What a week , that was ( sorry I meant 'still is' )

[lakeside1000]

So two weeks ago coming off the rape field the clutch on my Suzuki Vitara suddenly got very tight , difficult to push down, and I was having real problems getting 1st and reverse, 

Of course I ignored it hoping it would get better on its own ,(I put this attitude down to 20 years working as a mechanic on every make of car , but never wanting to fix my own even when it was barely running )

I managed to get out on the Friday , first visit to a newly drilled pea field but after over 2 hours came away with just 2 , 

The clutch finally became unusable so it was down to the garage , yes I know, new clutch, new exhaust, why not its only my pension and cartridge money, what the hell lets do it, so now down to my little Fiat Ducato camper van and much to my wife's disapproval I paid a second visit to the peas, this time coming away with 3, that's a 50% increase and I only had 3 shots, so a 100% knock down rate, blinkin marvellous.

Anyway last weekend I decided to give it a rest for a while at least until I got the Vitara back, so I have spent a week cleaning and repairing my gear and restocking my eBay shop with loads of goodies in the hope I can sell a few bits to pay for the clutch, so today Saturday I had not heard from the garage so I phoned them, "oooooh sorry mate, no, big problems, couldn't get the gearbox out as the bolts were seized, then got the wrong exhaust, then me mate was off so couldn't lift the gearbox back in on my own and of course its a bank holiday weekend aint it, so at least next Tuesday before we can get back on it, ( that will be almost 2 weeks since I took it in,)

Meanwhile the peas are growing, the birds are feeding (I hope ) and my garage bill is mounting, I believe its now up around 500 quid, and it will be the middle of next week before I can get out again, I did have a cruise by the pea fields yesterday and they are up about 1 to 2 inches and showing plenty of green, but still not too many birds in sight, its about time my luck changed for the better.

Hang on, the heating oil delivery has just arrived and he wants 266 quid for 500 litres, don't get any easier does it.

.

[JDog]

If you had shot 50 pigeons your expenditures would have paled into insignificance. 

 

 

[kenholland]

you have got me worried now lakeside, haven't had a clutch change In my 1999 vitara  since I bought it in 2000 and something can't remember , with all the gizmo on cars these days you would think they could fit a clutch sensor for when it was getting low.

[lakeside1000]

18 hours ago, kenholland said:

you have got me worried now lakeside, haven't had a clutch change In my 1999 vitara  since I bought it in 2000 and something can't remember , with all the gizmo on cars these days you would think they could fit a clutch sensor for when it was getting low.

The clutch was great since I bought it about 8 months ago, but it went really stiff very quickly, the garage said it was the release bearing seized onto the shaft it should slide on,  not a common fault but more likely if you do a lot of off road in dry dusty conditions, the only way to tell if the clutch is wearing low is when you lift the pedal, how far it moves from the floor before it 'bites' , the lower down it bites, the more worn the clutch, but it may get to a point where the clutch begins to slip , so the engine is revving but the car is not moving , once you get to this point its a new clutch and the sooner the better, if you drive too much on a slipping clutch the flywheel will be damaged and that could double the price of the work to fix it.

But if the car drives ok, goes in and out of gear without crunching or refusing to engage the gear then just keep driving, nothing to worry about.