[Mk2] [Turbo] What's Happened to My Clutch?

[Mike]

Long story short;

With the engine off I can select gears as usual with no undue resistance in the gearshift.

Engine on, I cannot physically select any gears. I can start the car in gear but I'm unable to subsequently change gear thereafter.

Having looked at the clutch master cylinder and slave cylinder there's no evidence of a leak and or fault in that region. What could it be? No symptoms of clutch wear beforehand, just sudden failure. What are people's thoughts?

[Ryan S]

Knackered thrust bearing at a first guess.

[mr2magic]

Does it grind when trying or is it just impossible to shift?

[Mike]

Does it grind when trying or is it just impossible to shift?

Err...both really. It grinds like mad trying to get it into reverse and absolutely will not go. For the forward gears the gear stick just will not move into position as if there's a physical obstruction.

[abovetherim]

Had this on an n/a where the friction surface on the one side of the disc had disintegrated.
Could be thrust bearing collapsed and so not pushing pressure plate enough to clear the clutch.
I had on my n/a when i bought it, the pressure plate had grenaded but you could hear that rattling around.
Broken/errant spring in the friction disc?

Basically if you are getting full range of movement on the slave (look from underneath when someone presses pedal) then it is likely one of the clutch components in the bell housing.

If you are not up to taking the box off for an inspection you could pop the starter off and poke in one of those cheap ebay usb inspection cameras that you can attach to a laptop. see if you can spot something a miss

[mr2magic]

If it was clutch related it would always grind. I read that forward gears cannot be selected at all no grind but no movement either. This leads me to believe you have a broken shift fork or selector shaft. Something is jamming the travel and is sitting just above the reverse idler causing it to grind when engaged.

[abovetherim]

Def clutch related.
Something I didn't mention is the bolts holding the slave onto the box can strip out.

[Al-sw20]

$10 says you have broken a spring keeper and a spring has popped out of the clutch disk.

Cheap clutch disks do this quite regularly.

[2tmike]

+1 for looking at the slave piston action from under the car. Master or slave seals gone could cause this

[Mike]

+1 for looking at the slave piston action from under the car. Master or slave seals gone could cause this

Slave piston looks fine, a mechanic friend of mine watched the action as I operated the clutch pedal.

[Mike]

So it was the clutch cover at fault. One of the springs had snapped off and become wedged preventing the movement of the release bearing.

[Al-sw20]

Wow never heard of a clutch cover failing

[abovetherim]

Wow never heard of a clutch cover failing

I have seen a cover with bent fingers, one with heavily worn fingers where the thrust bearing had worn it so much they were bendable with my hands and lastly when i got my 2 it had a shattered presure plate