Clutch Issues

[Mike the Bike]

Hi

Would be grateful of any tips going on the clutch issues i'm experiencing.

Purchased a new slave cylinder & clutch kit from Island 4x4, paid £68 and £99 respectivley and believe they were genuine/ OEM units and supplied to Freelander Specialists in Suffolk.

On getting back the car the clutch bite has moved much lower but was initially acceptable and gear change smooth.

Gear selection has become more dificult in the last 2 weeks since the change over and my wife has complained she got stuck on more that one occasion not being able to select first gear.

I bled the clutch/system, using the following procedure taking care not to allow the reservoir to get below a third full, topping up with DOT 4 fluid when necessary.

I had my son depress the pedal to the floor, I'd release the pressure via the bleed nipple and retighten it,

he would lift the pedal fully back up to the normal position by hooking his toe underneath.

We did this a dozen times, until we'd pushed 250 ml thru the system. The situation now has not improved in fact its a lot worse.

When the engine is off I can change gears without issue and the pedal feels firm from the top. When the engine is running the first inch of pedal travel shows no resistance at all and when fully depressed, gears are near impossible to select. When starting the engine with gear pre-selected she creeps forward unless I'm more or less standing on the clutch pedel.

Am about to go outside and bleed it with the engine running to see if we get more clearance this way.

If I'm unsuccessful has anyone cured anything like this by replacing the master cylinder? The current master is 18 mths old after the original failed spring last year.

Sorry its so long, just wanted to provide enough detail to avoid simple responses.

Thanks

[fozsug]

Hi

Would be grateful of any tips going on the clutch issues i'm experiencing.

Purchased a new slave cylinder & clutch kit from Island 4x4, paid £68 and £99 respectivley and believe they were genuine/ OEM units and supplied to Freelander Specialists in Suffolk.

On getting back the car the clutch bite has moved much lower but was initially acceptable and gear change smooth.

Gear selection has become more dificult in the last 2 weeks since the change over and my wife has complained she got stuck on more that one occasion not being able to select first gear.

I bled the clutch/system, using the following procedure taking care not to allow the reservoir to get below a third full, topping up with DOT 4 fluid when necessary.

I had my son depress the pedal to the floor, I'd release the pressure via the bleed nipple and retighten it,

he would lift the pedal fully back up to the normal position by hooking his toe underneath.

We did this a dozen times, until we'd pushed 250 ml thru the system. The situation now has not improved in fact its a lot worse.

When the engine is off I can change gears without issue and the pedal feels firm from the top. When the engine is running the first inch of pedal travel shows no resistance at all and when fully depressed, gears are near impossible to select. When starting the engine with gear pre-selected she creeps forward unless I'm more or less standing on the clutch pedel.

Am about to go outside and bleed it with the engine running to see if we get more clearance this way.

If I'm unsuccessful has anyone cured anything like this by replacing the master cylinder? The current master is 18 mths old after the original failed spring last year.

Sorry its so long, just wanted to provide enough detail to avoid simple responses.

Thanks

Get an Easy Bleed from Halfords or such like, sounds like air in the system.

[Bowie69]

Was it a genuine master cylinder or pattern? 

If pattern I'd be suspicious of it (particularly if it arrived in a blue box), but try the cheap route(above) first!

[rustymark]

Hi

I know this sounds stupid but you were topping up the clutch hydraulic res thats on the bulkhead and not the brake fluid res as described in the haynes manual which is wrong on this.

if you didn't then you have maybe pulled more air into the clutch system. the td4 is a pain in the proverbial to bleed. i found after changing my clutch you bleed, bleed and bleed again. eventually you get there and the bite should move to mid pedal position. a bite at the bottom as you describe is airlocked.

either that or the slave cylinder is leaking inside the bell housing.

sorry if i'm suggesting the obvoius but its always worth a check....

[Mike the Bike]

Thanks chaps for the helpful comments.

I'll continue with the bleeding operation tomorrow, felt too ill to resume today.

Need to shake off a cold before attempting 2nd phase.

Is there a consensus that the proceedure is sound but just put more fluid thru the system, or is it faster to fit an easy bleed one-way valve and simplify the procedure and leave the bleed nipple open on the pedal unstroke too? Thought this might increase the risk of air entering the system.

Cheers

[Mike the Bike]

Here's an update.

How much bleeding should one reasonably expect to do?

Have now put 450ml thru the clutch hydraulic circuit via the reservoir on the master cylinder using an easy bleed one way valve and she's showing a marginally higher biting point, very marginal though and still not "normal" gear selection possible. This time I flushed it thru faster not bothering to close the bleed nipple on the upstroke of the pedal.

The pedal is still firm with engine off and "floppy" for the first 25% of the throw with engine on. This bit I can't understand, the clutch isn't engine/ vacuum assisted so why should a completely isolated passive system behave differently depending on the engine being on/off.

Have just seen in RAVE manual that a serviceable clutch plate has 7.5 mm of friction material. If a plate had more, say 8 mm as I believe the one I bought had, perhaps the throw of the slave cylinder is too short to disengage the drive ewquired to provide sufficient clearance to enable smooth gear selection?

Any thoughts/ comment welcome.

Mike

[jaysjetski]

^^^^^ just to check you are bleeding it correctly?

bleed closed,pedal up. open bleed press pedal and hold down to floor, close bleed then pedal up. then repeat. unless its different than bleeding brakes.

this does not sound right....

I had my son depress the pedal to the floor, I'd release the pressure via the bleed nipple and retighten it,

he would lift the pedal fully back up to the normal position by hooking his toe underneath.

or this.......

This time I flushed it thru faster not bothering to close the bleed nipple on the upstroke of the pedal.