Valeo SMF conversion

[skard]

Has anyone got any experiences of running the VALEO 835035 SMF conversion kit?

The DMF on our 1.9 PD105 is breaking up, but has also done 85k so no gripe there. Thinking of getting this kit as it has mainly good feedback.

My biggest concern is the car has been remapped so has an extra 70Nm going through it, so was hoping someone has been in the same boat?

Cheers

 

[snaps]

I would stick with the dmf personaly . I have changed a few skoda diesels with conversion kit and are not liked by customer . Heard a few horror stories with skoda/vw taxis snapping cranks after fitting smf .

 

[skard]

Yes this is what concerns me the most. It seems it makes the clutch nice and smooth but that dampening loss has to be taken up somewhere.

 

[snaps]

You also get a very light pedal to with smf ! When mine goes i will keep dmf and oem parts as there always right first time and seem to last longer ! I just dont like the conversions as they can also shorten gearbox life . Dont get me wrong i hate the pedal feel and noise of the dmf but there fitted for a reason . Recently done a smf on a superb and 25k later its gone lol

 

[skard]

Ok SMF idea knocked on the head -

Next question is, what is preferred between Sachs and LUK? (It's a complete kit going in).

Is OEM ok for ~320Nm of torque?

 

[snaps]

If i remember correctly we get asked by tps (vw/seat/audi/skoda) parts supplier whether its originaly fitted with luk or sachs when we remove old unit as i dont think u can fit an luk if a sachs was fitted and vise versa ! But check first

 

[skard]

That's what I mean with a whole new kit is going in, it doesn't matter what's in now as it's all coming out.

Do you recall how much TPS charge for a clutch/DMF kit please?

 

[snaps]

What i meeant is if the dmf and clutch that is removed from car is luk then u can only refit an luk kit . Same as if u remove a sachs unit u have to refit a sachs unit as there not interchangeable . Well this was the case for a skoda superb tdi and it wasnt cheap! May be differnt for seat but they do all share same bits

 

[skard]

When I changed mine on my BKD140 I just bought a kit from David @ SERE and it was the right one.

He also confirmed for the Altea that it is the same - as long as the complete new kit is the same brand it's good to go.

However, I'll proceed with caution and try get it on the ramp to do an inspection before I order a kit, cheers.

 

[snaps]

Thats why i wasnt sure on the seats and said check first lol . Im my experience sachs and luk are as good as each other and prob on par with each other in terms of quality and life span.

 

[zx6rninja_rider]

There are two kits listed for the altea
how do you know which one is fitted without ripping the car apart?

 

[snaps]

By ripping it apart lol same hassle as the skoda diesels , cant order until you take it out to find out what was fitted .

 

[zx6rninja_rider]

So they have codes for everything that is fitted to the car on the sticker in the boot except what clutch they fitted lol
How hard would it be to add that to the data sticker it would make life so much easier

 

[snaps]

I know lol . Its same hassle with alternators they always need to know what amp your old unit is first and that sometimes requires removal to see the sticker !

 

[Seatmann]

What a load of poop lol, snapping crank shafts? Somebody's taking the mic.
Anyway the smf is superb, depends on the box though, some folk reckon the noise from the 6spd is a bit much and it's also more expensive but if you have the 5spd then I highly recommend the sach VR6 kit with the G60 flywheel.
The only difference between the smf and dmf is that they moved the springs from the friction plate to the flywheel. The rattling tends to happen due to folk fitting lightened flywheels but with the standard G60 it's really nothing. We are talking about a car that sounds like tractor on steroids at idle anyway lol.

But yeh, I love my smf and the Sachs VR6 kit can take at least 300ft/lbs of torque. I'm running bigger nozzles and a custom remap.

 

[snaps]

I have an official technical bulletin from luk and another company warning about fitting the 4 piece smf kits . Reports of snapped crankshafts , broken splinned driveshafts , blown gearboxs etc which i can take a pic of and post on here .

 

[Seatmann]

Yeh but have you ever actually come across any? I've never ever come across anything like it myself in life or on the forums, maybe it's a valeo thing. I spend hours on the tdi forums over here and in the states, mostly in tuning forums where smf's are very popular too but still, never come across the problem. Anyway if you have a 5spd box I'd says sachs smf all the way.

 

[snaps]

Our local skoda dealer have had 3 snapped cranks due to fitting smf but they have all been 6speeds . One of our customers had his 2009 superb clutch let go and this was done under warranty in which they fitted an smf conversion without telling him . 10k miles later it was towed to us with clutch gone again . We ordered a new clutch kit and dmf only to find that the dealer had fitted an smf kit as i said without his knolwege . He wanted to carry on with the smf as its a lot cheaper (but isnt really cos its in bits again) and low and behold 25k miles later it went again ! Now it has a dmf in it and no probs since .
We have also had a tranporter tdi in twice in 3 months with ripped out teeth on the osf inner drive shaft spline causing no drive . Customer has since let us know that an smf was fitted at mr clutch 4 months ago !
5speeds prob not a problem but 6 sp yes . I still to this day always replace a dmf if thats what came out

 

[Seatmann]

Sounds like they're fitting cheap nasty kits, a decent smf kit for the 6spd costs way more than the standard dmf. A lot of taxi's have smf kits fitted but yeh, I think they're 5spd mk1 octavias. Regarding the 6spd you can see how a decent kit performs on the darkside site but they are a realy pricey kit.
Also some of the newer tdi engines seem to be just badly made, you're bound to have come across this issue of throwing conrods at really low miles.

 

[Tucker157]

I would stick with the dmf personaly . I have changed a few skoda diesels with conversion kit and are not liked by customer . Heard a few horror stories with skoda/vw taxis snapping cranks after fitting smf .

This sound like poo... I must agree with seatmann!

if you change gear way too early like a taxi driver, labouring the hell out the engine at idle... Struggling to pull the car along cause you've shifted into 4th at 15/20mph then yeh the major vibrations from the car labouring will damage things...causing early failure.

An engine driven properly, using the torque curve and not labouring the engine will not be adversely affected by a smf being fitted... I've ran one instead of a dmf for 60k... Engines are built to be rev'd, not driven at 1.5k rpm max.. Struggling to pull the car along.. This is where most of the nasty vibrations come from and they do cause damage!!!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD