Single Mass Flywheel lifespan

[m1tch]

Hi all,

After doing a lot of research and also now going to Ford to check my VIN against the flywheel fitted, my 1.4 TDCi has the single mass flywheel fitted rather than the dual mass version - which is a tad cheaper!!

Anyway, I just wanted to ask if it's worth changing the single mass flywheel at the same time as the clutch or simply use the current flywheel with the new clutch etc.

The car is currently on 125k miles, many of those are motorway miles and I have only noticed the clutch slightly slip when in 1st at higher RPMs when pulling away, no slipping at any other time.

Just wondering if the flywheel is ok to reuse or its best to get a new one to be fitted with the new clutch, as far as I know its still on the original clutch - I know that the dual mass flywheel can have issues as the internals do wear out and degrade, whereas the single mass flywheel just gets worn.

[TomsFocus]

It should be ok, obviously it cant break up like a DMF.  They can still get high spots or scoring depending how bad the clutch has got but you wont know until it's off though.  They can be skimmed easy enough rather than replacing if it does need it.

Personally I've never changed an SMF when changing a clutch, even at 270k miles.

[m1tch]

8 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

It should be ok, obviously it cant break up like a DMF.  They can still get high spots or scoring depending how bad the clutch has got but you wont know until it's off though.  They can be skimmed easy enough rather than replacing if it does need it.

Personally I've never changed an SMF when changing a clutch, even at 270k miles.

Thanks for that, all of my previous cars I have had the clutch changed on have had SMFs and I haven't needed to replace any of them - perhaps it might be worth getting a used on and getting that skimmed so I know I have an 'as good as new' flywheel to swap out in case it needs doing.