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DMF bodge!
adithorp - 8/7/20 at 09:02 PM

Over the years I've seen a lot of shonky repairs and bodge jobs but every so often I see something new.

So today we've had a Mondeo in for new clutch and dual mass flywheel. Customer called last week and it was just starting to make a noise. They've not had car long having bought at auction.
Yesterday it arrived and was horrendously noisey, clutch not quite clearing and had to be started in gear. It just made it onto the ramp.
So after stripping, off comes the gearbox... And the pretty battered clutch actually doesn't look that old but the edge of the bell housing is full of oily crap and so is the gap between flywheel and engine. We're thinking crank oil seal and clutch debris at this point. Clutch off and flywheel (centre is sheared) but bearing is dry around the crank seal... Not from the gearbox spigot either ??? No other sign where the craps come from??? So we start scraping it away and it seems more like grease than oil.

Best we can work out is someone has fitted a new clutch and then packed the worn DMF with grease to disguise the noise and got rid.


steve m - 8/7/20 at 09:55 PM

Bodges like that have been going on for years, hence no one in there right mind would by a car from an auction site


coyoteboy - 8/7/20 at 10:09 PM

I would, but just be prepared to replace a major item when considering the price.

First thing I'd do if I found the dmf was faulty is get an smf conversion.


obfripper - 8/7/20 at 10:15 PM

The vw ones have quite a lot of grease in the internal spring grooves, could be the same with ford ones. The peugeot ones have radial piston dampers which are a dry system.

I've had a golf where the spring burst through the side of the dmf casing and cut the bellhousing almost clean off the gearbox, there was grease, gear oil and filings everywhere, the driver noticed a "slight!" noise but continued to drive until the car stopped, crank sensor failed from contamination!

I had a shogun a few weeks ago that came in with no drive-suspected clutch, turned out there was a new clutch already present but the dmf internals had worn enough that the inner part would spin freely within the outer part. The dmf was genuine only and £1200 + labour with a week wait, the customer was happy with a solid flywheel+clutch conversion at a third of the price.

Dave


roadrunner - 9/7/20 at 07:00 AM

Got rid of my old Audi A6 3.0T the other week after the engine seased. Was paid £1400 for it by a salvage company, and they was aware of the problem.
Received a call yesterday from the new owner. He'd paid £3500 for it at auction and didn't know what was wrong with it.
He was a bit upset that a replacement engine would cost at least £3500 without fitting costs.


Mr Whippy - 9/7/20 at 07:41 AM

Crooks are everywhere, if people seriously think their going to get a bargain at an auction then they need their head examined.


britishtrident - 9/7/20 at 12:17 PM

DMF issues are 9 times out of 10 are on Mondeo or Transit

[Edited on 9/7/20 by britishtrident]


SJ - 9/7/20 at 01:26 PM

quote:

DMF issues are 9 times out of 10 are on Mondeo or Transit



My Mk4 lasted OK. I sold it at 90k with a slipping clutch but no sign DMF was knackered, just the cost of replacing it wasn't really worthwhile given the value of the car.


adithorp - 9/7/20 at 02:54 PM

quote:
Originally posted by obfripper
The vw ones have quite a lot of grease in the internal spring grooves, could be the same with ford ones. The peugeot ones have radial piston dampers which are a dry system.

Dave


We thought about that but dismissed it as I can't see there being 1/2kg of grease in there plus the majority was behind the flywheel and around the ring gear. As we scraped it out we filled a brick size brake pad box with it. There were signs the starter (nose also packed with it) had been off recently do think it might have been put in through there.

All sweet now... Apart from the badly patched exhaust, dodgy rear lights that someone has been rewiring (to the extent I can't figure out what or why)... but at least we managed to persuade them that putting their 6 month old baby in a car with 4 bald, cord showing, egg shaped tyres wasn't a good idea and letting us put some on was a good idea. But hey it doesn't need an MoT as that's been extended 6 months


coyoteboy - 9/7/20 at 03:09 PM

My 370Z has a massively rattley DMF that rattles at idle and under light load/reverse/1st. I bought it knowing it *might* become an issue, but that plenty of folk have spoken to Nissan and they class it as normal. I took it to a dealer and they confirmed it was normal.

I'm still waiting for the day I need to drop in an SMF!


adithorp - 10/7/20 at 07:47 AM

quote:
Originally posted by coyoteboy
My 370Z has a massively rattley DMF that rattles at idle and under light load/reverse/1st. I bought it knowing it *might* become an issue, but that plenty of folk have spoken to Nissan and they class it as normal. I took it to a dealer and they confirmed it was normal.

I'm still waiting for the day I need to drop in an SMF!


Rattles from them aren't uncommon to last a long time. If it's getting noticeably worse start planning. If you go solid, be sure to fit damper front pulley.

As to most failures being on Fords, I guess so but theres a lot more of them. The ones that suprise me are the Toyota RAV4 and Avensis which we've seen a lot of.


obfripper - 10/7/20 at 08:28 PM

quote:
Originally posted by adithorp
The ones that suprise me are the Toyota RAV4 and Avensis which we've seen a lot of.


I had a Corolla at work with 45k miles and full dealer service history, at pdi had a whine from the turbo, a vibration from the dmf and was due a timing belt.

Changed all 3, clutch felt odd but those above me decided it would go out as is without further investigation, came back a few weeks later a lot worse - the failed dmf had damaged the crank thrust bearings and they had broke up and dropped out, leaving the crank to chew up the block.

The engine was now fubar'd, customer had to be put into another vehicle, and to add to it all a "cheap recon" engine had been sourced by those aforementioned which ended being a credit card claimback due to it's unuseable condition (clean and painted on the outside but waterlogged and corrosion throughout like it was found in a ditch, supplying company has since been on watchdog etc).

This all took about 9 months to deal with, they never collected their "recon" engine and the vehicle was still dead and owed too much to fit a proper recon engine, so with nothing to loose i removed the main cap that has the thrust bearings inset, slipped the main bearings out and put the rest of the "recon" lump in the skip.

I then drilled the cap and thrust washers ,tapped and bronze screwed the washers to the main cap, as the faces on the block that retain the bearing normally were non existant, i figured half a thust washer is far better than none at all.

I cleaned up the original crank journal as best as (although the block was badly grooved, the crank was hardly marked), then fitted the modified cap and bearings to the old engine and fired it up a-ok.

We used it as a courtesy vehicle for 4 years without an issue and wrote it back to a sensible value, then a trader offered good money for it as it stood, we still see the car for mot, it's done a further 50k on a bodge albeit a semi-engineered one.

It does make me check endfloat on every toyota diesel when replacing the dmf, i've not had another so far!

Dave


adithorp - 12/7/20 at 07:28 AM

Always good when a bit of "creative mechanicing" works.