Clutch shudder on release?

[Hailz]

Hello again all,

Well I took my GTB out for a wee squirt down the road today (yes the one that only makes an out of garage appearance once a month lol) so I've started to notice that when you release the clutch when your in 1st gear to get the car moving it gives a really noticeable shudder kind of like its slipping but if you give it a couple of revs and just let it out quite quickly it doesn't seem to at all, also when your giving it the jandal it seems a bit slow to engage into 3rd gear, I had a look at the fluid reservoir and it looks quite dirty when compared to my brake fluid reservoir, these fluids were replaced at the same time and gearbox oil was replaced around 5 thou km's ago with a fully synthetic caltex oil.

So can anyone give me an insight as to whats going on in there - perhaps the master cylinder needs bleeding?

Thanks guys!

[Guest keltik]

My clutch fluid is filthy. I dont know why.

I also get a wee bit of shudder.

[Hailz]

 CUDDAS said:

It might be in need of seal replacing, hope it was bkake fluid they used as it should look the same as your brake fluid reservoir if it's dirty.

is your clutch slow at grabbing 3rd or are you finding it hard to put it into 3rd, sounds like the clutch master cyclinder is starting to bypass fluid when you are pressing it making it slow to change quickly, You could try clamp the rubber hose to the slave cyclinder then try the clutch pedal to see if it is bypassing the seal.

Yeah I replaced the clutch/brake fluids myself and used a Bendix high performance dot 4 product, I did notice that as soon as the new fluid was in the resivior it was getting traces of blackish dirt/grit when returning fluid from the slave cylinder, its has never used any fluid at all and has done the shudder thing for a while now, my thought was a seal also and its only having trouble actually slotting into 3rd gear, not a heap of trouble just alttle harder than previously if you know what I mean?

Thanks!

[Hailz]

 keltik said:

My clutch fluid is filthy. I dont know why.

I also get a wee bit of shudder.

Hmmmm perhaps it's just one of those Subby things to do lol

[G-unit]

yea all of my subies have done it when cold,few more revs and its sweet

[mazdahard]

same here think its just a normal thing

[Guest]

sounds like hot spots on the flywheel , my hilux shuddered on take off i threw a new clutch at it and had the flywheel machined and it was sweet as !

[Old Skool Subbie]

My brumby did it when I 1st got it. It does it really badly now. mine is probley a weak pressure plate??

[Hailz]

It looks like I'm not the only Subaru owner with this problem, next week it's going into the workshop to get looked at - if I find out what it is I'll post up in this section what they think the problem is so everyone else can have some idea what it might be

[mazdahard]

Mine has done it since I got it which is the last 12-13k and still does it so hope you find out what it is man cheers

[suubyduuby]

 rsb_leggy said:

Mine has done it since I got it which is the last 12-13k and still does it so hope you find out what it is man cheers

Some are worse than others. A friend of mine has a B4 which shudders quite bad. My GT shudders ever so slightly when its cold and you're reversing out of the driveway in the morning. But only very slightly...

Will probably worry about it later on when I do the clutch ;D

[Munkvy]

Mine did it before I got a new clutch. Was fine for a while on the new clutch, then a few launches later and it started to shudder again. Apparently (and this is coming from the guys at MacLennans who put the new clutch in) its due to heat spots on the flywheel as a result of the abuse - ie launches.

Not entirely sure what else causes it, as Im no expert - Ichi etc is probably best to answer that.

[cpt kernow]

Launching could result in a slight warping of the flywheel, so when you let out the clutch, the judder you feel is just a tiny part of the clutch gripping and releasing every rotation.

[G-unit]

ive never launched any of my cars, i know my TT was owned by a old man but u never know how they drove it

[Guest]

 Hailz said:

Hello again all,

Well I took my GTB out for a wee squirt down the road today (yes the one that only makes an out of garage appearance once a month lol) so I've started to notice that when you release the clutch when your in 1st gear to get the car moving it gives a really noticeable shudder kind of like its slipping but if you give it a couple of revs and just let it out quite quickly it doesn't seem to at all, also when your giving it the jandal it seems a bit slow to engage into 3rd gear, I had a look at the fluid reservoir and it looks quite dirty when compared to my brake fluid reservoir, these fluids were replaced at the same time and gearbox oil was replaced around 5 thou km's ago with a fully synthetic caltex oil.

So can anyone give me an insight as to whats going on in there - perhaps the master cylinder needs bleeding?

Thanks guys!

If the fluid is black good chance the master cylinders seal need replacing, happen on my GTB as well and the peddle hit the floor. Any brake & Clutch service place will have the seal cost me about 10 bucks to get new ones, reinstalled, bleed and check.. my 2c

always late..

[Hailz]

Ok I now have some answers from my mechanic for anyone out there who has had the same problems as me, alrighty the clutch shudder is caused by a worn flywheel or a warped flywheel or a flywheel with hotspots - you take your guess as to what yours might be, he also said that as its not slipping under heavy acceleration that it's just the flywheel causing the probs and you could still get another 50,000km's out of it yet, the fluid turning black was really because I should have bled it when i changed the fluid and as for my car in particular with it not engaging into 3rd gear very nicely - front diff seal had gone while it was sitting in the garage thus meaning it was quite low on oil - whoops! Ah well I hope this will give people some closure.