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Low biting point after clutch change Ford Fiesta

Motor Vehicle Maintenance & Repair Asked on January 27, 2021

Background story

So, long story short my clutch went one day whilst I was driving on the motorway. The car hit about 60 and wouldn’t drive faster and gradually slowed down. I pulled in at the next junction at the lights and went into first (after much struggle as the car refused to even go in gear), and then the car refused to go in gear with the biting point being the floor.

So I had recovery come and turns out the clutch had gone. I guess I had signs a month prior with a loss in acceleration power etc. See Car not accelerating and over revving.

The Question

So, I had the clutch changed and all the issues I had are gone. The car changes into gears fine, no loss in power, seems to be pretty fast. The problem? The biting point is SO low. Now, I was very used to my old clutch with the bite being so high and potentially this was an indication it was worn? But now it’s a tad higher than the floor. Is this normal? Or has something been done incorrectly? Is there a problem with it being low (other than me adjusting)? I saw this Why does new clutch have much lower biting point but wanted to clarify.

Side points

Car is a Ford Fiesta 1.4 Diesel 2010, clutch was replaced at a local garage reasonable price + new part fitted.

One Answer

Basically the other answer says it pretty well.

To further clarify, a new clutch has a break-in period ... in most cases this break-in period is going to be about 500 city miles (stop/go). This ensures the friction material is well bedded into the flywheel and pressure plate. During this period, the high spots wear off of the friction disk. After the break-in period, you should find the biting point of the clutch will come up some.

I recently replaced the clutch in my '03 Civic. The biting point in it was very low. Between the floor to ~1" off the floor the clutch was completely disengaged. Then from ~1" to 2" it would become fully engaged. When the clutch assembly became heat soaked, it would then not want to go into gear correctly, and was much worse in reverse (actually had to slam it into gear to get it to go in). Now that I have about 300+ miles on the car, I find there's no more issues and the engagement point is a bit higher off the floor. It is no longer hard to shift when heat soaked, either.

I just adding this last little bit to relate to you, what you're going through is nothing unusual. Every car is going to be different, though. Yours make take a bit longer, or maybe a bit less to start working more to your liking. The biting point on the clutch pedal may not get much better, but it should come up some, though. With that, it's more than likely you will have to get used to it being a tad different than it was before, but that will become much easier with use and muscle memory.

Correct answer by Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 on January 27, 2021

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