clutch problems

the clutch on my 200tdi disco has been playing up recently, its very difficult to get into gear, is there any way to check the master and slave cylinders without removing them, and is there anything else i can check myself before i have to take it to the garage to have the gearbox taken out

new slave an master are only about £40 so change them first, it's not a hard job just a little fiddly, but if after that an it's still no beter it could be the clutch is fooked.

then your in for some fun!

If bleeding has not helped then remove the slave cylinder carefully from the bell housing, do this by leaving the fluid pipes connected.

Be VERY careful the spring inside does not eject the piston and the rest of the fluid. The plan here is once the slave cylinder is removed and whilst holding the dust cover on which stops piston from flying out, tip the slave cylinder downwards i.e. pushrod hole towards the floor.

If there is any fluid in there then change the slave cylinder, the slave is the first to go before the master (normaly), this is due to the fluid absorbing water which works it's way down the the slave and starts to corrode the bore.

No fluid then try a master cylinder, you may also have a 'damper' in the line between the master/slave, these can also cause problems, in fact it is not uncommon for some people to remove them altogether.

If this fails then the next is gearbox out and look at the clutch fork and of course you would replace the clutch as well right?

regards

Dave

the clutch was replaced about 12,000 miles ago, so should be ok ( i know its not unheard of for them to fail so soon ) which is why i thought of the cylinders, where do i find this damper? if its fitted,

The damper is found in the fluid line just above the slave cylinder, it is a round metal container with two pipes in it, they are at a guess about £10.00 or less.

regards

Dave

thanks guys, i ordered the master and slave cylinders today, so i'll do the work over the weekend and let you know how it goes

nickh75 said:

new slave an master are only about £40 so change them first, it's not a hard job just a little fiddly, but if after that an it's still no beter it could be the clutch is fooked.

then your in for some fun!

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A little fiddly he says, a little bloody fiddly, i wasted an hour and a half of my life trying to get that stupid little bit of plastic clipped back into the clutch fork ( on the end of the push rod ) then it broke so i gave it up as a bad job, had to go out , so while out i called into a land rover stealership and picked up 2 of the stupid little bits of plastic ( seeing as i'd already broken one, i thought it would do no harm to have a spare ) they cost 99 pence each, i asked one of the "technicians" if he had any tips on refitting these stupid little bits of plastic, " its easier to take out the gearbox " was the reply, i got drunk that night........
the next morning i had another go , and it took me another half hour, but i got it in and i still have the spare stupid little bit of plastic to remind me next time i have a problem with the car to pay some other ****er to fix it for me, and get drunk instead

disco dan said:

A little fiddly he says, a little bloody fiddly, i wasted an hour and a half of my life trying to get that stupid little bit of plastic clipped back into the clutch fork ( on the end of the push rod ) then it broke so i gave it up as a bad job, had to go out , so while out i called into a land rover stealership and picked up 2 of the stupid little bits of plastic ( seeing as i'd already broken one, i thought it would do no harm to have a spare ) they cost 99 pence each, i asked one of the "technicians" if he had any tips on refitting these stupid little bits of plastic, " its easier to take out the gearbox " was the reply, i got drunk that night........
the next morning i had another go , and it took me another half hour, but i got it in and i still have the spare stupid little bit of plastic to remind me next time i have a problem with the car to pay some other ****er to fix it for me, and get drunk instead

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Hi Disco Dan, was this to do with fitting a clutch slave cylinder? I only ask as I'm about to do one in the hope it will sort out the clutch problem on Dora.

Where is this plastic bit, in relation to the slave cylinder?

Also, did it cure your clutch problem??

Cheers
Dave

the stupid little bit of plastic in question is on the end of the push rod that the piston of the slave cylinder pushes the clutch fork with, inside the bellhousing, when you take the slave cylinder off, if the push rod stays in the opening in the bellhousing its this little bit of plastic thats holding it in place, i'm guessing its there to prevent the pushrod sliding off the end of the fork if it jumps out of the little cup shaped indent that the rod sits in, if that isn't its purpose i'd like to know what it is for, the way i got it in place eventually after trying many different methods, mirrors etc. was to use a little bit of blue tack to stop the plastic clip sliding back down the rod and then getting one of the lugs in place then fiddling the other in, one tiny step at a time, all the while coming back to the front of the car and looking through a gap with a torch to check it was going in the right place, not easy, but easier than removing the gearbox. If you haven't seen this plastic clip none of this will make the slightest bit of sense, but if you have tried to do this job i'm sure you will agree how fiddly it is, it may be easier with the car on a lift but laying on your back trying to hold a mirror and a torch and then not still can't see where your finger tips are, just glad its over now

Hello guys, I've been following this thread as I experienced a dead clutch yesterday. The pedel was solid as a rock, losened from the master cylinder and it slackened off. The AA bloke had a peek and reckoned that it was either the slave cylinder or clutch fork and advised me to check to see if there was slight movement with the push rod, if there was no play time to remove gearbox! I removed the slave and looked inside, the seals just flaked away so that's a good place to start. The worrying thing is that when I prodded inside the cylinder I couldn't feel a push rod at all. Kinda worrying !! I changed the clutch about a year ago (8000 miles I reckon) so I don't reckon I need to do that again but looks like a new clutch fork :-(...any idea what happened to the push rod though?

Cheers guys

Al

fella31 said:

..... I changed the clutch about a year ago (8000 miles I reckon) so I don't reckon I need to do that again but looks like a new clutch fork :-(...any idea what happened to the push rod though?

Cheers guys

Al

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you did fit a strengthened fork didn't you ?

Err, umm, no I didn't. I didn't change it at all and now it seems that it's coming back to haunt me. I should get away with just changing the clutch fork ( yes, a reinforced one) as I said earlier the clutch has just 8000 miles on it. Any idea where the push rod might have gone? Guess I'll put one of them on my shopping list as well.

when i removed the slave cylinder the push rod stayed attached to the clutch fork, with the dust seal from the cylinder still on the rod

disco dan said:

when i removed the slave cylinder the push rod stayed attached to the clutch fork, with the dust seal from the cylinder still on the rod

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That is soooooo good and correct!

regards

Dave

disco dan said:

when i removed the slave cylinder the push rod stayed attached to the clutch fork, with the dust seal from the cylinder still on the rod

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i only pulled it off the clutch fork to give it a clean up as it was covered in fluid and clutchdust, and to get the old dust seal off it, wish i'd left it dirty as the amount of time it took to get it back in was a waste of a weekend off