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Ford C-MAX - early manual clutch burnout - John Lloyd

We have had our Grand CMax 1.6 manual diesel 14 months with less than 10000 miles, half motorway, half local.

We have both been driving 50+ years a wide range of manuals and automatics.

We were really surprised that the clutch had burned out so early and that Ford did not want to know, saying it was driver misuse

Although we live in a hilly area, and where there are speed bumps we have not had a problem before.

We wonder whether this is a known problem and where we go from here.

Ford C-MAX - early manual clutch burnout - Peter.N.

I have also been driving 50+ years and have never burnt a clutch although my mother did twice. Modern diesels have excellent low down torque so will pull away with very little clutch slip, if you have been used to driving petrol engines you may well be revving the engine more than is necessary. My mother burned out her last clutch by following a herd of cows up a steep hill with the clutch slipping instead of stopping and waiting.

I don't of course know your style of driving but I do know that a lot of people in our age group do unnecessaraly slip the clutch, using a lot more revs than needed. When you have the job done ask them to keep the friction plate so you can examine it, if it is worn down to the rivets then it will be due to excessive slipping, the clutch should never need be slipped for more than a second or two.