Hey there this is my first post on this forum as I recently bought a 2005 Chevy Cavalier and the clutch seems to have failed on my only 3 days after buying. There is a leak of fluid underneath the tranny so I assume it is the slave cylinder which is internal on this getrag. The consensus here seems to be that since it requires so much work to take apart might as well just get a new clutch if its just the slave cylinder?
Anyhow, I am not myself very mechanically inclined so I got a quote from a local mechanic but he wants 1500 at minimum to do the job. However if I go online I can find kits such as Exedy gmk 1000 and SPEC and LUK for between 190 - 350 dollars. Has anyone here experience with these OEM clutch kits, and how many hours of labour would you estimate the job to be? I was quoted that it would take about 9 hours...that seems excessive no?
I bought this car for 1500 bucks and I don't want to drop more than a grand on this clutch job...what would you folks recommend I do? I really appreciate the help and sorry if I am posting a noob question in the wrong thread, I am very new to this forum and just desperate for help right now...this is my first car too.
The quote seems a lil high but its all highway robbery to begin with. As far as how long, seems about right considering u dont have alot of experience. Id give urself 2 days to do it. It may be easier to pull the whole engine then trying to do it on the car. Exedy is a good oe replacement. Spec is suppose to be good too if u get the + versions. Those other cheap brands havnt heard alot of good stuff bout them. Im in the same situation, throw out bearring is going. Dreading having to replace it.
ReD RaiN
Thanks for the quick reply Red Rain, I have been calling around different shops and they are all quoting like 1500 bucks for the job with their own parts...the shops won't let you bring your own parts. The shops around here in Vancouver all are offering LUK clutches, and they want like 800 bucks for them...I told them I could find the Exedy kit for 300 online but they claim I will probably end up ordering the wrong parts if I do that?
Do you have experience with exactly which clutch kit to buy? I found guys on craigslist ( i know might be sketchy) who will do the job at 30/hr or for about 250 bucks....versus the shop rate of like 100 + /hr. What would you do? Doing this myself is out of the question btw.
Sorry cant help much more. 800 for a luk clutch is outragious.. U would be better off searching ebay for a lot cheaper one. As far as who to do it, its a pretty straight forward job. Nothing noone mechanically inclined couldnt do. I never pay noone to work on my car unless i dont have the equipment. Take the chance and save some money. These cars are not worth much to begin with so why not. Worst comes to worse the car will be half ripped apart. Half the job finished i say lol
ReD RaiN
I changed the clutch in my 2004 last fall. It was not too bad. Only bad thing was I bought the clutch kit off eBay and the damn slave cylinder failed immediately. I wound up buying a new slave at my local parts store and everything seems to have worked out. FYI there was a huge difference in the type of metal each was made from.
Book time to replace the flywheel (which you'll want to at least resurface during clutch replacement) is 6.2 hours. That's the time it should take a professional mechanic to do that job with a hoist and proper tools.
https://www.yourmechanic.com/pro/mbevacqua
