Clutch life?

I suspect I know the answer - it depends on how its driven etc etc :doh:

BUT...

I was wondering, say you've got a smart well looked after TD4 thats only been used as a school taxi in town, is there a sort of average mileage that the clutch lasts for? I'm just thinking about the two I saw for sale yesterday, 60 and 80K miles, will they be on the verge of a clutch failure?

Or is it nothing to do with mileage and anything thats had lots of towing and mud plugging and / or bad driving, are going to pop first and others will be fine?

Or might it be ones that were made in certain years have weaker componants?

Any thoughts? :blabla:

My Disco, not a freelander, gets used a lot off-road, tows a caravan most weekends and generally hardly ever runs without three people and maybe 200 kg's of 'kit' ... clutch is absolutely fine. Mates with same mileage (Mine 126k, his 122k) is run almost completely on road, he came green-laning with me once, flat farmers tracks mostly, and never been before or since, never towed anything, and hardly ever carries more than two people and little luggage, has had three clutches in the time he's had it.

I drive (try to) properly, he rides the clutch a lot so glazes them over/burns them out/generally fecks 'em up.

All to do with driving style, not necessarily towing or load carrying ...

Oh right, well thats a good sign, I love driving 'properly' but was anxious that if I did so in the FL it might be too much for the clutch! Guess even the best service history won't mean the previous owner could drive....!

if it was used in town or stopstarting like say a taxi or city centre runaround,its probaly got 3 times more country miles.


im just a chippy what the f... would i know?

unfortunatly the clutch is not the easiest thing to assess when buying a car. as already said its all down to previous drivers. all you can do is make sure you road test a car and drive it as far as you want dont be taked into just nipping round the block by the saleman make sure your happy with it or if your not sure get someone who knows about cars ideally someone who knows about freelanders to check it out

goodluck with your search hope you find a goodun

I'd be more worried about the dual mass flywheel fitted to the manual Td4. They're expensive & happily fail before the clutches in some cases. Look for vibration at idle or a strange possibly juddery feel to the clutch pedal when depressing it.

TD4girl said:

I suspect I know the answer - it depends on how its driven etc etc :doh:

BUT...

I was wondering, say you've got a smart well looked after TD4 thats only been used as a school taxi in town, is there a sort of average mileage that the clutch lasts for? I'm just thinking about the two I saw for sale yesterday, 60 and 80K miles, will they be on the verge of a clutch failure?

Or is it nothing to do with mileage and anything thats had lots of towing and mud plugging and / or bad driving, are going to pop first and others will be fine?

Or might it be ones that were made in certain years have weaker componants?

Any thoughts? :blabla:

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My father-in-law needed a clutch every fookin year, my vehicles 200,000 and still going. Just sold my wifes skoda derv with epic mileage and it was still going good.

The new vehicles are being fitted with dual mass flywheels and they seem to fail these days before the clutch but you can buy a kit and take em back to solid ones, the other fokin stupid thing is them freewheeling alternator pulleys fokin ****e anorl, try getting one off in place with the tool, ha ha who yah fokin kidding, a fokin air gun job.

Just pot luck then! Thanks all.

before i changed the drive shaft,i had to keep my foot on the clutch longer than id like
i now put it down to the drive shafts engagement,i can feel it on the right now
because i havn't got around to changing tother cause the wheel lock nut is fugkt.

TD4girl said:

Just pot luck then! Thanks all.

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Try and get the service history, look at whats been changed perhaps call the garage and sweet talk them, best to go in tho, look at the clutch pedal and the brake and how much wear is on the rubber pads, the mats etc, if its had a lot of clutch use the mat and pedals tend to get worn a fair bit. Look at where he lived city driving, or long distances without much clutch use.

The bottom line is this, some vehicles are bad for clutches, some people are hard on clutches. Every time the clutch is pressed and released there will be wear taking place, once its released its contacted the flywheel and driving so nil wear. So mine thundered down the motorway everyday 200,000 miles and hardly touched the clutch.

Buses are stop start, in the days when they were manual gearboxes it was clutch after clutch and brake reline. So if the service history shows loads of brake pads it tends to indicate either city use stop start or a bad driver, since if they are bad on clutch control they generally are hard on brakes anorl.

Its not complete science but I hope it helps you, but best to get some sort of guarantee or warrantee.

Thanks David, I had a quick look at the service history of one I test drove yesterday, the salesman wasn't all that keen and just flicked through the wee book reading out the mileage at which it had been serviced. Probably won't be getting that one anyway but handy practise for the real thing!

In this day and age it might seem scarey to invite a complete stranger go look at a fl
with you,but if you gave a location you might get sumone from here to look at it with you.
All we know about you is you like the name TD4-Gurl,and that you've bin considering
purchasing a doozel,FreeeLANDER.don't let the green eyed goblins put you off.
You just need to find one with a humming engine,never driver any LR other than my own,
but I'm pretty sure a td4would be a good choice,specially if you can get one shaped
like the oldest 5 door 2litre mini trattor,and im sure yule park up the midjet.
remember set aside enough money for a new battery,altogether expect to have to fork ou 500 notes to get it sorted for a happy carefreee summer.

TD4girl said:

Thanks David, I had a quick look at the service history of one I test drove yesterday, the salesman wasn't all that keen and just flicked through the wee book reading out the mileage at which it had been serviced. Probably won't be getting that one anyway but handy practise for the real thing!

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Thats ok and remember there are better vehicles out there than a freelander, do your research on here and on google.

a suzuki small ting sounds ideal for you,came up behind a pajero jnr. yesterday and thought of the gurl.

Saw a Pajero thing the other day too, they look ok. Just like the style of the FL and we used to have a couple of proper land rovers when I was a kid, so like the idea of having a 'modern' one. Also got to be strong enough for towing trailers with hay, horses and sheep, plus smart enough for me to use for work. We'll keep looking. Location : NE Scotland.

TD4girl said:

Saw a Pajero thing the other day too, they look ok. Just like the style of the FL and we used to have a couple of proper land rovers when I was a kid, so like the idea of having a 'modern' one. Also got to be strong enough for towing trailers with hay, horses and sheep, plus smart enough for me to use for work. We'll keep looking. Location : NE Scotland.

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I now see your price problem (other thread), I'm also from Scotland & unfortunately dealers up here are going by price guides from about three years ago. I myself had to get my car from down South to get a fair deal.

Might have to do the same, although would have to be a good deal to make up for the travel costs etc. Where did you get yours?

TD4girl said:

Might have to do the same, although would have to be a good deal to make up for the travel costs etc. Where did you get yours?

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I used VILLAGE CAR SALES from Derbyshire
They trade through ebay a lot under the username vcdirect29 & can arrange shipping easily (cost me £300)

I saved £1500-£2000 over similar years/mileages up here even with the shipping cost. I bought blind which I wouldn't recommend though I had the option in writing to send back the car if I wasn't happy with it which was why I took the gamble. Needless to say it was all ok

We've just got a FL, 50k miles and full SH, Dealer and Indie. I looked high and low and missed a few crackers due to other halfs dithering.
Yes, I may have to do the brakes at the next service, yes the clutch might go, but the signs are it could be a good-un.
I test drove a few right dogs that the adverts said were cracking examples and if I hadn't known better I might have been taken in by the salesman. Saw a beauty, clean, new tyres, almost showroom fresh, brakes were wooden, service history was missing and they kept mentioning that they had someone else that had come at the same time but had been told that I was already interested. That car is still for sale now.
Keep looking and if you see a few you like do a trip, that whats we had to do, have the money ready and be prepared to haggle but I think the prices from dealers are pretty solid at the moment.
Good luck.

Will keep checking the prices, if I were to find one in Englandshire somewhere, maybe one of you nice guys could pop along and check it out for me for a few beer tokens of course!