diff --git a/lib/manager/leiningen/__snapshots__/extract.spec.ts.snap b/lib/manager/leiningen/__snapshots__/extract.spec.ts.snap
index d3d21a15a72411cb0ec574b4b1bbcdbd2372eb3c..09a739c29710a1498ff2a6eadc4c5cf11000eea1 100644
--- a/lib/manager/leiningen/__snapshots__/extract.spec.ts.snap
+++ b/lib/manager/leiningen/__snapshots__/extract.spec.ts.snap
@@ -8,7 +8,6 @@ Object {
       "datasource": "clojure",
       "depName": "org.clojure:clojure",
       "depType": "dependencies",
-      "fileReplacePosition": 2747,
       "registryUrls": Array [
         "https://download.java.net/maven/2",
         "https://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/releases",
@@ -21,7 +20,6 @@ Object {
       "datasource": "clojure",
       "depName": "org.jclouds:jclouds",
       "depType": "dependencies",
-      "fileReplacePosition": 2794,
       "registryUrls": Array [
         "https://download.java.net/maven/2",
         "https://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/releases",
@@ -34,7 +32,6 @@ Object {
       "datasource": "clojure",
       "depName": "net.sf.ehcache:ehcache",
       "depType": "dependencies",
-      "fileReplacePosition": 2862,
       "registryUrls": Array [
         "https://download.java.net/maven/2",
         "https://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/releases",
@@ -47,7 +44,6 @@ Object {
       "datasource": "clojure",
       "depName": "log4j:log4j",
       "depType": "dependencies",
-      "fileReplacePosition": 2912,
       "registryUrls": Array [
         "https://download.java.net/maven/2",
         "https://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/releases",
@@ -60,7 +56,6 @@ Object {
       "datasource": "clojure",
       "depName": "net.3scale:3scale-api",
       "depType": "dependencies",
-      "fileReplacePosition": 3223,
       "registryUrls": Array [
         "https://download.java.net/maven/2",
         "https://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/releases",
@@ -73,7 +68,6 @@ Object {
       "datasource": "clojure",
       "depName": "org.lwjgl.lwjgl:lwjgl",
       "depType": "dependencies",
-      "fileReplacePosition": 3272,
       "registryUrls": Array [
         "https://download.java.net/maven/2",
         "https://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/releases",
@@ -86,7 +80,6 @@ Object {
       "datasource": "clojure",
       "depName": "org.lwjgl.lwjgl:lwjgl-platform",
       "depType": "dependencies",
-      "fileReplacePosition": 3330,
       "registryUrls": Array [
         "https://download.java.net/maven/2",
         "https://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/releases",
@@ -99,7 +92,6 @@ Object {
       "datasource": "clojure",
       "depName": "org.clojure:clojure",
       "depType": "dependencies",
-      "fileReplacePosition": 11073,
       "registryUrls": Array [
         "https://download.java.net/maven/2",
         "https://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/releases",
@@ -112,7 +104,6 @@ Object {
       "datasource": "clojure",
       "depName": "org.clojure:clojure",
       "depType": "dependencies",
-      "fileReplacePosition": 11139,
       "registryUrls": Array [
         "https://download.java.net/maven/2",
         "https://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/releases",
@@ -125,7 +116,6 @@ Object {
       "datasource": "clojure",
       "depName": "clj-stacktrace:clj-stacktrace",
       "depType": "dependencies",
-      "fileReplacePosition": 11287,
       "registryUrls": Array [
         "https://download.java.net/maven/2",
         "https://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/releases",
@@ -138,7 +128,6 @@ Object {
       "datasource": "clojure",
       "depName": "clj-time:clj-time",
       "depType": "managed-dependencies",
-      "fileReplacePosition": 4705,
       "registryUrls": Array [
         "https://download.java.net/maven/2",
         "https://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/releases",
@@ -151,7 +140,6 @@ Object {
       "datasource": "clojure",
       "depName": "me.raynes:fs",
       "depType": "managed-dependencies",
-      "fileReplacePosition": 4754,
       "registryUrls": Array [
         "https://download.java.net/maven/2",
         "https://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/releases",
@@ -164,7 +152,6 @@ Object {
       "datasource": "clojure",
       "depName": "lein-pprint:lein-pprint",
       "depType": "plugins",
-      "fileReplacePosition": 5558,
       "registryUrls": Array [
         "https://download.java.net/maven/2",
         "https://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/releases",
@@ -177,7 +164,6 @@ Object {
       "datasource": "clojure",
       "depName": "lein-assoc:lein-assoc",
       "depType": "plugins",
-      "fileReplacePosition": 5591,
       "registryUrls": Array [
         "https://download.java.net/maven/2",
         "https://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/releases",
@@ -190,7 +176,6 @@ Object {
       "datasource": "clojure",
       "depName": "s3-wagon-private:s3-wagon-private",
       "depType": "plugins",
-      "fileReplacePosition": 5630,
       "registryUrls": Array [
         "https://download.java.net/maven/2",
         "https://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/releases",
@@ -203,7 +188,6 @@ Object {
       "datasource": "clojure",
       "depName": "lein-foo:lein-foo",
       "depType": "plugins",
-      "fileReplacePosition": 5661,
       "registryUrls": Array [
         "https://download.java.net/maven/2",
         "https://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/releases",
@@ -216,7 +200,6 @@ Object {
       "datasource": "clojure",
       "depName": "lein-bar:lein-bar",
       "depType": "plugins",
-      "fileReplacePosition": 5705,
       "registryUrls": Array [
         "https://download.java.net/maven/2",
         "https://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/releases",
@@ -229,7 +212,6 @@ Object {
       "datasource": "clojure",
       "depName": "cider:cider-nrepl",
       "depType": "plugins",
-      "fileReplacePosition": 11489,
       "registryUrls": Array [
         "https://download.java.net/maven/2",
         "https://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/releases",
@@ -242,7 +224,6 @@ Object {
       "datasource": "clojure",
       "depName": "com.theoryinpractise:clojure-maven-plugin",
       "depType": "pom-plugins",
-      "fileReplacePosition": 26925,
       "registryUrls": Array [
         "https://download.java.net/maven/2",
         "https://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/releases",
@@ -255,7 +236,6 @@ Object {
       "datasource": "clojure",
       "depName": "org.apache.tomcat.maven:tomcat7-maven-plugin",
       "depType": "pom-plugins",
-      "fileReplacePosition": 27372,
       "registryUrls": Array [
         "https://download.java.net/maven/2",
         "https://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/releases",
@@ -268,7 +248,6 @@ Object {
       "datasource": "clojure",
       "depName": "com.google.appengine:appengine-maven-plugin",
       "depType": "pom-plugins",
-      "fileReplacePosition": 27440,
       "registryUrls": Array [
         "https://download.java.net/maven/2",
         "https://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/releases",
diff --git a/lib/manager/leiningen/extract.spec.ts b/lib/manager/leiningen/extract.spec.ts
index 33ec4b53000765b307c31c7c647a8281e5cd8d06..83084aaf6da8ba01e47522db73378d3273fd8de1 100644
--- a/lib/manager/leiningen/extract.spec.ts
+++ b/lib/manager/leiningen/extract.spec.ts
@@ -26,7 +26,6 @@ describe('manager/clojure/extract', () => {
         datasource: datasourceClojure.id,
         depName: 'foo:bar',
         currentValue: '1.2.3',
-        fileReplacePosition: 11,
       },
     ]);
     expect(
@@ -36,13 +35,11 @@ describe('manager/clojure/extract', () => {
         datasource: datasourceClojure.id,
         depName: 'foo:bar',
         currentValue: '1.2.3',
-        fileReplacePosition: 12,
       },
       {
         datasource: datasourceClojure.id,
         depName: 'foo:baz',
         currentValue: '4.5.6',
-        fileReplacePosition: 33,
       },
     ]);
   });
diff --git a/lib/manager/leiningen/extract.ts b/lib/manager/leiningen/extract.ts
index 8404a462f8872f525eb1b3493c9ce63329bfe1df..ec06eed38ec3cd211230403ba2c246d9b062061c 100644
--- a/lib/manager/leiningen/extract.ts
+++ b/lib/manager/leiningen/extract.ts
@@ -52,7 +52,6 @@ export function extractFromVectors(
         datasource: datasourceClojure.id,
         depName: expandDepName(cleanStrLiteral(artifactId)),
         currentValue: cleanStrLiteral(version),
-        fileReplacePosition,
       });
     }
     artifactId = '';
diff --git a/lib/manager/leiningen/index.ts b/lib/manager/leiningen/index.ts
index b8814fe7d705287ae1db4f3a338210f1d7533510..b5e2f90033bc4ce96084e9d7920d5fa49a4e06c1 100644
--- a/lib/manager/leiningen/index.ts
+++ b/lib/manager/leiningen/index.ts
@@ -1,7 +1,8 @@
 import * as mavenVersioning from '../../versioning/maven';
 
 export { extractPackageFile } from './extract';
-export { updateDependency } from './update';
+
+export const autoReplace = true;
 
 export const defaultConfig = {
   fileMatch: ['(^|/)project\\.clj$'],
diff --git a/lib/manager/leiningen/update.spec.ts b/lib/manager/leiningen/update.spec.ts
deleted file mode 100644
index 994a05eb2eefa3a808030e2a5bf43aefe0256fb7..0000000000000000000000000000000000000000
--- a/lib/manager/leiningen/update.spec.ts
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,28 +0,0 @@
-/* eslint-disable no-template-curly-in-string */
-import { readFileSync } from 'fs';
-import { resolve } from 'path';
-import { extractPackageFile } from './extract';
-import { updateDependency } from './update';
-
-const leinProjectClj = readFileSync(
-  resolve(__dirname, `./__fixtures__/project.clj`),
-  'utf8'
-);
-
-describe('manager/leiningen/update', () => {
-  it('updatePackageFile', () => {
-    const { deps } = extractPackageFile(leinProjectClj);
-    const dep = deps.pop();
-    const upgrade = {
-      ...dep,
-      newValue: `${dep.currentValue}-9999`,
-    };
-    const { currentValue, newValue } = upgrade;
-    const newFileContent = updateDependency({
-      fileContent: leinProjectClj,
-      upgrade,
-    });
-    const cmpContent = leinProjectClj.replace(currentValue, newValue);
-    expect(newFileContent).toEqual(cmpContent);
-  });
-});
diff --git a/lib/manager/leiningen/update.ts b/lib/manager/leiningen/update.ts
deleted file mode 100644
index b12e6e44d7963381af2885bc93d7bf30c69775d0..0000000000000000000000000000000000000000
--- a/lib/manager/leiningen/update.ts
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,9 +0,0 @@
-import { UpdateDependencyConfig } from '../common';
-import { updateAtPosition } from '../maven/update';
-
-export function updateDependency({
-  fileContent,
-  upgrade,
-}: UpdateDependencyConfig): string | null {
-  return updateAtPosition(fileContent, upgrade);
-}