The engine of your car is complex, it is not always easy to interpret all the signals it sends us. Nevertheless, it is totally necessary to try to stay on alert for the slightest sign of weakness in your car to limit the risk of serious concerns. If you have the impression that your clutch is slipping on your Mercedes Vito, you’re right to have started looking into it. It’s a defect that must be taken into account rather quickly, otherwise you could end up with an unusable car. To help you in your approach our team has chose to write this article which should allow you to see more clearly and make the right decisions to avoid aggravating the situation and confirm that it is indeed the issue you are victim of. To get this done, we will first look at what a slipping clutch on Mercedes Vito is and how to examine that this is what is happening to you, and then, what actions can be taken to resolve the situation.
What is slipping clutch on Mercedes Vito and how to identify it?
A Mercedes Vito with a clutch that slips
The clutch of your Mercedes Vito is the part that enables your engine to shift gears. It is located between your gearbox and your engine. It is the part that comes into contact with the flywheel which is located on the engine side and which will receive the power transmitted by the clutch. With wear, the clutch of your Mercedes Vito slips because it is made up of notches that engage in the flywheel, and with wear and friction it wears out. It is said that the clutch slips when its teeth are too worn for it to engage on the flywheel.
How to identify clutch slipping on an Mercedes Vito?
There are different methods to identify that the clutch of your Mercedes Vito is slipping. You can perform all of these experiments without any help.
You can simply identify that your clutch slips when you accelerate and your engine revs up, but your car does not speed up, you may as well encounter a burning smell.
To validate the first observation, you can stop, pull the hand brake, engage the first one, accelerate moderately by releasing the clutch of your car delicately, in the event that your engine rises in revs but the Mercedes Vito remains stationary it is the sign of a dead clutch.
Finally, you can put yourself, still in third gear, with the handbrake on, and by releasing it, your car should stall, if not, your clutch is almost certainly dead.
What should I do if my clutch slips on my Mercedes Vito?
Some advices to avoir the wear of your Mercedes Vito clutch
We will right now give you some tips to limit the wear of your clutch and avoid your clutch slipping on your Mercedes Vito. First of all, it is wise not to leave your foot on the clutch pedal, even if the pressure you apply is very mild you will pre wear the clutch release bearing which will eventually lead to a total change of the clutch kit. Another point not to be missed, do not over-accelerate when you start your car, your acceleration must constantly be adapted to the speed of your engine. If you are at a standstill accelerate slowly, if you are at medium speed accelerate gradually when you release the clutch pedal of your car so as not to make it slip against your engine flywheel.
Replacing your Mercedes Vito clutch
Finally, in this last part, we will discuss the repair part. In case the clutch of your Mercedes Vito is useless, you might be stuck at a standstill and have no other option than to phone the tow truck, because a dead clutch no longer allows the transmission to transfer power to the wheels. If this is the case, be aware that you will have to change the complete clutch kit, this repair requires quite a few hours of work and is approximated to cost between 500 and 1200 euros based on the engine and the garage.
If perhaps you have any further questions about the Mercedes Vito, do not hesitate to consult our Mercedes Vito category.
