What's lurking In Your Clutch Hydraulics (and other photos)

Yesterday, I spent a very hot couple of hours replacing the clutch hydraulics on my 2000 1.8 Freelander.

I know that conventional wisdom states that you really only need to do this when the pedal goes flat on the floor, but the rubbery feel at my clutch pedal made me think that it had to be worth changing the hydraulics out.

From the off, the pedal felt better and there is now a noticeable disengagement point, which I did not have before.

Having an enquiring mind, I thought it would be interesting to strip the old hydraulic set and see what state the seals were in. I must admit that what I found quite surprised me.

Whilst the seals looked pretty sound, the fluid had large bits of white.....gunk (sorry, the only way I can describe it) floating around.

This particluar 'clot' came out of the connecting pipe......




It was also all over the leading edge of the slave cylinder piston........



And a large deposit trapped between the seals (in the spring) of the master cylinder...........



Not sure what this is, but I'm guessing that it would do nothing for the hydraulic qualities of the fluid.

Didn't get around to fitting my clutch this weekend, but have made myself a tool that should help when I do.

I took an old brake disc (Volvo S40 IIRC) and cut a section out of the centre. Dressed the edges with a grinder and welded it to a length of square bar. Hey presto.......a driveshaft removal tool.........



The hole in the centre of this old disc was pretty much spot on to fit around the cups on the end of the driveshafts. Can't wait to try it.

Just changed master cylinder over at the weekend because clutch engaged on the floor.
Took the old AP one apart and found just the same but mixed with black deposits of rubber etc it was grey. I believe it is a 'plastic grease' used at manufacturing assembly. Some of the gunge had found it's way on to the supply seal at the end so was not shutting off as quickly as it should. (which 'uses up' more of the available 23mm stroke of the cylinder, before the clutch disengages).

There seems to be an inherent problem with this clutch design. The smallest amount of pedal bearing movement and overall slop, the clutch then engages low down.
If there was a master cylinder with say a 19mm bore instead of the standard 18mm then it would solve all these low floor engagement issues. There would be more available fluid to disengage the clutch with less pedal travel etc.

Anyway new 18mm bore cylinder has given it some more life for now.

Does anybody know if the clutch pedal box (3 or 4 nuts?) can be removed with-out taking the dash-board out?

Vulcan426 said:

Yesterday, I spent a very hot couple of hours replacing the clutch hydraulics on my 2000 1.8 Freelander.

I know that conventional wisdom states that you really only need to do this when the pedal goes flat on the floor, but the rubbery feel at my clutch pedal made me think that it had to be worth changing the hydraulics out.

From the off, the pedal felt better and there is now a noticeable disengagement point, which I did not have before.

Having an enquiring mind, I thought it would be interesting to strip the old hydraulic set and see what state the seals were in. I must admit that what I found quite surprised me.

Whilst the seals looked pretty sound, the fluid had large bits of white.....gunk (sorry, the only way I can describe it) floating around.

This particluar 'clot' came out of the connecting pipe......

View attachment 16836


It was also all over the leading edge of the slave cylinder piston........

View attachment 16839

And a large deposit trapped between the seals (in the spring) of the master cylinder...........

View attachment 16837

Not sure what this is, but I'm guessing that it would do nothing for the hydraulic qualities of the fluid.

Didn't get around to fitting my clutch this weekend, but have made myself a tool that should help when I do.

I took an old brake disc (Volvo S40 IIRC) and cut a section out of the centre. Dressed the edges with a grinder and welded it to a length of square bar. Hey presto.......a driveshaft removal tool.........

View attachment 16838

The hole in the centre of this old disc was pretty much spot on to fit around the cups on the end of the driveshafts. Can't wait to try it.

Click to expand...

i think that will break

gilbertian said:

Just changed master cylinder over at the weekend because clutch engaged on the floor.
Took the old AP one apart and found just the same but mixed with black deposits of rubber etc it was grey. I believe it is a 'plastic grease' used at manufacturing assembly. Some of the gunge had found it's way on to the supply seal at the end so was not shutting off as quickly as it should. (which 'uses up' more of the available 23mm stroke of the cylinder, before the clutch disengages).

There seems to be an inherent problem with this clutch design. The smallest amount of pedal bearing movement and overall slop, the clutch then engages low down.
If there was a master cylinder with say a 19mm bore instead of the standard 18mm then it would solve all these low floor engagement issues. There would be more available fluid to disengage the clutch with less pedal travel etc.

Anyway new 18mm bore cylinder has given it some more life for now.

Does anybody know if the clutch pedal box (3 or 4 nuts?) can be removed with-out taking the dash-board out?

Click to expand...

clutch would be harder to push down if you increase size of bore

gilbertian said:

....Does anybody know if the clutch pedal box (3 or 4 nuts?) can be removed with-out taking the dash-board out?

Click to expand...

Yes, I believe it can be removed. Fiddly but possible. 3x 13mm nuts.