Yay, another slightly paranoid maintenance question from me 😂! Is it unreasonable for a clutch to need replacing at 70k miles but 13 years old? The pedal has gone vague and the bite is very inconsistent (sometimes it will rev to over 2k and other times barely above tickover), also performance seems blunted even without AC on. It’s not slipping, which is why I’m slightly sceptical but the gears are getting vague and the feel from them is inconsistent. Also, the car shudders sometimes when accelerating away after braking but not stopping regardless of speed or gear even if the engine isn’t labouring. No misfires detected by the code reader so could be clutch related. Basically tell me whether I’m being paranoid or should I just get it changed?

"bite is very inconsistent (sometimes it will rev to over 2k and other times barely above tickover)".  strange to refer to the bite by the rpm. tell us about the clutch pedal position. Does that vary?

No particular reason why a clutch should fail based on its age. And mileage is not something to judge it by as depends on the driver and types of journey. 

But there are parts of a clutch that can break as opposed to wear out.

I had an Opel Kaddett (the one like the Chevette) where the clutch pedal position where it was biting kept changing by the minute. In the end I had to dismantle and the fulcrum ring in the clutch pressure plate had broken.

Also had a Mk1 Fiesta where the diaphram spring broke in one place and the clutch juddered very badly. 

It sounds more like you've got air trapped in the hydraulic clutch pipe.

Although it is possible that the slave cylinder is weeping which has allowed the air in.

As Isetta says, there is no time or mileage for a clutch, it all depends on how and where it's used over its lifetime.

Yeah tbh that’s what I thought, the pedal position feels the same as far as I can tell. The car has only really ever done town journeys so probably a bit more clutch stress than if on motorways. My overactive mind often immediately thinks something’s wrong if the car doesn’t feel the same all the time lol. Will get the fluid changed when I have the brakes done later this month. How can I check the slave cylinder or is one of those ones inside the clutch?

12 hours ago, dtulip8 said:

Yeah tbh that’s what I thought, the pedal position feels the same as far as I can tell. The car has only really ever done town journeys so probably a bit more clutch stress than if on motorways. My overactive mind often immediately thinks something’s wrong if the car doesn’t feel the same all the time lol. Will get the fluid changed when I have the brakes done later this month. How can I check the slave cylinder or is one of those ones inside the clutch?

You can't really check the slave cylinder I don't think.  One thing you can do though is after having the clutch bled, keep an eye on the brake fluid reservoir and see if it goes down.  I'm pretty sure the clutch & brakes share the same reservoir so if there is a leak and its not just trapped air, you'll see the level slowly dropping.  

Yep, as above, you can't check the slave as it's inside the bellhousing.  Just have to see if it's any better immediately after a bleed...and if so, see if it gets worse again in the following days/weeks.  You can check the fluid level but by the time you've lost enough from the reservoir to see visually it'll probably have contaminated the centre plate to the extent that it'll be slipping anyway.

Isn’t car maintenance fun? 😂 Thanks though guys.