Rattle at tick over. DMF or thrust bearing?

A

Alfie Noakes

Member
I have quite a distinct rattle from the passenger footwell area.

It's worse on tick over and goes when you depress the clutch. Whilst driving it can be heard when you slow to a near stop with the clutch engaged, as soon as you press the clutch it goes away, then comes back when you release the clutch in neutral.

At first, I thought it was the release bearing because at light pressure you can feel the vibration through the pedal. I thought of the bearing because I tend to rest my foot on the clutch in slow traffic (it's a habit).

I spoke to the garage about it and he mentioned the DMF, I didn't know it had one.

It has to be fixed (with a new clutch), but if it is the DMF, they seem rather expensive with a rough quote for the job at £1,000.

Any feedback or knowledge would be appreciated.

Robert

It's a 2004 TDi 90.
 
How many miles has the car done?
Conversion to the single mass TDI75 clutch and solid flywheel might be an option but some have sworn this conversion has killed the engine with snapped oil pump chains, others find it great!
Hopefully just the release bearing, let it develop
 
If it's done anything like average mileage, you'd have them do the DMF with the clutch while they're in there. Otherwise you're looking at paying labour charges for the same work again when it goes, to the tune of 4-5 hours if not more.
 
Alfie Noakes said:
I have quite a distinct rattle from the passenger footwell area.

It's worse on tick over and goes when you depress the clutch. Whilst driving it can be heard when you slow to a near stop with the clutch engaged, as soon as you press the clutch it goes away, then comes back when you release the clutch in neutral.

At first, I thought it was the release bearing because at light pressure you can feel the vibration through the pedal. I thought of the bearing because I tend to rest my foot on the clutch in slow traffic (it's a habit).

I spoke to the garage about it and he mentioned the DMF, I didn't know it had one.

It has to be fixed (with a new clutch), but if it is the DMF, they seem rather expensive with a rough quote for the job at £1,000.

Any feedback or knowledge would be appreciated.

Robert

It's a 2004 TDi 90.
Click to expand...
I had mine done around 6 or 7 years ago and it was £800 so £1000 now would seem about right. Mine is an early 2005 tdi90, had done around 70k at the time, just coming up to 140k and going strong…..
One more thing, and others will likely confirm or otherwise, oil pump balancer chain is worth doing at the same time as I believe it’s quite hard to get at on the 90’s.
 
HI
Have the garage looked at the car and then diagnosed the possible DMF fault?
I have the 75bhp AMF engine and sometimes have a rattle from my gear linkage. Moving the gearstick side to side in neutral with the engine running sometimes eliminates the rattle.
 
stevec said:
HI
Have the garage looked at the car and then diagnosed the possible DMF fault?
I have the 75bhp AMF engine and sometimes have a rattle from my gear linkage. Moving the gearstick side to side in neutral with the engine running sometimes eliminates the rattle.
Click to expand...
I've noticed this too on mine, the shift tower area has some rattling bits, some grease sorted mine
 
steve@cromford said:
I had mine done around 6 or 7 years ago and it was £800 so £1000 now would seem about right. Mine is an early 2005 tdi90, had done around 70k at the time, just coming up to 140k and going strong…..
One more thing, and others will likely confirm or otherwise, oil pump balancer chain is worth doing at the same time as I believe it’s quite hard to get at on the 90’s.
Click to expand...
the oil chain job is the same on the 90 as it is on the other Tdi engines. I got the one on my 293,000 mile AMF done by WOM before Christmas and having seen the wear to the plastic chain guide I'm glad I did.
 
I have the same ratttle on Chad, 75 tdi. Itbwas bad when I bought it and assumed it was the release bearing, I replaced the clutch, same rattle, then put a 6 speed box in, same rattle! Now wondering if it was 2 bad clutches….1 old, and 1 cheap??
 
Howey said:
How many miles has the car done?
Conversion to the single mass TDI75 clutch and solid flywheel might be an option but some have sworn this conversion has killed the engine with snapped oil pump chains, others find it great!
Hopefully just the release bearing, let it develop
Click to expand...
It's done roughly 163,000 miles. I am the second owner. I bought it from a good friend in 2008 with 24,000. He bought it new. It's never had a clutch yet so I can't complain.

WRT a solid flywheel: My tinkering days are over, I started with a 1934 Austin Seven when I was 16, which is probably why clutches and brakes rarely need a replacement for me. I do little jobs now but don't like to get my hands dirty (or have a backache).
 
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stevec said:
HI
Have the garage looked at the car and then diagnosed the possible DMF fault?
I have the 75bhp AMF engine and sometimes have a rattle from my gear linkage. Moving the gearstick side to side in neutral with the engine running sometimes eliminates the rattle.
Click to expand...
No this was discussed over the phone. It's not the gear linkage, it's something directly connected to the clutch pedal.
 
Alfie Noakes said:
No this was discussed over the phone. It's not the gear linkage, it's something directly connected to the clutch pedal.
Click to expand...
A 90 dmf clutch kit is now hard to find, recently someone on here said they had to source from Italy! Seems to be a shortage so unless it's really bad I would drive on and get hunting for one in meantime perhaps?
 
At 163k miles if you know for sure it hasn’t had a clutch and DMF then that is likely to be the issue. And yes, the oil pump chain needs changing at the next cambelt change - but that is not your issue here as pressing the clutch pedal stops the noise.
 
CrispyEdd said:
A 90 dmf clutch kit is now hard to find, recently someone on here said they had to source from Italy! Seems to be a shortage so unless it's really bad I would drive on and get hunting for one in meantime perhaps?
Click to expand...

Luckily I’ve managed to pick one up this week.


Sent from thin air
 
Is there any exessive vibrations in 3-4-5 gear below 2000rpm? My experience is that a TDI90 normally likes to be in the 2000+rpm range with a worn DMF, particular when accelerating.
 
Olerype said:
Is there any exessive vibrations in 3-4-5 gear below 2000rpm? My experience is that a TDI90 normally likes to be in the 2000+rpm range with a worn DMF, particular when accelerating.
Click to expand...
It can tolerate 1800 in those gears using the cruise. But anything less than that and it starts to clonk (note I have changed the description of the sound from rattle to clonk as I think it's more appropriate).
 
I think from the sounds of it the DMF has come to the end of it's (unusually long) life - I would say that, while it doesn't sound like total implosion is imminent, I'd look to get it changed ASAP and drive it gently using plenty of revs in the meantime.
 
Would say it safe to drive it. Never heard of catastrophic DMF failures, but heard really bad sounds from one at idle.

Strange to me that you can drive it at 1800rpm on cruise if it is the DMF. But I am no expert.
 
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