The owner of this 2012 Skoda Octavia II 2.0 TDi, was not too concerned, because the clutch was working, but it did feel different. That was until on a local drive, when attempting to change gear, there was a crunching and grating sound, which indicated to the owner that perhaps the clutch wasn’t releasing fully.

By the time he reached the garage, things had gone even further downhill. The clutch was not releasing at all and a horrid scraping noise was being emitted from the gearbox area.

After removing the gearbox, I saw the true horror of the story. The clutch pressure plate diaphragm spring had cracked and broken, it had then sprung out and was making contact with the gearbox casing. The hard steel spring had quickly worn its way through the soft aluminium casing. To put it bluntly, the owner need not have worried about the gears, the damage to the gearbox was enough to consign it to the metal waste bin.    

An exchange gearbox was not a cheap option, with a large surcharge being levied due to the damage, so the owner went down the second hand route.

With a new clutch and the replacement gearbox fitted and filled with fresh oil, it was then run and rechecked as per the manufacturer’s instructions.

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