Driving with a knackered dual mass flywheel in a VW Passat?

Clattering noise coming from engine bay and the tone of Clattering changes with depression of the clutch in neutral. Down my usual garage today matey says its the dual mass flywheel, looking at £800/1k to repair. Car is a 10 plate2l  tdi with bout 168k on it. Mot due December, it’ll need some other work to get through that but the brakes were all recently done.

Get rid or repair? Advisable not to drive at all or okay for a bit? It only starting making noises last week, apart from the diff noises, it runs as it should. Pref would be to replace it later in the summer but family holiday in the car in a week forces action. Advice ty sirs

Problem is, if it spits bits of dual mass flywheel all over the bell housing you might damage the gearbox, which more pain again. Probably best not to drive if its really noisy.

Repair. You probably won’t find anything comparable for £800-£1k

Are you starting and turnimg off the engine with the clutch pushed in? This prolongs the life of DMF’s

Most likely failure mode is swarf ends up in the magnetic bits of the starter motor and kills the starter. But don’t blame me if it all explodes and ruins the family holiday!

With family holiday in a week, repair would seem the obvious choice.

Probably the best option anyway.

you won’t get £800 more back if you repair it if you’re getting rid. I’d be rushing to replace it now if finances arrive, or (depedning on the amount of driving) driving it with breakdown cover

DMF + clutch (latter was ok, but good to replace) on our car (vauxhall) was north of £2k. Had driven it noisily for ~5k miles before stomaching that repair

you won’t get £800 more back if you repair it if you’re getting rid

They wont get anything at all for it as it is now.

And theres absolutely no reason to assume that a car bought as a distress purchase this week will not leave you stranded on Holiday.

Fix it. Drive it till MOT’s up. Worry about it then.

Options

Fix car – go on holiday, sell later  as per @snotrag

Buy new car now – might get some money for the Passat, but probs not a bunch – Go on holiday

Leave car for now, don’t buy car in a rush, rent car to go on holiday – fix/sell car later on.

We had a car when the DMF went and made a mess of the bell housing, suddenly a reasonable bill became a large bill.

Just fix it – and keep it – if you’ve just spent a load getting the brakes sorted it sounds like that was your plan anyway.

Defo don’t go on holiday in it!

I never go on holiday in a new-to-me car anyway, I always like to get a feel for them first over a few months! 🙂

And theres absolutely no reason to assume that a car bought as a distress purchase this week will not leave you stranded on Holiday.

wot they said

Better the devil you know… A lot of people trade in cars when they start to have problems.

Are you starting and turnimg off the engine with the clutch pushed in? This prolongs the life of DMF’s

A 2010 Passat needs the clutch in before it will allow you to start it.

Price sounds about right. Wife’s DMF + clutch was done recently (also a 2010 2.0 TDi VW Passat).

My advice, fix it, drive it, decide later what to do with the car. Probably got a couple more years in it yet.

If it’s £1000, that’s 3 months repayments on a reasonable size loan, I’d pay it and the enjoy another 150000 miles loan free. My van is similar age & I plan to keep it for at least 10 more years.

Great,thanks lads. Rung a few places now. See what goes on

They wont get anything at all for it as it is now.

at that end of the market they will. here’s a similar car that’s undrivable, up for a grand -> https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/186576459652?itmmeta=01J35N32FTWNMW60N2QFJ45CAC&hash=item2b70d2d784:g:EUEAAOSwHrhmewNa&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA4CU%2FCG%2BYqBNMCY9NuvbmDQSuEVLVmQdRVUrulpgzVGrvhM6tiTtxGei5aIJcU6i3rYb46JltW%2BtiuUO5y6SSDxeDK%2FyhUiWP98tIx6%2B6H3KjVvNxxyp3u0QdeLSyp50tYd1aNHB9brxtCk%2FbrgRNwV%2B71trVsO5l3dSf4CtNSMGsPhVV41vMStoirUF%2F1nNVBfZ8L85lvng7pjVWvJfho3sUcPkVgV2%2B%2FdT4Sd0daFPoSaDbq3LeKeON6Av404jPhUx6P4EIPcg%2Ba7X3xePu1neKXRN3nSk8l5JFtmo3xqyF%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR_6njLWZZA

similar car stuck in limp home mode, also over a grand -> https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/145823676661?itmmeta=01J35N94QPG539P235J2MKV0WF&hash=item21f3c4b8f5:g:-7MAAOSwjBBmWL9i&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAAwDiLjp2KZ2BnoNlngneUVctc8YyyzqZdVojlqclHkDdoGokQ2Ixc3NoW5ETGm%2FKdIaBdhblKibEfbD9k0xW%2Fr11KrmL9V%2B3czmRg%2FHg3qRqccpBhocuxIAzxcHlCF3%2FNYYF5xujRNHMqMhyiEhhzDL9Nwq%2BTBqYkoymjbPY23lTasnba%2B9vIhKThQ6Yp4lMRapfro7DKoh7eh%2FA91308J6D%2Frc2su6exX0WoFn5mhYnD%2Br%2FvNOUnQMFuIae7aqTBpA%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR_jLpLWZZA

people are willing to DIY fixes at the bottom end of the market, so the value isn’t as bad as cars without faults.

Right. I had this. The clatter wasn’t especially loud it just was there on idle. I thought it was the belt tensioner.  It was like that for ages, even I didn’t care about it much. I didn’t realise it was the DMF for about 50k miles. It never got worse.  When I eventually replaced it, it went away.

I don’t think the design of the DMF on this car is likely to explode. It doesn’t have the coil springs in it that can explode and get everywhere – it’s a sort of arm spring arrangement and the springs just get slack.

The car ran beautifully when I sold it for £1500 at 168k miles – good as new.

Had the dmf & clutch done on an insignia, shortly afterwards it jumped a cog on the cam chain & lunched itself – boy was I glad that was a company car.

If you replace it for a similar age car, that could well have a bad DMF and possibly a load of other stuff.

I did drive a Saab 93 with a slight clatter from the DMF for 4 years or so, eventually scrapped as other things were beginning to fail – but this was when used cars were worth nothing.

In your situation now I’d probably replace the DMF as long as the car is otherwise good.

If you replace it for a similar age car, that could well have a bad DMF and possibly a load of other stuff.

A clunking DMF is what prompted me to move on my 10 plate Audi A3 2.0 TDI. It was only noticeable when the car was driven from cold, so if anyone is tempted to buy a VAG 2.0 TDI of that era I’d avoid any that have been pre-warmed before you test drive!

Drove my 05 Passat for quite a while with a noisy DMF, eventually changed it myself for a few hundred in parts. Still going strong now. Probably wouldn’t have set off on holiday with it like that though.

I reckon my old Golf is still running around with a dodgy DMF.  I ran it for 5 years like it and I know the next owner didn’t fix it in the 4 years they had it.

Holy thread resolution batman!

We did go on holiday in it because I couldn’t get it in to get fixed anywhere before we went. It was only Stoke to Anglesey so it was okay. We had a wicked week of weather and the car continued making a noise now and again but didn’t break down.

Had the clutch and flywheel replaced this morning by ‘The Clutchman’ here in Stoke. Awesome job, done in 2.5hrs for £660! Car’s all good for family holiday no2 to borrowdale next week. He showed me the pile of clutches he’d replaced that week. Says him and the lads replace about 10-15 a day.

That sounds like a really good price to me and astonishingly quick.

At that price I’d have had mine done.  Bargain!

Wish I had shopped around, driving my van to morzine as soon as we got to Dover I got the same clunking sounds from engine when not in gear.knew something was wrong but had no option but to carry on with holiday and sort when get back.My usual mechanic said sounds like dual mass,and recommend me a place to get it sorted.They had good reviews.1200 quid I was charged yesterday for flywheel and clutch on a 11plate expert.Gutted, definitely should have shopped around so lesson learned.

I’d drive down to Stoke to get my 10 plate vrs done at that price

Blimey, thats not much more than I paid for a clutch kit, crank seal and dmf which I did myself.
It took me longer than 2.5 hours…

Knock yourself out. Probs like 30 mins from the M6.

https://theclutchman.co.uk

Cheers for the recommendation @jekkyl – I’m not too far from you so will definitely remember that one.

Especially as I think my Mitsu might need doing soon.

Good price that, had the clutch/flywheel done on my old Caddy 1.9 tdi (twice actually due the the gearbox munching itself!) for around that money but that was mates rates from a local garage I’m pally with.