Oil in your car’s clutch can ruin your day, especially when you consider that it can cause permanent damage. Unfortunately, oil, coolant, or even rainwater can get into your clutch and ruin it beyond just drying out or burning. Read on and learn what happens when oil falls on the clutch disc.
Oil falls on the clutch disc
There are a series of points to know what happens when the oil spills on the clutch disc and they are the following:
1. Fuentes
Oil on the clutch plate almost always comes from a rear main seal leak, but it can also come from a plug in the oil gallery or a loose or leaking oil pan. While oil from elsewhere can seep into the transmission housing from other sources, it’s a good thing that it won’t be enough to get into the clutch disc.
2. Symptoms
Clutch slippage is the first and most obvious symptom, but your nose will tell you the truth. Burning clutch material has a distinctive odor, somewhat like sulfur or rotten eggs. If you smell burning oil instead of clutch material, then the clutch disc has become contaminated.
3 Consequences and solution
The oil not only sits on the surface of the friction material, but is absorbed and embedded in the material. Once the oil gets in, there is no way to get it out without soaking the clutch in scalding solvent or caustic lye, which would destroy the clutch. Whatever happens, it’s about removing the clutch and replacing it.
