daft not to replace it while the clutch is being done and the gearbox removed.

Good news is the transmission mount is not worn out, there is no apparent wear or slack at the drive shaft or where it enters the gearbox apparently everything else looks pretty good for 99K miles.

Bought the Sachs clutch kit from Frazerpart Porsche £451 delivered next day but no discount for TIPEC as already cheap, but available off the shelf. Great estimated price for fitting but will hold off advertising this until I get car back. Also probably going to remove the Cat and fit a straight tube replacement and again I will keep you informed how it performs after this mod.

Are you dong the change yourself, and when are you planning to do it?

No I do not have the facility to do it myself as I can not get the car in the garage and have no way of lifting it high enough to do what needs to be done. So it is going into Car Tech and Care Northallerton on Monday (ex Redline Racing mechanic very good guy). He has given me a reasonable estimate of £300 for the clutch about a days work plus the cost of the gear linkage and exhaust which should not add too much time as it all needs to come off for the clutch replacement anyway. I will update this when I have collected the car mid week. But he has done other work for me and I am more than happy with the service and price.

If everything goes smoothly and your mechanic is really fast then I suppose its just about do-able. But I have to say £300 and a days work seems highly optimistic. I hope for your sake he's right. I'll be watching with interest.

It's 12-14 hours labour for someone who knows how to do it. My turbo is being done by a friend of a friend and I'll be giving him more than £300. Let me know how you get on.

Stuart

12-14 hours for a turbo 9 hours for a none turbo apparently. I have confidence it will be done to cost but lets see, I will keep you updated.

Just had an update from the mechanic, it seems the clutch has been replaced previously and does not have the rubber doughnut and the friction plate looks ok not too worn however from the high position of the clutch pedal it would seem the plates are worn somewhat and the springs are probably weakened. Not sure if it was a Sachs unit. The main problem seems to be the linkage at the transmission end which had not been tightened up correctly and was loose so has worn the bush and linkage shaft so the problem of the gears snatching when changing down could be caused by the gears not selecting properly and snatching into position on take up.

Anyway I am going ahead with the clutch replacement as it seems false economy to go this far and not replace it for a new unit and the replacement linkage is arriving tomorrow. Good news is there appears to be no wear on the input shaft to the gearbox, indeed it would appear the box has been replaced recently for a recon unit and seems fine. Further news later!!!!

Well car will be ready today after a split in the Cat is welded (decided not to remove it yet). Would have been ready yesterday if the exhaust did not need the work. Price is as quoted so can only assume the time he took was as he suggested, but then again that is what I expected. Happy with the price just need to collect it and see how much better it is, shame about the clutch it only had 20k miles and 3 years on it but thought I might aas well replace it while it was all in pieces and I know it was done right this time whereas with the other clutch I only have invoices for the parts not the installation so not sure who did it.

Blimey! a mechanic who sticks to an estimate, you must have him stuffed

A shame you didn't actually need the clutch yet, but at least its all done now. Enjoy!

Agree definately a special case, regarding the clutch it had only been replaced 3 years and 19K miles previously however comparing it to how the car feels now I can only conclude there was a problem with the original unit, whether the springs or pressure plate were knackered I do not know but the whole transmission is so much quieter and more precise and not only when changing gear, there is also much more clutch pedal feel now than before. I can only presume the old clutch was not installed correctly which had caused some damage or the unit was faulty from the start, as I can find invoices for the old clutch kit and much more but not for the installation so I can only presume the work was done by the owner.

Anyway for whatever reason I am completely happy with the results, as I said the car goes into gear precisely with no slack at the gear lever and when I change down there is no longer any banging from the transmission or indeed hesitation on pulling away.

I would definately recommend David Raper of Car Tech and Care in Northallerton who did the work both on time and on cost and who even did the work at a special rate for TIPEC members.

I'm currently sourcing a new clutch for mine. After we checked the balance belt settings on Tuesday morning my mechanic friend says that it's the clutch that's causing the vibrations. Although it still works perfectly we think that it's hanging on by a thread and the vibrations are gradually getting worse as it gets nearer to failure point. He says that I'm competent (a word my wife never uses to describe me) enough to do the job myself and that I can use his garage, tools, facilities, and if I need help him and his guys are there to assist.... all for free. It will be so much easier with the car up on a lift. He says it will save me a load of money in labour costs. What a guy! So, if anybody is bored and wants to have a go at changing a 944S2 clutch just turn up... everybody's welcome and we can have it done in no time.

The clutch has only lasted 194500 miles and eighteen years so far, so I'm sending it back for a refund - it must have been a duff batch it came from

The clutch has only lasted 194500 miles and eighteen years so far, so I'm sending it back for a refund - it must have been a duff batch it came from [/quote]

i feel a warranty claim

As I said earlier in this thread I got my clutch kit from Frazerpart Porsche £451 (off the shelf next day delivery) delivered Sachs unit consisting of release bearing friction and pressure plate, the roller bearings in the selector fork and crank seal were changed only 3 years 19K miles ago and did not need doing this time. This was the cheapest place I could find for my S2 and was cheaper than the mechanic could find using his contacts, I think Porscheshop were about £40 more.

If I had been able to use the facilities you talk about then I would have given it a go as it does not look too bad a job, the only difficult part is if the exhaust has been on for a long time and the bolts are seized mine had not long been removed so was easy to do and the mechanic did the job in around 7.5 hours and charged me £300 for the fitting.