P38A Clutch: dual mass or single mass for the diesel?!

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What would you go for? A single mass flywheel and clutch for £570 or stock DMF and clutch for £800?

  • LUK dual mass flywheel and Valeo clutch kit

    Votes: 3 75.0%

  • Single billet with upgraded Valeo clutch kit

    Votes: 1 25.0%
  • Total voters
    4
  • Poll closed .
Grrrrrr

Grrrrrr

Technician, Bodgit & Scarper Ltd
Posts
19,862
Location
Buckinghamshire, UK. ('95 DT)
As you probably know my dual mass flywheel (DMF) has failed and sourcing genuine replacement parts is becoming tricky and expensive. So I've had a look around and a possible alternative is a single mass unit with the springs in the friction plate (like a tradition clutch) rather than in the flywheel (like a DMF). What do you think?
 
DMF's were as far as I know a means of smoothing out the pulseing effect of diesels at lower rpm to give a better driver experience - make the engine behave more like a petrol.

On a 6 cyl obviously it's not as critical as in a 4 banger. I would have thought it would just feel a bit more agricultural.

I know there are various suppliers of standard flywheels for VAG and Ford engines amongst others to convert them but they are for the four cylinder cars mainly.
 
My own opinion for what it's worth would be to keep the vehicle as designed and built to be on the safe side.

Unless you can find someone who has carried out this conversion say 10 k miles ago and all is well or even better still drive one, so ya know what you'll be getting.
 
Fergie46 said:
DMF's were as far as I know a means of smoothing out the pulseing effect of diesels at lower rpm to give a better driver experience - make the engine behave more like a petrol.

On a 6 cyl obviously it's not as critical as in a 4 banger. I would have thought it would just feel a bit more agricultural.

I know there are various suppliers of standard flywheels for VAG and Ford engines amongst others to convert them but they are for the four cylinder cars mainly.
Click to expand...

Yes, particularly the newer higher torque 4 pot diesels. The M51 was fitted to a lot of cars with no DMF though and the R380 similarly was fitted to other vehicles with no DMF. However, Land Rover clearly thought the extra money was well spent so I figure the engineer there knew more than me hacking about on Google!

So, I've gone original LUK DMF. I'll put a Valeo clutch kit on it though.
 
I'd vote DMF, purely because I have access to to a Transit with a solid conversion, at least I think it's solid because it's Ronseal, no if or buts it transfers drive.
Do yourself a great favour, seek out a dmf.
I know how they work and they are superior.

Go wrap an elastic band round a coin and compare like with some common or garden string.
Hold both whilst rotating coin, not much give with the string is there.
Diesel needs give.
Guess how I voted!
 
Last edited:
I think that maybe when the clever engineers came up with DMF flywheels, they didn't realise they had a much shorter life than standard flywheels. A taxi firm near here replaces the DMFs in their fleet of mondeos about every 60k. That would put me off buying one.

Col
 
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So, 1p per mile for a dmf in a taxi against around 20p per mile on fuel.
Yes, a dmf is an expensive part as a one off, however would it make 1p per mile or more difference to fuel economy?
I guess it could in which case it would be a no brainier.
Be interesting to compare fuel economy in identical circumstances between a solid and dmf flywheel.
 
Wazzajnr said:
So, 1p per mile for a dmf in a taxi against around 20p per mile on fuel.
Yes, a dmf is an expensive part as a one off, however would it make 1p per mile or more difference to fuel economy?
I guess it could in which case it would be a no brainier.
Be interesting to compare fuel economy in identical circumstances between a solid and dmf flywheel.
Click to expand...
Good point, yes it would be interesting to be able to do a comparison. I guess for a taxi company it makes sense, especially as they can claim the cost of DMF replacement against their tax liability.

Col
 
I changed dual mass flywheel for standard flywheel on 2 year old transet pick up seems all good no noticabel difference than original dmf and a lot cheaper
 
My red one hasn't got a dmf, maybe someone had converted it in the past. I have just done a transit diesel but was advised not to convert it to solid flywheel as they tend to eat gearbox bearings. If it's got a dmf then I would replace like for like.:)
 
It's what else in the engine/transmission and driveline that has been possibly designed to meet the criteria of having a DMF.

So it's safest to keep as is.
 
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