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Hello Jack (or Whoever),

I wonder if you'd have any idea what is wrong with the clutch on our 1995 Toyota Corolla 1300 cc manual hatchback, which has now done 182,000 kms.. At times the clutch slips badly, but at other times there is no sign of any slipping even under heavy load. It often occurs when accelerating in third gear. The slipping often then does not happen at once, but after the clutch has initially engaged well, and some acceleration has taken place.

Sometimes there is no sign of the problem for a week or two. But in the most striking instance, it once slipped badly going downhill: after initially accelerating in third gear, the engine revs rose from under 2000 to over 3000 with no increase in road speed. Yet it often goes up that same hill with no problem.

When our mechanic drove the car, the fault (of course!) did not happen. However, he believes that, although there is sometimes some judder, the clutch is not excessively worn. Suspecting a small piece of debris in the hydraulic operating system, he dismantled that whole system, inspected and cleaned it, but failed to find anything. He replaced a hose in it, in case a flap had developed inside it and was occasionally opening to prevent fluid flowing. But the fault has continued as before.

So our only option seems to be the expensive one of dismantling, and probably replacing the clutch itself. Do you have any thoughts?

Bert Jackson.

I've never heard of a clutch slipping going down hill but not up hill before.
Nevertheless, it soulds like you have a problem with the clutch assembly itself. If it is shuddering and slipping intermittently, perhaps there's an oil seal leaking oil onto the clutch.
The only option really is to dismantle for inspection - it's almost certainly a problem with the clutch.