My darling wife borrowed the car this weekend to take a friend down to Cornwall.

When she got back she said that there was an issue with the clutch due to having to reverse down a steep drive and it had smoked/smelt a bit.

I didn’t think anything of it until I’ve just driven it to drop one of the kids off at a friends up the road. The interior and engine bay stinks. Bearing in mind she drove 150 miles back – has she buggered the clutch? I’d expect the smell to have disappeared after driving that far.

Is it slipping? Try a steep incline in a high gear.

The smell can linger for a while. I gave the clutch a hire car a good hammering once. On holiday in Spain filled a small fiat and drove down a steep trail down to a beach. The car really struggled to haul us all back up and first gear didn’t seem low enough so got up the hill basically slipping the clutch at high revs. It was a wee bit smokey and pongy by the time we got to the top. The smell didn’t go away for the motorway journey back to our digs and the next day when we returned the car the wiff was still detectable. Seemed to work fine but I’m sure we wiped off a lot of the life off it.

See how it feels over the next few days. So long as it doesn’t feel notch or it slips you’ll probably be alright.

Why would reversing down a steep drive/hill wear the clutch?

@sharkbait I have no idea. Apparently she was keeping the revs really high so it didn’t go into the garage.

I’m going to keep an eye on it and restrict my wife’s unsupervised use 😆

Did she know what the pedal in the middle does?!
🤨

Not sure. I think she thinks the cutch is a throttle limiter. She drives it round town with the clutch half in – drives me nuts!

Just taken it up the local step hill and feels ok. No obvious slipping

She drives it round town with the clutch half in – drives me nuts!

You’re going to need a new ones soon anyway, then.

Just taken it up the local step hill and feels ok. No obvious slipping

When I’ve had a clutch slip, it’s been most noticeable when you put your foot down at 60 on the motorway.

Cheers Greybeard- will take it for a spin and check there

You need an auto box on the next car.

easiest way to test a clutch is handbrake on, stick it in 5th or 6th (whatever is top) and try and pull away. If the engine stalls it’s ok if it’s in poor shape it will slip.

What Yak said. Next time, get something with a decent auto box and no paddle shift.

what gear was she reversing down the hill in?

what gear was she reversing down the hill in?

My money is on 1st gear!

4th gear at 25-30mph and foot flat to the floor for a while watching the revs will usually show up a dodgy clutch.

Not surprised it stinks if she ‘reversed’ while in first with high revs. Poor car!

I really can’t get my head around what she did

I really can’t get my head around what she did

The Op’s wife thinks a good way to reverse down something steep is to put it in first and use the clutch and lots of revs to act as a brake. This stops yourself from rolling backwards to quickly. It’s one way of doing it I suppose.

Oof – I think any of the drivers in my house did that, and I could prove it, I’d be taking them off the insurance.

😂😂😂😂 excellent driving technique. You couldn’t teach that