Clutch drama
Clutch changes are probably up there in the top three most unpleasant tasks on most cars, with modern front-wheel-drive cars being the worst. There is always so much to disconnect both up top and underneath, the weight of the box coming out and trying to get it back in again on your own with only a trolley jack.
My days of doing this sort of thing are well and truly over and even on a ramp it’s not easy. Thankfully, the Citroën DS3 – plus it’s various PSA Group stablemates aren’t too horrendous as there is no annoying front subframe to remove.
There are still various pitfalls though; CV joints love to seize into the hubs with rust; luckily ours came out OK but if they don’t, then you are taking off the calipers and then removing the complete front hubs with the shafts. That just makes a horrid job absolutely horrendous and it’s why we generally recommend that you find out early on if the shafts are seized in or not. If they are, it’s a strong hint to just get a garage to fight it to the death instead.
Our clutch had already been replaced – the first clue was a missing bellhousing bolt and as we progressed, we found more missing bolt comedy. Luckily, a new ‘hockey stick’ driveshaft support bolt was only £1.84 from Citroën and the other two bellhousing bolts Parkside Autos had in a box of bolts. My local Citroën dealer – Evans Halshaw Sheffield – were superb and got
