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200TDi clutch making horrible noise


catsinthewelder

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The Discovery 200TDi I bought last month is making a horrible squeeling noise when you press the clutch pedal with the engine running and is harder than normal to change gear, it also flashed up idiot lights for hot transfer box when driven down the bypass.

I initially thought that it would be the clutch hydraulics that had caused the previous owner some issues but the Haynes Book of Lies says

Worn clutch release bearings or

worn or dry clutch pedal bushes or

faulty pressure plate assembly or

pressure plate diaphragm spring broken or

Broken clutch disc cushioning springs

A friend on an old car forum has added that it could be the clutch fork failing.

As all of these things are inside the clutch and getting there involves removing the engine or gearbox does the team think that it will survive a weeks worth of 4 mile each way school runs?

I've got a weeks holiday the week after next so could possibly do the work then. Alternatively I could spend that week getting our other car (an Austin 1100) roadworthy so we can put that into daily use and fix the Disco on the drive rather than the street.

What I could do with knowing is whether or not I'm going to do any damage by continuing to use it. If so the kids might get an extra weeks holiday as I'm not going to use taxis for the school run and it's not really doable by public transport.

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Sounds like the bearing failing. It may last another week, it may not though, and when it does go, you will not be able to engage gears with the engine running, only way to drive it then would be clutchless gearchanges - not easy if you've never done it. Safest option would be to change it unfortunately.

It can be done on the side of the road, but not easily. There is a guide in the tech library which details how to do the job. I changed mine and the entire gearbox over a weekend, could probably do it quicker now though.

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Thanks Al, I've just had a look in the tech library.

The Haynes book reckons it's easier to pull the engine rather than the gearbox to do the clutch but everyone on here seems to drop the box or even just seperate it which sounds great to me as I really didn't fancy pulling the engine out. I have removed an engine before but it was an aircooled VW effort from a campervan and probably more comparable in weight and technique to pulling the box on a Disco.

I've got a 3T trolley jack and some stands and will be able to use ramps a wheeled trolley, a few smaller jacks and a carpark if it can wait a week (I work at a college) I don't fancy attempting it on the road outside my house as it's a fairly steep hill and won't exactly endear me with the neighbours.

Advice seems to be to use an old input shaft to align the clutch, there isn't a chance that anybody has such a thing lying round is there? Happy to provide a deposit and pay postage but don't really want to buy one just to do this. There seems to be a Discovery breakers fairly locally so I can always try there.

I'm in a bit of a quandry over the gearbox too. Mine has lost syncro on 2nd and the springs that centre it in neutral are broken so it centres between 1st and 2nd. I can't afford £500+ for a rebuilt box but have seen them 2nd hand and supposedly good for £100. I wasn't planning to replace it any time soon but if I'm disconnecting it anyway it would certainly make sense. Is there any way of knowing how good the box is? Any stories about the Breakers in Craven Arms or Wolverhampton?

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Think the one in Craven Arms are pretty good. Ideally you would need to try the box first before taking the words of an eBay seller, that way you can make sure it works properly.

The self centering is a spring which you can change from the centre console.

Remove the gear stick gaitor, and you will see a rectangular cover at the base. This houses the spring, undo the 4 screws and you should see it underneath - cheap to replace as well. Be warned though, new ones bite. How bad is the synchro? It is a common problem on earlier R380's, and was cured later on. My 98 with 160k on the clock never crunches on me.

I do have a gearbox here out of my old one, that crunched in 2nd if rushed, and occasionally at random, but was liveable with on a day to day basis. Was just a case of changing slowly from 1st to 2nd - £80 and it's yours, and if i can find it, i have a fork i can reinforce for you at the same time.

To align mine, i used an 18mm (i think) socket on an extension bar, worked perfectly :)

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Thanks for the offer but thinking about it properly the gearbox I've got isn't too bad, a bit like your spare box you have to be a bit careful changing from 1st to 2nd and very careful changing from 3rd to 2nd. I've talked it over with SWMBO and it's staying as it doesn't bother her.

Thanks for the advice on the spring though, I'll try and get one in time for the weekends spannering.

Clutch kit is ordered, welder on standby to reinforce the fork, boss is letting me use the carpark at work so plenty of room to work.

What could possibly go wrong?

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Well I've taken her apart and the release bearing was a right mess, the plastic had melted and spat out all around the bellhousing. I pulled the release fork out to weld a stiffener on but the bearing had worn slots in the front so that's scrap. I took the clutch off and found it to be fairly worn so scrapped that too, behind it the spigot bearing was loose, cracked and mis-shapen so that's on the shopping list.

The bellhousing itself was an oily mess inside so I decided to change the crankshaft oil seal while I can, I pulled off the flywheel then had cause to speak to the previous owner who reminded me that the clutch slave had been leaking. Might as well change the thing just in case though, there was certainly oil on the back of the flywheel.

It's geting a bit more expensive and time consuming than I expected as I need to change a tranfer box oil seal and the back of the exhaust too. The handbrake was being a right pain last week so that might need a new cable too as I can't find anything wrong inside.

Glad I've got a weeks holiday from work, just a pain that I'm stuck in the carpark.

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A big box came from Rimmer brothers yesterday and I set to fitting all my shiney new bits. I'm using white90's method of pushing the box back 7 inches and working through the gap which is tricky but possible. Two things which arn't possible with this method are using a generic clutch alignment tool and drifting a crankshaft oil seal on with a tube like you're supposed to.

After lowering the tone at our local Land Rover dealership this morning I came away with a replacement oil seal and a determination not to wreck this one.

I pressed it on with the flywheel mounting plate, 4 of the flywheel mounting bolts and 4 brass nuts from 15mm compression joints.

post-4555-0-77410000-1397676019.jpg

The flywheel, clutch and it's operating bits went on without a hitch and the gearbox is back on and working now after a four hour battle that was won with a big crowbar to the handbrake drum. Just need to get the gearbox mounting, propshafts and exhaust back on and I can drive it back home to sort out the interior.

Wasn't that a fun way to spend a weeks annual leave.

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