'98 V70 5spd -- Internal Clutch Slave Cylinder Replacement

[E Showell]

More bad mechanic fallout. Had to have the car towed for smoke coming from both sides of the engine compartment. It turned out to be a coolant leak caused by overtightening of the lower radiator hose (sliced clean through it with the hose clamp inducing a major leak) on reassembly from the clutch job. Suffice it to say I will never go back to that mechanic and I will not post name here since he is affiliated with a used car lot and I doubt anyone on here is taking his/her car to a car lot mechanic for regular repairs/service.

[850 LPT]

Sorry to hear about your troubles with the mechanic. Unfortunately, these kind of things are very common these days and it's hard to find one that you can trust. There are sloppy mechanics everywhere and some of them care more about the dollars they make than the quality of work they do.

[abscate]

The pressures on the independent business are enormous. Cars have become so specialized, even my great Volvo Independent can't afford a full VIDA - he buys 48 hour subscriptions and lines up his jobs so that VIDA fits his window. I can't imagine having to do this with 54 brands of car - thats one more than there are states!

If you want your car back next day, you pay the VIDA bill. If you are like me, drop the car, cab to airport, travel for a week, then come back, someone else pays my VIDA bill.

Finding an independent who does more than oil changes, brake jobs, annual maintenance is getting tough. We still have two good ones in walking distance to home, and a great tire/front end guy 1 mile away, but I count myself lucky.

[abscate]

Adding some info on the internal slave cylinder

My P2 (2005) uses what looks like exactly the same internal cylinder and it self destructed somewhere between 90-110k miles. The cover , spring and ball bearings all exploded into the transmission, somewhat incredibly the bearing still functioned. I drove the car about 10,000 miles on a clutch that would slip under hard uphill load in top gear. SWMBO took this car on business trips and reported no slippage but she is a mechanics dream on car abuse ( or nightmare if you like revenue)

Nite my car was missing one of the M6 retaining bolts...Whoskey Tango Foxtrot?