Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Clutch gone??

Last night while driving home, my clutch started doing weird things. Lately anything above 120km/h it was very notchy going in/out of gear, otherwise everything else is perfect, soft pedal feel, shifts perfect etc. I was at a stop light put it in gear, went to shift to 2nd and I get a weird noise (kinda like a clunk) and that was it, pedal was super hard and tranny locked me out of everything. I was able to finally get it into 2nd and limp it home, but the clutch is fully engaged wether or not the pedal is pushed in. Anyone have any thoughts as to what the issue is, or moreso is my tranny gone? I really hope not as I just put $900 in the rebuilding the bottom end of this car 2 weeks ago.

Yikes, my worse nightmare is that this will be coming to me soon!

HHmmm

This sounds like your linkage just dropped one end of it. Can you shift in between 2nd and the 3rd/4th (whichever is straight up in the linkage)?

Usually when the linkage breaks though the clutch HAS to be engaged to move the car. Because the pedal got hard and I assume you cant move it - It also could be your clutch cable snapping somewhere releasing its tension.

Try this, see if you can start the car - if you cant the clutch cable is broken because the clutch has to get so far in order for the cars safety system to be dis engaged.

But this is all based on past failures of my car - so I could be totally off.

Another test is to try shifting through the gears with the car off and your foot off the clutch. If you can do that, you likely have a clutch issue. If you can't, it's likely a tranny/linage issue.

Make sure you do this on level ground.

Sounds like the slave cylinder/throw-out bearing.