Savin' Betty

[fgdncso]

Hey, I'm about to attempt this myself in the coming months. I'm at 200k miles with the original clutch disc (amazingly). lucky for me I work in a shop and can do it on a lift. I was just wondering if you think it would be a good idea to resurface or replace the flywheel. I'm trying to get it done in a day, as I will have one of the more experienced technicians helping me, so I'm not sure if I'll have time to take the flywheel to a machine shop. A new flywheel would be like 250-400 USD which is not really in my budget at the moment. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

[zoidberg444]

Originally Posted by fgdncso

Hey, I'm about to attempt this myself in the coming months. I'm at 200k miles with the original clutch disc (amazingly). lucky for me I work in a shop and can do it on a lift. I was just wondering if you think it would be a good idea to resurface or replace the flywheel. I'm trying to get it done in a day, as I will have one of the more experienced technicians helping me, so I'm not sure if I'll have time to take the flywheel to a machine shop. A new flywheel would be like 250-400 USD which is not really in my budget at the moment. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

How long has the clutch been slipping? Mine had been slipping a little, especially noticeable in 3rd gear. So i was pretty gentle with it. It hadn't slipped barreling down the motorway at 80mph in 5th or anything.

I think if you haven't been to hard on it and caught it early your flywheel will be fine. I didn't do anything to mine. There was no detectable imperfections in the flywheel. Some off colour marks where the studs were in the clutch plate. I couldn't feel any damage though. If the flywheel wasn't shiny and had muck on it i might have taken a fine grit rolloc sanding disc on a die grinder and very very lightly cleaned up the surface in a circular motion. Made a finish on the surface kind of like you see on new brake discs. It looked pretty damn good so i just left it. If there are imperfections like scoring or pitting in the flywheel surface i would probably have gone to a scrapyard and tried to find one in decent condition in the scrapyard. Cleaned the surface up and put it on.

I don't really know any machine shops i trust and the scrapyard would have been a cheaper and faster option for me. I'm honestly not sure if these vehicles make enough power to seriously damage the flywheel.

If you replace the flywheel I'm 90% sure the flywheel bolts are torque to yield stretch bolts that need replacing if you take them off. Just something to bear in mind. I took a gamble when i did mine that the flywheel was fine. I also didn't see any oil leaks suggesting the rear main seal was fine. So i didn't have the parts on standby. It paid off. Its been fine. The car has done 11,000 miles since i did the clutch, i just serviced it in fact. Its been fine. If anything the clutch grips a little to well now. I have to be careful driving it.