hi every1. im Mike.
I just bought a 1999 volvo s40 1.6 non turbo
it had a new clutch fitted to it before I bought it but the man never drove it after as he had bought a skoda . I took it for a test drive and the clucth bearing felll appart so he replaced it with a volvo clutch bearing. that one then fell appart . he then replaced it with a renult clutch bearing.
The car as only done 6 miles since i got it and its already gone thru the two bearings and now it wont get gears. I replaced the slave cylinder and spent all of lastnite bleeding it and im now at my wits end as it still not getting gears and im 500ml of clutch fluid lighter.
any1 got any ideas of wot could be wrong.

 

Can you see the slave cylinder moving?

 

sorry its taken me soo long to reply i dont have much access to a computer.
yea the slave cylinder moves the problem is that the cluth fork never bottoms out so you keep pumping the clutch until the guts of the slave cylinder pops out. (how do i know... it happened to me lol i hada buy a new one cause it ripped the seal on me)
i think the wrong pressure plate has been fitted so im going to put another new clutch in it myself so i know that end is right and work of there.

 

If it's eaten two throwout bearings and you cant engage gears/ slave cylinder disembowels itself, then yet another bearing has gone.
There is only one reason a throwout bearing would keep failing and that is it is not completely disengaging from the pressure plate, thereby constantly spinning. This will eat them up in no time at all.
A quick and easy fix would be to shorten the linkage from clutch slave cylinder to clutch fork. Often a pushrod can be simply ground a little shorter. Just remove the pushrod, measure the length you need, subtract 2mm and cut to that.
Yes, it could have the wrong pressure/clutch plate, but this is a very easy fix and will not be an issue till you replace the plate in 70-100k miles at which time, you just buy a new pushrod.
*edit* the clutch master cylinder being able to pump the guts of the slave cylinder rings alarm bells to me...the master cylinder should not be able to create so much travel in the slave cylinder that it will do that, and the master cylinder should not be able to retain pressure in such a way that successive pedal strokes will continue to force the slave cylinder piston further out if it's bore.
So, I would also suspect the clutch master cylinder and the hydraulic line. They should be inspected to ensure they are not retaining line pressure when the pedal is released. This is easy to do, just crack the slave cylinder bleeder with the pedal at rest, it should have NO pressure.
It could also be a mechanical issue, clutch fork incorrectly installed or similar.

Regards, Andrew.