Discovery 300Tdi Clutch Issues

Hi All
Got a Disco 300 TDi with R380. The wife drove home and said that she was having to lift the clutch pedal up with her toe!

As expected the reservoir was empty.

Whilst unsuccesfully trying to bleed the clutch I noticed a strange behaviour from the pedal. If you half depress the pedal then the return spring pushes it back up. If you push past the centre point of the fulcrum then the pedal drops to the floor and stays there! Is this a normal action if the system is not pressurising? (it sort of helps with one man bleeding)

At the moment all attempts to bleed with the eazybleed have failed leaving no noticeable pressure whatsoever.

I have just ordered a new slave from Dingo so hopefully that will arrive in time for the weekend.

Check the bellhousing wading plug hole to see if fluid is present, might be the slave leaking ...
Be very careful about removing the slave - if it's tight on the operating rod, then there's a chance you will pull the rod out of it's clip inside the bellhousing...

we did that whem we swapped my mates LT77 in his 200tdi RRC lol
I expect it is the slave, ergo a new one on order.
I can pump fluid through but getting no pressure.
Do you know if the above pedal action is as expected?

KillaJoules said:

we did that whem we swapped my mates LT77 in his 200tdi RRC lol
I expect it is the slave, ergo a new one on order.
I can pump fluid through but getting no pressure.
Do you know if the above pedal action is as expected?

Click to expand...

Symptoms of slave cylinder seal failure is a soft pedal, which will gradually get lower - the clutch will bite as soon as you start to take your foot off the pedal, and as things get worse, the clutch will become inoperable...

Unfortunatley its the wifes motor, so of course you never get intelligible feedback . Last time I drove it it did feel like there was some occasional clutch drag changing gear, but not very noticeable.

Theres about 110k on the clock and I assume its the same clutch as its been in the family for the last 7 years, first my brothers then swambo when he left for the US. But I dont think its the arm.

Never knew they had dampers in the system, not sure what they do, can they make bleeding awkward?

KillaJoules said:

Unfortunatley its the wifes motor, so of course you never get intelligible feedback . Last time I drove it it did feel like there was some occasional clutch drag changing gear, but not very noticeable.

Theres about 110k on the clock and I assume its the same clutch as its been in the family for the last 7 years, first my brothers then swambo when he left for the US. But I dont think its the arm.

Never knew they had dampers in the system, not sure what they do, can they make bleeding awkward?

Click to expand...

It shouldn't make bleeding a problem, it just makes the clutch action smoother ...
Undo the bleed nipple one turn and attach a bleed pot to it. Top up the reservoir if necessary... During bleeding, the clutch pedal will stay down when it's pressed - no back pressure means the pedal cranks over and will not return....
Press the pedal down and then pull it back up with your hand or foot until clear, air-free fluid is coming out of the bleed pipe... Tighten the bleed nipple and test the clutch, you should be able to feel that it's now working ok ...

Turns out it was the Master cylinder. So I hopefully have one arriving tomorrow.
I have in the interim installed the new slave, so hopefully will get the beastie rolling tomorrow.

Yep that's definitely ill.

Just a follow up, once I fitted the master, I noticed I had the slave upside down so had to crawl underneath and swap that around (bleed nipple uppermost)

It turned out bleeding was quite easy with the easybleed. Due to the nature of the pipework I think there was some trapped air for a while, but after driving around for a couple of days that has risen back out of the system.

So all's well, just found a few minor holes that need welding up before the MOT.