Clutch noise

Hi all,

I have a series 3 2.25 petrol. After a recent dunking and recovery (under for about an hour but engine running), I sent it off to have all the oils done and some other bits sorted. Just got it back and noticed the gear box is harder to work than before and there is a wurring noise when the clutch is depressed - suddenly gets worse if clutch put all the way to the floor. Does anyone have any ideas as to what it could be? Thanks!

Bell housing would have been full of water, rust, dirt, mud, small fish and such like.

Well whirring when clutch pressed can only really be the release bearing, might be a dry spigot bush, but cannot see that making a whirring noise.
What viscosity gearbox oil did they use?

lynall said:

Well whirring when clutch pressed can only really be the release bearing, might be a dry spigot bush, but cannot see that making a whirring noise.
What viscosity gearbox oil did they use?

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That’s an excellent question - I’ve got some EP90 under the seat so will ring them on Monday and if not top it up. Seems odd that the release bearing would start doing it suddenly? Had to drive it 40 min home but didn’t notice it then

How deep a dunking did you give it, top of wheels, tyres, bonnet? did It have the bellhousing plug in , and before recovery you will have been trying to drive out i guess

steve2286w said:

How deep a dunking did you give it, top of wheels, tyres, bonnet? did It have the bellhousing plug in , and before recovery you will have been trying to drive out i guess

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Top of tyres, no plug (thought it was shallow…) and yes was trying to get out. That starts to make sense now - there was enough noice from all the other sodden oils that I probably didn’t notice it.

Does anyone have any experience of how much it tends to cost to fix it?

Also depends if water was clean. We had the 2a in plenty of water without any bother but in general it was clean water.

May be £150 for a decent couch and bearing and £2 for a drain plug ,
but don’t think lots would get into gearboxes, so maybe just a lot of crap in clutch , so I would take gearbox out and have a good look see what it needs

Forgot a Series 2a has a different clutch set up to a Series 3 box. More like a Defender I think, we did have to pull a Ninety out of a muddy hole on Salisbury Plain once, he had to have the clutch replaced.

tom.brandford said:

Top of tyres, no plug (thought it was shallow…) and yes was trying to get out. That starts to make sense now - there was enough noice from all the other sodden oils that I probably didn’t notice it.

Does anyone have any experience of how much it tends to cost to fix it?

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Also well worth draining your diffs, gearboxes, and swivel housings, see if any water has been sucked in there.

Turboman said:

Also well worth draining your diffs, gearboxes, and swivel housings, see if any water has been sucked in there.

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Had all the oils changed on it as figured it was going to need it after that! Oil still seeping through the free wheeling hubs so clearly not too thick

Which side of the gearbox is the clutch slave cylinder?

Got my 3 stuck in a dirty water pit some years ago, had to get towed in the end. Shortly after the release bearing seized and went fubar. I put a timber across the cab at the top and used a hand winch to lift and move the box[ [props disconnected]
just enough to change the release bearing

tottot said:

Got my 3 stuck in a dirty water pit some years ago, had to get towed in the end. Shortly after the release bearing seized and went fubar. I put a timber across the cab at the top and used a hand winch to lift and move the box[ [props disconnected]
just enough to change the release bearing

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Did similar on the Series 2a except I used one of them multi use ladders you can get.