Need Help! Clutch Problem for 1997 Vienta Touring

[Fizza]

Hi All,

My clutch is pretty much on the way out as confirmed by my mechanic. I have to give first gear a bit of gas for it to take off and uphill on first gear is a real struggle. A slight grinding shudder comes during engaging both first and second gear. Other gears seem to be fine. My car has done 185,000km. What is really strange is that the previous owner replaced the clutch kit at 162000km. The following is a breakdown of the cost from the receipt provided. The guy is a VACC accredited repairer:

CLUTCH REPLACEMENT

Remove accessories + Shafts

Remove Gearbox Assembly + Clutch Assembly + Flywheel

Refit Machines Flywheel

Fit New Clutch Kit + Refit Gearbox + Accessories + Shafts

Remove and Replace Clutch Master Cylinder and Slave Cylinder

Build Clutch

$620

Clutch Kit $ $430

Flywheel Machines $60

Clutch Master Cylinder $95

Clutch Slave Cylinder $75

Clutch Fluid $8

Gear Oil $25

$693

TOTAL COST FOR REPLACEMENT CLUTCH $620 + $693 = $1313. GST and extra $131 making the whole thing $1444!!!

My mechanic quoted me around $1000 for a similar job. The question is do all the above have to replaced if the car has only done 23,000 since the rebuild. I heard these gearboxes are meant to be bulletproof. Either the previous owner has been totally ripped off or he has totally abused the thing and possibly done some towing as well. The guy was retired family man so clutch dumping would seem unlikely. Perhaps towing is not out of the question.

Is the price of around $1000 reasonable for clutch rebuild or am I paying too much. I live in Melbourne. Can anyone recommend a good value for money contact that I can go to if I am being overcharged.

Thanks

Regards

Fizza

[RelishGTP]

I did mine about six months ago and payed around that so it's not to bad mate, although I payed a bit more because I instisted on using a performance kit as opposed to an oem one which you may want to consider doing yourself.

It's a big job so make sure you do it right the first time.

A lot of the cost comes down to labour cause a whole lot of stuff needs to be dropped out just to get to the transmision.

Oh and I noticed on your list that the rear main seal of the gearbox hasn't been mentioned and you should be sure to replace that as well,it will only cost around $50 extra and it would be insane not to get it replaced.

Another thing to consider is not replacing the master or slave cylinders at the same time.

These are external parts and although it's reccomended to have them replaced with the clutch you will not save on labour by doing this at once.

You can simply wait for them to die in there own time and replace them when needed.

I didn't do mine with the clutch and they're still going strong.