• Before you start anything you want to get intimate with a couple of guides, read your chosen guides over and over until you are comfortable with the process in your head
  • Don't take the guides as fact, after all they are only a guide and sometimes the information provided might not line up with your car (For example a guide I was following quotes 10 gearbox bolts and we spent at least 10 minutes looking for our lost bolt until we realized there's only 9 and the guide skips number 8 when counting to ten 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,9,10)
    
  • Quoted bolt sizes could also be wrong for example the gearbox bolts were quoted as 17mm whereas on my car they were 16mm's
    

• So now you've read a couple of guides make sure you're prepared for the job, collect all the parts you'll need, order everything a couple weeks in advance so when you ultimately forget something you still have time to get it ordered.
  • Write a list of all the parts and tick them off as you get them ordered
    
  • Acquire any tools you'll need for the job, namely hub sockets, torque wrenches things you don;t just have ying around if you;ve never done a job like this before
    
  • Google will only get you so far sometimes it's better to double check sizes of bolts/ nuts on the car especially if you're buying a hub nut socket that you probably won't use again (I spent £10 on a 36mm socket that was too big for the hub nut, went and bought a £15 35mm socket and even that is slightly too big but does the job better than the 36mm)
    

• Give yourself way more time than necessary!!
  • I can't stress how important this part is, I believe the book figure for a clutch on my car was around 7 hours so as we've never done a clutch we set a whole weekend free thinking that would be plenty of time! It wasn't it's currently Saturday now and I have only finished this job today. (Work a 9-5 so only had evenings in the week two of which my mate helped be getting the box back on)
    
  • Things will go wrong, it isn't a case of if they go wrong it's a case of when. Be ready for this and don't let your frustrations get the better of you, stay calm and really think about how to solve the problem instead of getting angry at a seized intermediate bearing..
    

• Don't be afraid to ask people for help whether it's on the forum or on facebook
  • You'll always get that bell*nd that has nothing better to do than to mock you, or bluntly uselessly answer the question because it makes them feel better about themselves but you just have to ignore these people, they've all been in your situation at some point they weren't changing clutches as a fetus they asked questions at some point that's how people learn.
    

• Always assume you've done something wrong
  • If you get caught looking at a problem thinking to yourself "Why isn't this f***ing thing working we've done nothing wrong" 11 times out of 10 you've done something wrong, it's the hardest thing to admit when you;re in that sort of situation but believe me you'll save more time by just starting over than staring at something telling yourself you've done it right
    

• The biggest take away from working on cars yourself is the knowledge you gain (plus the money you save)
  • During the job you forget this part, you look at everything from a different perspective, you start with good intentions and then everything starts going down hill, you run into a couple of problems and everything starts to overwhelm you and it feels s**t, don't let it get the better of you that's when you start taking short cuts making bad decisions and generally making yourself more work in the future.
    

(26-01-2019, 11:28 PM)wainwrightj Wrote: I spent £10 on a 36mm socket that was too big for the hub nut, went and bought a £15 35mm socket and even that is slightly too big but does the job better than the 36mm)

(27-01-2019, 09:01 AM)Mighty306 Wrote:

(26-01-2019, 11:28 PM)wainwrightj Wrote: I spent £10 on a 36mm socket that was too big for the hub nut, went and bought a £15 35mm socket and even that is slightly too big but does the job better than the 36mm)

Think you might have got unlucky there. Anything less than 35mm hub nut seems quite rare. I've yet to come across one.

(26-01-2019, 11:28 PM)wainwrightj Wrote:

• Don't be afraid to ask people for help whether it's on the forum or on facebook
  • You'll always get that bell*nd that has nothing better to do than to mock you, or bluntly uselessly answer the question because it makes them feel better about themselves but you just have to ignore these people, they've all been in your situation at some point they weren't changing clutches as a fetus they asked questions at some point that's how people learn.
    

(28-01-2019, 09:56 AM)pug306driver Wrote: I have yet to do the clutch on our estate.......space permitting, guide pins screwed into the engine to make it easier to align the gearbox when its time to refit?

(28-01-2019, 11:05 AM)Mighty306 Wrote: The XSi also has a pull-type clutch.  That's the only model I've worked on so can't comment on others.

I had to look up the difference between pull-type and push-type clutches though as didn't know why the 2 designs existed.  Apparently for any given amount of effort to flex the pressure plate on a pull-type (equates to force required to depress clutch pedal), the clamping force of the pressure plate on the clutch when not depressed is higher than with push-types.  All to do with fulcrum points apparently!!  In short, the pedal on a push-type clutch that was strong enough for a gti6 or XSi would require quite a bit more effort to depress.  As it is, they're quite hard work compared to a lot of cars!

I guess hydraulics takes the worry about driver effort out of the equation & more cars have push-type clutches these days?

(28-01-2019, 12:40 PM)Toms306 Wrote: The 2.0 petrol engine (GTi6/Rallye/XSi) and the 1.9XUD diesel engines both use the pull type clutch.  The main purpose is to keep the clutch spring strong enough to hold the torque on these engines but still keep it light enough for the driver …

(28-01-2019, 05:10 PM)Eeyore Wrote: Toms306 and I fitted a gti6 box to my 1.8 at his grans house... i left some of the parts at home and we finished hte job in the dark but with  the clutch fork the wrong side and had to do it all again. i had no way of getting home so had to stay at his grans house. So definitely think about what will happen if you dont get it done!