Disco 3 (LR3) 2006 Clutch/ DMF replacement ( Manual )

Afternoon all

Hope all is well

Just going to document what has been happening recently with my D3 manual for future reference

3 - 5 months back I started to get a rumble whilst depressing the clutch on the vehicle, I knew as soon as I heard this that something was going to require replacement clutch related bare in mind my engine was now in the mid to late 90k miles. Around 6 weeks back the amber light appeared as well as a reverse sensor issue on the dreaded hand brake screech, I had the EPB serviced and all was well for a short while until I noticed the rev counter shooting up under power in 6th gear on the motorway. I am a Sunday driver and will stick to the speed limits but accelerating on my M6/M62 commutes I noticed more that when the cruise control was on at 70mph if going up a slight incline the revs would shoot up under power then settle the amber light would appear following this.

I researched this here and on the D3 forum and found the XYZ calibration which I carried out dozens of times until the clutch finally failed on the 5th June. The slipping gradually became worse until I was on the M61 returning from the lakes and I started to lose power then the clutch pedal dropped to the floor. Leading up to this I had my AUTEL plugged in and no faults were registering from the related module.

After pulling onto the hard shoulder the D3 clutch pedal returned to normal but now I had reduced drive and no clutch control what so ever I managed to get off the motorway and into near Chorley after manually changing gear without the use of the clutch, it was quite a task for me to do this.

After being recovered and getting home the gearbox had spilled no liquid and was still registering no codes on the AUTEL. There was quite a racket coming from the gearbox area underneath but I still had slight drive in 1st gear on my driveway, when the D3 was recovered yesterday it drove under its own power in 1st onto the back of trailer all be it very slow, the drive told me the DMF was fubar down to the noise coming from it.

When it finally arrived at the LOF approved centre yesterday I had received a phone call to say even though it hadn't even been touched prepare for the fact that worse case scenario I may require a replacement gear box due to the clutch pedal was still in use but there was very reduced drive. After frantically looking around the web last night everything was pointing in the fact that these gear boxes are very strong/ reliable and it would be clutch and DMF related. I was asked had it been towing and had it been used off road, both answers are no I was then told a D3 gearbox had suffered total failure under the two conditions and my situation was very similar.

Today I have received lots of videos and pics from the garage and they have stated my transfer case is in excellent condition! It should be as its travelled around 60m off road on a green lane in wales ha. My DMF is totally wrecked as is the clutch, I suspect they are original to the car and have travelled 101k now, thankfully the gear box has been inspected and is in brilliant condition also. A LOF clutch/ plate, LUK DMF and a LOF release bearing have been fitted

I hope the above goes in some way to assist whoever has any future issues

100k for a D3 clutch is amazing, as 25k isn't uncommon for them. I'm surprised if the DMF was actually outside specification, as they're pretty long lived from what I've seen.

The warning lights and errors are due to a road speed to engine speed mismatch, for the gear selected, but that is down to the slip in the plate. The system is designed to ignore a degree of clutch slip, just in case the driver is riding the clutch, but if the ECMs decide there's excessive slip, a code event is logged.

Glad everything else is OK though.

Cheers Nodge, not far off ok

Rear prop support bearing is on its last legs now will need replacing next few months and I have a slight steering rack leak ffs ha ha