My oldest son was driving home the other day when a car cut him off and he slammed on the clutch and brake and the heard/felt a pop and his car seemed to not want to go anymore. The car seems to shift just fine but when you try to go the car barely moves and you can smell the clutch burning. Any ideas? I thought it was a pull back spring like my old Chevy but after reading in this forum I hear that it has a hydraulic clutch. Scratching my head furiously. Any help is much appreciated, thanks.

 

Sounds like maybe the piston in the clutch slave is not retracting.

Can you get it into a "true" neutral with the clutch all the way in and rev with no burning smell?

Also, with the shifter in neutral and the clutch out, do you get the burning smell?

You may also want to check the linkage to the back of the clutch pedal and trace it through the firewall to ensure there is no damage.

Someone else please chime in -- I'm not the tranny expert around here by a longshot....

Just starting with the obvious (to me anyway)......

 

Well I checked it out this morning and even in neutral it started to smell. I'm beginning to wonder if the throw out arm retention spring broke. Does anyone think this is possible? With the car in gear I can let the clutch out and nothing happens.

 

We can only speculate what happened, but it doesn't really matter. The only solution I see here is a new clutch kit, not just the plate but the whole kit. But there is one other possibility that is even worse and that is that all the bolts that hold the flywheel on broke and the flywheel is no longer attached to the crankshaft. Thats not likely because the first time on bolt breaks, the bolt head usually gets stuck between the clutch and the flywheel and will not allow the clutch to disengage.

 

I kinda doubt the flywheel is not connected to the crank shaft any longer, it would be rather hard to start the car that way and it probably makes a whole lot of noise. Just out of curiosity, Assuming for the moment that the thing has a hydraulic clutch has anyone checked to see if there is any fluid in the hydraulic clutch reservoir? Assuming also that their is one. I dunno, mine is automatic and I'll look at a service manual for it later.

 

Yes it does have a hydraulic clutch. I did check to make sure it has fluid and it is full. I was going to pull the piston this morning to see if it is working correctly now that I have a lift, thank god for favors. I also spoke with the guy we got the car from and he said he has never done a clutch replacement for the car yet.

 

The more I think on this one, the more I'm inclined to think it's the transmission. Almost anything that happens with a clutch causes it to remain engaged, not disengaged. The few things that could happen are catastrophic failure of the clutch disc at the spline, broken flywheel bolts or broken flywheel itself if its a dual mass flywheel. In the case of a broken dual mass flywheel, I think the starter would still work. That would also account for the burning smell even in neutral.

Also the splines of the clutch plate or transmission input shaft, or both could have failed but that is very unlikely, I have never heard of that actually happening. I doubt the clutch hydraulics are the problem, I can't see a failure mode that hold a clutch partially disengaged. If the throw-out rod were somehow blocked from returning, that could do it but I don't see that happening either. something would have had to have gotten jammed between the link and the hole in the bell-housing that it goes through. That would be the easiest fix though.

A worn clutch would cause your issue, but that doesn't happen all at once, you would get slippage that got progressively worse over time. It could be a pretty short time, but not in a few seconds as you indicate.

Odds are though, the problem could be in the transmission OR a broken CV joint, although a broken CV joint usually makes a lot of noise, clicking/banging type noise. Quick check for that is jack up one wheel on the front end and spin the tire in gear. If it spins, one CV joint or the differential is bad.

 

What kind of transmission problem would happen as it is full of gears, bearings and shafts, would cause a smelly clutch? If something in the transmission fails generally it makes some kind of expensive noise and leaks transmission fluid although it does not have to. It could just sit there quietly and not shift. As to CV joints? There are two one each have shaft if you will, one up close to the trans-axle to allow the half shaft to bend as the wheel moves up and down, and the other is actually close to the steering knuckle which allows the wheel to turn.
While they can fail and make a klicking noise, to break completely is some what rare and generally if they do something is going to be hanging down under the car for the most part, and once again, there is nothing in a CV joint that if it breaks is going to make a burning clutch smell.
If the fluid has been checked and the operation as far as the clutch goes has been verified that nothing catastrophic has taken place with the linkage that is probably all that can be verified with out disassembly of the transaxle from the engine in order to inspect the pressure plate and clutch assembly.
And that is probably my least favorite job to do on a FWD car.

 

As I said in my first response, its all speculation. The smell is not necessarily the clutch, though the odds on favorite says it is. A broke CV Joint doesn't necessarily hang down, but if it's the outer joint, stuff will whip around when the car is in motion or you try to spin the shaft. That wont happen with an inner joint but it will smell when the the things attached to each end of the rubber boot are not spinning in unison.

The smell from a broken transmission is less likely but possible. A broken input shaft that damages the input bearing and the rubber seal form that bearing would smell a little. Very slim chance but still possible.

Not sure how oil tight the bell housing to engine is, most have some sort of weep hole but I haven't really looked at the Saturn for this, but if there is no weep hole and the transmission input shaft broke, oil could enter the bell housing at least up to the level of the clutch fork and bathe the clutch plate. It would slip badly and smell. But just speculation again.

The tranny is going to have to come out before any real diagnosis can begin. What its not is the pull back spring, the springs on the pressure plate will still engage the clutch if no one is holding down the pedal and the hydraulics are good.

 

Broken springs on the pressure plate could cause symptoms like this. As Keith said, it is all speculation until you pull the trans and see for yourself. I doubt there is anything wrong with the trans. Manual transmissions either work or don't. The biggest problem with them are synchros going out.