Bit of a strange topic I appreciate

Basically a good friend of mine has a big power Evo and rang me tonight to say that he thinks he's got an oil leak into his gearbox.

I helped him fit a triple plate cerametallic clutch to it in the summer and he said it went from driving fine to slipping its nuts off in about 10 minutes, I told him to take the rubber grommet out the box and look inside and he says it looks oily...

I'm going to give him a lift getting the box down at the weekend, but the big concern is that he's trashed over £1000 worth of clutch

Now, when I worked in F1 it was standard procedure to bake the carbon clutch plates in an oven for an hour to remove any contaminants and i'm wondering if anyone has tried baking cerametallic plates in the same way???

Obviously it'd be nice for him not to have to spend another £1000+ just before christmas, but by the same token, I don't want to put the box back in after baking the plates only to find it still slips...

 

only one way to find out!

gas mark 6 for 50 mins should do it

even if its a ballache refitting it all after, surley its worth the aggro before spunking out 1k on a new un?

 

Yeah, I know what you mean mate, but I think he'd be suicidal after removing, refitting and then going through it all again AND having to spunk £1000+ just before christmas

 

how about run them through the dish washer to get the majority of it off then cook in the oven for a couple of hours to burn off the ingrained stuff??

 

Wait till after christmas ???

 

TFR and a jetwash!?

 

at least give it a go m8, even if it only works till the new year its better than nothing, i would tfr or brake cleaner 1st then bake it

 

depends wether the material is bonded or riveted, most are riveted, if it is riveted i would give it a hit of brake cleaner then set it on fire and leave it for a minute or so.
i know it sounds pikey but it works on contaminated brake shoes and is standard practice in most garages i deal with, my own included

 

george foreman?

 

lol good idea! bit of cheese on it as well

 

No idea of weather it will work or not, but it's going to smoke and stink like fook!

 

Cant the friction pads just be replaced seperatly?

 

I've heard of lads in the bike world boiling there brake pads if they've got contaminated and it works

 

Exactly what I was going to say, plates are going to be around £300 ish a pair and it maybe even possible to get them re-lined. Wouldn't you need an awful deep pool of oil to get to the plates anyway?

 

I've not seen the car yet, i'm only going off what he told me on the phone last night, it might yet turn out to be brake fluid from the centre push hydraulic clutch that's leaking... He just said "it looks wet and oily inside and it slips as soon as you squeeze the throttle".

I guess all we can do is strip it off and inspect and go from there. It'd be nice to salvage what he's already got if there's any way of doing so without yet more expense - but ultimatley yes, plate replacement might be the only option!

 

*fairy would do it*