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skellie

 you say your van is well under the 85% of your cars kerbweight , whats the MTPLM of your van ? the book says 1555kg is that right , because if it is and your VW passat 130 tdi is a saloon model you are running at nearer the 100% i would guess

Yep sound like burning clutch.

agree

see     www.cuddles.abelgratis.net/kerbweights.htm - 10k

your MTPLM should be 85% of kerb weight,not law but to be safe then the tail does not wag the dog so to speak.think the van may be to heavy for the clutch on the car.looking at these figures you should be ok and just need a new clutch.

Quote: Originally posted by skellei on 05/5/2008

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Yung,
I have heard that Mondeo's have some clutch issues. Have you had a similar problem, or do you have a method to prevent it?

Is it something that we just have to put up with?

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Quote: Originally posted by yung on 05/5/2008

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Quote: Originally posted by skellei on 05/5/2008

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Yung,
I have heard that Mondeo's have some clutch issues. Have you had a similar problem, or do you have a method to prevent it?

Is it something that we just have to put up with?

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yes the Mondeo and a lots of other cars do have this problem specially reversing the only way to deal with that is to be lightfooted on the accelerator.

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I had the same problem with my C-Max when reversing even though the weights were well inside the 85% rule.

I cured it with a motor mover.Best thing I ever did.

I have also been reading the other posts on here regarding "smoking" clutches and it does appear as though, it is just something that we have to put up with or try and avoid.

We now have a mover fitted, so I have no more need to reverse and living in merseyside, we can avoid some hills, but obviously, I sure I will encounter a traffic jam on a hill again, at some stage in the future.

So what is the best way to perform hill starts whilst in a queue (apart from just trying to crawl along) - do I use as little accelerator as I can get away with and lift the clutch slowly or do I still need to try and get it to 2000 revs before releasing the clutch (which is when the turbo kicks in, I believe)

The other thing that surprised was that although I had been stuck in a traffic jam for around 30 minutes, only around 5 or 10 minutes of this was up hill. Is this still enough to cause the clutch to smoke ? (The traffic jam was very much lots of stop/ start as opposed to a slow crawl). The hill also did not seem to be excessively steep.

The clutch itself is still working normally and the car did the rest of the journey with no problems whatsover

Quote: Originally posted by Ginaherd on 06/5/2008

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Hi we have a 52 reg Passat same engine and had this problem last year. We got a 4X4 as a tow car now as every hill it stunk. (and the smell lingered).

I do remeber someone on here saying you could get a heavy duty clutch, although I am no mechanic and wouldn't know if there is such a thing. But worth looking into if you wish to carry on towing with the car.

Gina

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 This clutch smelling or burning seems to be since manufactureres started fitting the DMF (dual mass flywheel), they have done away with the shock springs in the clutch plate, and built this into the flywheel (DMF) under normal driving conditions it seems to be alright, as soon as you start to tow with it you get problems, there is a firm which makes a conversion kit i think it is called DELSO they make a solid flywheel and a conventional clutch plate.