2003 V70na Pressure Plate failing?

frknvgn · Post by **frknvgn** » 16 Oct 2015, 06:54

So I've got a 2003 V70 with the M56 manual transmission. OEM Clutch kit and OEM Slave cylinder were installed 28k and 2 years ago. Now the clutch 'bite' point is getting higher and higher on the pedal. I've called three local independent Volvo shops to ask their advice. Two of the three said it was likely an issue with the pressure plate that is causing the bite point to get higher on the pedal. No slipping of clutch, fyi. Anyone else with a manual V70 or history with another manual Volvo and have experience with this? My big question is should I expect it to get worse to the point where the pressure plate won't let me disengage the clutch, or is there a reason to believe it might stop getting worse? I've stopped putting any money into the car at this point until I can get to a level of confidence that it won't fail, but I'm not sure I can get to that point considering the difficulty to truly diagnose this issue without committing to 8 hours of labor expense; essentially $1300 for another clutch job. So, any wise sages here have some knowledge they want to drop?

Post by **oragex** » 16 Oct 2015, 10:22

edited

frknvgn · Post by **frknvgn** » 30 Oct 2015, 18:06

So it turns out it was the transmission torque mount.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FQw3XxgqTg

Rubber completely shot. Still there, sort of, but nothing was connected. I ended up replacing the worn-out OEM piece with a poly piece I bought on eBay. IPD had a 15 day back-order and I couldn't wait that long. Only $33 on ebay shipped. Not billet, but has solid poly bushings. I ended up replacing the front and rear lower hydraulic mounts, and the passenger side lower mount as well. Took me about 2.5 hours to do the whole job in my garage with no air tools.

Initial impressions are: clutch grabs lower, but not as low as it used to. Noticeable vibration at idle (an auto would be a lot worse I imagine). Car is more responsive to throttle input and feels more 'alive'. I put my hands on the strut brace (if you can even call it that) and it has more play than it should. I think having driven 5k miles with a destroyed transmission torque mount did a number on the bushings. I've got the Poly upper torque mount insert, poly strut bar bushing inserts, and poly subrframe bushing inserts coming. I hope when I install the strut bar bushings the engine is more controlled and the clutch grab point returns to where it should be.

I might end up disliking the amount of vibration I get from EVERYTHING being poly, and from what I'm told, the biggest cause of vibration is that lower transmission torque mount, so I might just use the poly small bushing with my old OEM larger bushing, which will cut down on the vibrations a lot, so says the guys at IPD.

So I'm happy at the outcome, and once I get my suspension refreshed, the car should drive like new again

Post by **vtl** » 30 Oct 2015, 18:52

I threw out everything I put poly in the car. Not worth it.

frknvgn · Post by **frknvgn** » 01 Nov 2015, 11:32

vtl wrote:I threw out everything I put poly in the car. Not worth it.

Well color me convinced.

frknvgn · Post by **frknvgn** » 01 Nov 2015, 17:53

Oh, I just used the small poly bushing and re-installed the larger OEM piece. I inspected it and it looked just fine. The vibrations feel maybe 10% more than they were when I got the car originally, a HUGE improvement from using the large poly bushing.