Hi all,

I've seen topics similar to this around the forum which has given me the idea of replacing the clutch.

I have a fiesta Mk5 1999 Zetec 1.25 and not so long back I did a stupid thing of wheel-spinning the car on dirt/gravel to set off. Within the first gear change, it felt stiff, would not budge unless forced.

I pulled over and noticed the car was behaving out of the ordinary. The sound of the engine had changed to a rumble, and with the clutch down (engine on) it was almost impossible to put the gear stick into any gear. If I put it into first, it would creep forward with a few jumps as if I hit the biting point. Whenever I did hit the biting point, it took an aweful lot of revs to get the car going.

Eventually when I got some speed, enough to make a gear change, the changes were unbelievably stiff, it had to be forced.

A few days on, it behaves as it should, even with the clutch down, other than the heavy vibrations/jerk when moving off in first gear. There are heavier (or more noticeable rather) vibrations than normal from neutral to getting going. There's also a noise from my engine which sounds like a rumble, similar to that of a spark plug being out (however I've checked them and there okay).

As said, looking around at similar faults its been advised to have the clutch and bearing replaced. I am open to other suggestions too.

If the clutch is on the go ahead, what's the difficulty on it? I'd rather do it myself and save money. Haynes manual recommends a mechanic gets to it and has the car on a ramp... Something I haven't got!

Cheers for the input guys.

How many miles has this beauty done?

How many miles has this beauty done?

75k. And it had driven so calmly too up until that point :(

Clutch could be the problem if you don't know the service history, sounds like its dragging.