Clutch Judder!

[robznet]

Hi everyone

For the past couple of months the meg has been suffering from what I can only describe as clutch judder. It only happens first thing in the morning when pulling away, don't seem to make much difference if I slip the clutch or pull away normally.

The problem goes away after five or six starts (by this I mean taking off from a full stop - for example traffic lights etc).

Next morning it's back again! I have been thinking - maybe an oil leak onto the clutch assembly which needs to be "burnt off" before it will engage smoothly. The car will drive perfectly all day - it's just first thing. Any ideas or similar experiences anyone?

Meg is due for her first (18,000 mile) service next Tuesday, any ideas what I should tell the service receptionist about it?

Whatever I tell them - I bet there is a cracker of an answer awaiting me!!

Regards

Rob

[IainMW]

It could be the clutch slave master cylinder. This is a common problem on the Diesels, but not sure if the problem affects the petrol models?

If you had an oil leak onto the clutch it would slip like buggery all the time.

It's odd that it only does it when cold and goes away quite quickly. If the clutch was warpped in any way to induce clutch judder it would do it all that time, I would have thought?

Time for Renault international rescue to come to your assisstance me thinks.

[Jonault]

I had a rear crank seal fail on my old Toyota Corolla and that soaked the clutch in oil giving me a top speed of about 15mph.
Maybe the judder is caused by rust forming on the pressure plate possibly due to water ingress into the bell housing. If you have driven through any floods recently, water may have got in through a breather hole. If this is the case, the problem should disappear shortly.

[robznet]

Cheers for your replies guys!

I think the water ingress theory sounds about right to me, bearing in mind how much rain we have all been having recently.

Of course you are both correct - oil would cause a long lasting problem which wouldn't go away at all.

The car is always parked "nose down" on a slope which would cause any rainwater to head straight for the bonnet area. Will try to break the habit of a lifetime and park it "nose up" for a while and see if there's any difference. Having said all of the above - this morning's early run only produced a very slight judder which was gone after 2 standing starts!!

Will experiment anyway and post back with my results!

Regards

Rob