Clutch slips........and then it doesn't!

Hi All.
I'm still here just don't post so often. I have a P38 with a 300Tdi in it. The clutch slave is 300Tdi the master is P38. The clutch slips in 4th if I try and accelerate from 30mph. It also lets go in 3rd occasionally. And then.......... it doesn't. No matter what I do I can't make it slip! Seems to be best when it's up to temperature.

Only time I have come across a similar thing it was a "foreign body" that kept getting caught between the clutch plate and the flywheel. But it was on an old Jap car belonging to a colleague.
But her case was different. She simply could not take up drive at all, and then she could. I suggested she take it to a garage, that it was a "foreign body" and I suspected a rivet.
The mech apparently said, "No chance" but it was a "foreign body" and it was a rivet.
But I think this is likely to be extremely rare.

In your case I would expect to find a leak from the rear crankshaft/flywheel seal which is allowing contamination of the clutch which eventually gets burnt off.

Best of luck with it.

Boxer said:

Hi All.
I'm still here just don't post so often. I have a P38 with a 300Tdi in it. The clutch slave is 300Tdi the master is P38. The clutch slips in 4th if I try and accelerate from 30mph. It also lets go in 3rd occasionally. And then.......... it doesn't. No matter what I do I can't make it slip! Seems to be best when it's up to temperature.

Click to expand...

Sounds like a lack of free play in the system somewhere.

Or piston in master cylinder not always returning properly

was thinking free play but I've put a spacer between bellhousing and slave to no avail so now thinking some sort of hydraulic blockage on the return. going to try cheap fixes first, like a flush and rebleed, then new pipe, slave and master.
Thanks all.

Can you see/feel the release bearing?

Boxer said:

Hi All.
I'm still here just don't post so often. I have a P38 with a 300Tdi in it. The clutch slave is 300Tdi the master is P38. The clutch slips in 4th if I try and accelerate from 30mph. It also lets go in 3rd occasionally. And then.......... it doesn't. No matter what I do I can't make it slip! Seems to be best when it's up to temperature.

Click to expand...

Try going uphill in as high a gear as poss then give it some welly. If it doesn't slip then it ain't the clutchplate slipping.
Unless it sometimes does it and then sometimes doesn't, in which case it could be a number of things, like not releasing properly at the release bearing, maybe stuck on the splines, or the lever has somehow come adrift. Or, as I said before, some liquid reaching the clutchplate which then disappears.



Daren't mention foreign objects again!