One can take a maxims a bit too far. One of mine is if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Just exactly when is a clutch considered “broken”? When it starts chattering, because it’s fouled by oil leaking from the engine rear end seal? That was like four years ago. When it starts slipping on cold days? That was like two years ago. When it sometimes won’t release fully when trying to engage first gear when stopped? That was at least a year ago. When you have to turn off the engine in order to get it into gear when starting off? In traffic?
OK, OK…it really did need replacing. And seeing how the rivets had became part of the friction material and dug a solid groove in the pressure plate, yeah; I guess it really was broke.
Time to call Willie, my wily, willing, sometime wayward but always cheerful mobile mechanic. He totally redid the brakes on my old F100 two years ago, and they’ve never felt better. Yes, they were really broken, as in only the rears were actually still working. Last summer he redid the brakes on the xB, which…really were broken too. And here he is digging into the xB.
He strongly encouraged me to replace a slew of other front end parts while he had it apart, like the flywheel, axles, control arms, tie rod ends, clutch slave and master cylinders, and related seals and such. But they’re not broken! Ok; yes, it probably makes sense given how easy they will be to replace them now instead of waiting until they actually are broken. And who wants to experience a broken ball joint or such on a back road?
My 2005 xB only has a mere 128k miles on it, but they are all very hard miles: almost 20 years of either city driving or driving out to remote trail heads, which means lots of time on rough forest roads that invariably have massive craters in them. And given my propensity to drive briskly on these gravel roads, I usually don’t have enough time to evade them Kapow!! This happens over and over. It’s why I installed softer springs and yanked out the anti-sway bar; at least it’s not quite as tooth-rattling hard anymore.
Never mind the week I spent bouncing and crashing along with several 4×4 Tacomas and a Jeep Wrangler across the deserts and mountains of Nevada. It only got stuck once, in a deep water hole. Let’s just say it wasn’t exactly a vacation for the xB.
Yes, it’s had a hard life, and those 128k miles are probably equivalent to some 300k miles of more typical driving conditions. But it’s never let me down. The only actual repair (except for normal wear items) has been a leaky water pump. It’s a keeper.
Actually I did toy with the idea of getting a new car but I just can’t work up any enthusiasm for anything else. It’s crazy; I’m at a point in my life where I could easily afford almost anything and I just have no more desire for one. I love this little box; it’s so compact but roomy and it eagerly nips through traffic and into any parking spot. I feel like a rabid minnow in a sea of walruses in traffic. And its so tossable on those back roads.
My endless drifts through the curves on these familiar gravel roads did eventually bite me last summer, when in a moment of emotion-triggered inattention I slid off the edge of one into a protruding downed tree trunk, putting this nice crease in its side. But I just picked up a couple of junkyard doors to replace them with. And I’m seriously pondering a vinyl wrap as the non-clear coat paint is getting beat up and very dull. Something a bit out of the ordinary…
Here’s a closer look at that clutch disc. One can see the weird wear marks from the oil-induced chattering and the rivets that have been exposed for some time. I could make the chattering go away for a while by purposely slipping the clutch hard, but that of course also made it wear more too. A failed spring apparently was causing the issue of it not releasing at a stop. Somewhat oddly, that problem never surfaced when shifting on the go, but then who needs a clutch when doing that anyway?
The rivets dug quite a little groove into the pressure plate. I failed to get a shot of the flywheel, but I assume it wasn’t much better.
Here’s the new clutch installed. I got an OEM Aisin clutch and the flywheel was from LUK. Parts for this car (all from Rock Auto) are cheap (mechanically it’s a Toyota Yaris), so I wasn’t going to cheap out on the actual parts. Everything including the new control arms, tie rod ends (Moog), axles (Trakmotive), clutch master and slave cylinders (Aisin) and a bunch of seals and such totaled right at $700. I’m not allowed to tell you what I paid Willie, but I always have to make him take more than what he asks for. Let’s just say it was extremely reasonable (in the high three figures), although the whole job did take almost two weeks to finish up. Willie works…when he feels like it, which is why he doesn’t work in a shop. A square peg in a round hole; he learned that quickly. He’s always juggling other jobs and such. I had other cars to drive, so no problem.
But he’s meticulous and the new clutch feels…utterly fantastic. At first I couldn’t believe the difference: it engages so firmly and positively yet so smoothly.
And the whole front end feels so tight and solid; I didn’t realize how loose and sloppy it had become. Not surprising, really. I’m really enjoying driving it again, but I have to be a bit more careful about not chirping one of the front wheels on a takeoff. Before, it was the clutch that did the chirping.
Now I just need to get Willie back here to install those two doors…
Related CC Reading
Auto-Biography: The xB EXBRO Overland Edition Is Finished and Ready For Off-Road Adventure by PN
Nevada Overland Trip (EXBRO5), Day 1: Alkali Flat Hot Springs To Pine Creek by PN
Groovy! Always nice when you get the full use out of your car parts before they wind up on the junk pile. And as always your lack of rust is impressive.
We’re dreading buying a new vehicle, our daily driver fleet ranges from 2007 to 2016 and there’s nothing new that we find compelling.
Always wanted one of these. (well, Still do).
Wow. That IS some “wear” on the clutch alright. But like saying goes:
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it., and if it IS broke, don’t fix it until you really, REALLY have to, and only then, if you have the time (and or money).”
(Something like that).
“It’s crazy; I’m at a point in my life where I could easily afford almost anything and I just have no more desire for one.” Great thought; we’re like-minded. I probably had my Outback about 50% rebuilt by the time I semi-retired it to vacation life only up north. But I love using it on my visits and it’s a familiar, comfortable and useful old friend.
It might have to do with our age and experience, Paul. We’re relatively the same age…past the age of acquisition and comfortable with what we have. It certainly works for me….
Does Willie have any like-minded/vocation-ed friends back East? I could use someone like Willie around here.
And as Doug says, the lack of rust in your area is astounding. The fact that I need a torch to do nearly any suspension work is what keeps me from doing stuff that really otherwise ought to be done…because they are indeed broken.
I’m glad to see the XB back in action. I remember the chatter from when we visited 3 or 4 years ago. A clutch spring broke in my Vega at around 80-90K miles. It was somewhat drivable but pretty slippy. I sold it to a guy who planned to do a V8 swap with his teenage son, for $600. That’s 1980 dollars, which is about $2500 today. I had paid $1600 for it in 1976. Who says Vega resale value was poor?
The world could use more guys like Willie. When my father got too old to paint his house he hired a guy who was glad to work for $10 an hour cash. He was a professional painter but he took pity on older folks who needed help. The only thing was he’d work for a few hours when he could. This gave him beer money for what otherwise would have been unpaid downtime. Eventually the house got finished. Win, win.