Car Question - can a clutch cable stretch?

Factual Questions
1

My car has recently been giving me a lot of grief, but before scrapping it and buying another car which I can’t afford I thought I’d come for some proper advice.

Ok, to start it is a 6 year old Peugot 106 (1 litre) serviced last in March of this year or thereabouts. In the service the mechanics didn’t mention anything about the clutch or gear mechanism, which I presume means that there was nothing wrong, they are really careful to find anything wrong with your car at my garage so they can fix it and charge over the odds for it (why do I keep going back…) So in the last 2 months I have been having a lot of trouble changing gears, particularly in the begining changing from first gear to second. It has a standard H gear stick thingy. (ok if you can’t tell by now I don’t know much about cars) So anyway When changing from second to first it would go smoothly for most of the way and then stick for a second and I’d have to force it into first, but if I went from second to neutral then to first it would go smoothly all the way. I brought the car to the garage then and they had quick look at it and said that the gear mechanism was a bit notchy. Which I took to meant that the tracks along which the gear stick travelled were notched a bit, fair enough.

But then it started going relativly smoothly from first to second and it has trouble going from third to fourth and vice versa and sometimes from third to second. Now if the tracks were notchy before it wouldn’t just go away and appear somewhere else would it?

So when I was driving with another person that person mentioned that it seemed like I didn’t have the clutch down fully, and now that I think about it it does feel that way, but I do always have the clutch down fully, I sit insanly close to the pedals ( I learned that way for some reason and I can’t kick the habit ) and the clutch is always fully down, plus I’ve been able to reproduce it while pushing with all of my weight on the clutch. So I’m wondering if the clutch cable stretched somehow and pushing fully down on the clutch pedal doesn’t actually move whatever mechanism the clutch moves. I did notice after the last service that the gear stick was a bit stiff as if the clutch cable was tightened too much but that went away, so I’m thinking it stretched to loosen to a normal position but because of that stretching it degraded the quality of the cable and it stretched too much.

Of course I have no idea what a clutch cable is, nor what it’s made of so my theory might be rubbish, but I’m really interested in knowing an educated opinion.

Thanks for you time

2

Possible? sure, I guess.
Probable? not likely.

I don’t know about the Peugeauxat or whatever, but most newer cars have an hydrolic clutch. Other than that, I can’t really diagnose the problem. Could be something like a bearing or slide gear not changing speeds quickly enough.

3

Your problem at heart is not too difficult for a mechanic to diagnose.

If your car has a clutch cable - yes, they can stretch, but rarely do past the first month of use. If they do after that point, it is typically because the cable is frayed, and ready to break. A broken clutch cable is easy and cheap to replace, but it will strand you.*

If you have a hydraulic clutch, well, these have a master cylinder under the dash, and a slave cylinder mounted on the transaxle. One or both of these can leak with age, and/or get air in the lines, and this will cause difficult shifting. In this case, the system would either need to be bled (very similar to bleeding your brakes), or else a master or slave cylinder replaced. It is not uncommon for a cylinder to go bad in 6 years, or for air to get in the lines.

There are other options as well. Your transaxle could be low on oil. A very low oil condition could easily cause difficult shifting - this is not expensive for them to check. Since transaxle oil is not changed regularly, it is possible that you have had a slow leak and after 6 years you are low.

Another thing to check is for damage to the linkage, or loose/broken linkage pieces. This is the physical thing that connects your shift lever to the transaxle itself. This should not be hard for a mechanic to find.

Also…and I’ve seen this happen - make sure that your floormat is not bunched up behind the clutch pedal. You would be surprised at the difference just one fold of thick floormat will make…

Lastly, if your clutch cable OR hydraulic system is perfect, no offending floormats are present, the linkage is fine, and the oil level is fine, then the problem likely is the actual synchromesh inside the transaxle. At that point, you are looking at a teardown and inspection for about $500.

Let me know if you discover more information.

Una

[sub]Unless you are the Mistress of Clutchless shifting, like I was one night, when I drove 10 miles through traffic with no clutch. :stuck_out_tongue: [/sub]

4

I have a Peugeot 309 and I’m told the cables do stretch as they approach the end of their lives. Another thing to check is the link between the cable and the clutch arm - after having a cable changed, mine was installed without a plastic washer which meant the arm was being pulled by just a rubber insert, which would slowly squash under the load. You can feel if the adjustment is incorrect as the clutch will bite too soon as you lift the pedal. I originally had my clutch cable changed because of gear changing problems, incidentally. It only started working properly again after I had a new clutch put in.

5

Whether a car has a clutch cable or not should just be a matter of looking between the engine and the transmission.

I know that my 1995 Civic and my 1990 Civic both had cables. The 1995 seems pretty modern. My 1989 Escort, had a hyraulic clutch, so it would seem to depend on the manufacturer.

Small, European cars seem to be simple little things. I can’t help remembering that most of the late-model cars at the time (1993) still had manual chokes!

6

I was amazed that my Fierra’s Vauxhall Nova still had a manual choke - and it’s a 1991 IIRC…

7

[sub]Only wimps actually use the clutch, anyways…[/sub]

:wink: