discovery 2 td5 clutch failure

Alright guys, really need some help.

As some know I'm in the army as an aircraft engineer. I'm currently on tour in Afghanistan until June and my wife back home has just let me know that the clutch has gone on the Discovery :doh:

She said it went suddenly on friday when driving from Ipswich, Suffolk to Dorking, Surrey when pulling away from the toll booths at the Dartford Bridge (of all the places to get stuck!! ).

After some 3,500 mile fault diagnosis over the phone I came to the conclusion that the clutch itself is fine as it can be started in gear and driven around by my brother by rev matching.

In my opinion the fault therefore lies in actuation of the release bearing.

On inspection yesterday the bottom of the master cylinder was wet with fluid so my brother replaced it but it did not fix the fault.

Today a local mechanic (partner of one of my wifes friends) has had a look and says he thinks it feels like the push rod on the slave has broke through the clutch fork much like THIS THREAD and that its gearbox off to fix.

His diagnosis fits with the symptoms, but from what I have read/seen the Disco 2 has a much stronger solid fork as apposed to the folded plate one on the TDi engined Land Rovers and should be less likely to fail in the same way. I'm unsure whether he knows what he's talking about or whether he's jumping to conclusions based on past experiences with the weaker fork.

This is SO frustrating as I always do all work myself on our cars. I hate giving any money to garages for work I can easily do myself; especially splashing out on the removal of a gearbox. It seems on this occasion with me being away I have no choice .

Questions:

1. Has anyone seen the D2 fork fail the same way as the D1 item does?
2. If the slave cylinder is removed. Is the hole in the bell housing large enough to ascertain serviceability of the fork before removing the box?
3. Any other ideas?

The clutch fork is pretty hefty, there is a nylon thrust pad that could be collapsed, but I'd be more inclined to look at hydraulics, check brake fluid reservoir as that feeds the clutch cylinder.







That's from my D2 V8, but I believe that the parts are the same.

You cannot see anything from outside, unless you remove the slave cylinder and use a borescope.

Peter

listerdiesel said:

.... I'd be more inclined to look at hydraulics....

Click to expand...

That's what I said to her but she is more inclined to trust the mechanic than me as he has seen the car in the metal.

Before changing the master cylinder the fluid level in the res was half way between min/max which should be ok although I know it was at max before I left as I checked everything over on the car. We assumed the drop was associated with the wetting on the bottom of the master cylinder.

It's more likely hydraulics, and for the £13 for a cylinder plus a bit of bleeding, it's the cheapest initial thing to do, plus the pushrod can be checked at the same time.

Here are some part numbers:

Clutch release fork 576137
Pushrod FTC5199
Slave Cylinder FTC5202
Nylon Thrust Pad 571161
Release bearing FTC5200
Front guide assy (R380) FTC4720

Microcat lists all those parts as being the same for the V8 as the TD5.

Peter

Could be the pushrod, mine wore out and pushed through the fork. Managed to remove it through the slave hole and guided a new one into place after pushing it into the slave cylinder first. The guide which was on the fork is long gone in the internals !!!