Clutch not working – Any ideas?

Right, I got a strange problem with my Range Rover Classic and I don’t know where to start.

It’s a 3.5 EFI manual and I use the car purely for off roading. Basically, the other week, I was off roading and suddenly the clutch pedal became very light and I couldn’t engage gears. If I turned the engine off I could select gears fine, likewise, if I set the transfer box to neutral with the engine on, I could also select gears. If the clutch pedal wasn’t sprung, it would have been completely floppy (apart from about half an inch at the end of the pedal where pushing hard would make the pedal go down further). At the time this happened, I was stuck in mud and winching myself out. Everything was getting hot, so I decided to turn the engine off and wait a while. After giving it 10 mins or so to rest, I started it back up and the clutch, whilst not fully back to normal, had about half it’s play back in it and I was able to select gears again. It started to get worse again and I had to stop for another 10 minutes or so before continuing. The problem occurred when I was in low range but once the problem was there, it didn’t make any difference between low or high range, or indeed diff lock.

Anyway, I drove home in high range and it was fine. It was then sat up for over a month (needing a repair to the front shocks). When I drove it again, I used it all day on public roads in high range, and it was completely fine. I then drove it in high range all the way to the next play day at my local off road site. Once on the site, I approached the first puddle / mud bath (nothing deep or challenging), I engaged low range, went through the puddle, went to put my foot on the clutch and it was all floppy / light again and I couldn’t get gears in high or low range. I waited and waited and waited, thinking it might recover itself like it had done previously, but that was over a month ago now, and it is still like it!

The slave cylinder isn’t leaking on the outside of the gearbox, and the master cylinder isn’t leaking through the inside of the bulkhead – neither am I losing fluid from the system (the tank is full).

Can anyone advise what could be the problem? I have had opinions from all sort of people with various experiences with land rovers. Some have said slave cylinder whilst others say if there is no external leak from the slave then it cant be the slave. Some have said it could be the fork has worn through (or something like that?) but if that’s the case, surely it would either work or it wouldn’t (although it now doesn’t work at all, it had previously recovered from this fault by just leaving it). Someone else has suggested it could be air in the system (for info, the car did go on its side a few months back and the issue first occurred straight after it had been put back upright).

Before I go about investigating the problem, using the advise I have mentioned from various people above, is there anyone who, with the symptoms I have described, can accurately diagnose what the problem is likely to be?

well two things, firstly its only £60 for a lockheed (oem) slave and master so just change them.

secondly I could only think that the pipe from the slave runs very close to the exhaust down pipe and if its getting super hot then it might boil off your fluid or at least any water trapped in it. although I am not sure if that would cause the current problem to last or have any relavence to puddles.

when mine went the peddle did fook all untill right at the bottom which wasnt enough to disengage the clutch. I would just change both master and slave to start with and all your old brown fluid

fett said:

well two things, firstly its only £60 for a lockheed (oem) slave and master so just change them.

secondly I could only think that the pipe from the slave runs very close to the exhaust down pipe and if its getting super hot then it might boil off your fluid or at least any water trapped in it. although I am not sure if that would cause the current problem to last or have any relavence to puddles.

when mine went the peddle did fook all untill right at the bottom which wasnt enough to disengage the clutch. I would just change both master and slave to start with and all your old brown fluid

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Thanks for the reply fett - what did yours turn out to be? Because your problem sounds the same as mine (i.e the clutch pedal does nothing until its right at the bottom, which isnt enough to disengage the clutch).

My fluid doesnt look to bad to be honest with you, but if i do replace the master and slave (or one or other) i will flush the fluid through and put new stuff in anyway. I heard the Master cylinder isnt the easiest of jobs?

I am going to suggest the release arm / fulcrum is worn/ broken. I had the same thing happen to my Classic. It maybe gearbox off time.

If the fluid is very old it may be that the water content is boiling from the heat, Had a similar problem on my MR2, flushed the system through, put new fluid in and bingo it works again.

I never knew as we changed both, for the sake of £60 it seemed worth it as I am keeping her long term.

stu did them whilst I was taking a dashborad out but it seemed the the master was the easiest as you didnt have to lie on the ground.

lcheater said:

Before I go about investigating the problem, using the advise I have mentioned from various people above, is there anyone who, with the symptoms I have described, can accurately diagnose what the problem is likely to be?

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To me, the analysis presented by others that you have air/water in the system sounds right. It doesnt sound lik a broken fork to me.

Fett is correct that for the cost, changing out the master and slave is worth doing but first off it is even cheaper to flush out the old fluid with new. This makes sure that you have no air or water in the system and you never know, may just cure the problem.

If not, it has only cost a couple of quid and 15 minutes of your time and you can move to parts replacement.

Cheers

Chris