Juddering!!

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wocka

Member
Posts
13
Location
stafford
Hi guys, i have a 2004 1.8 freelander ( coverted to 2wd) I havent had it long and it drives great. It had a new clutch around april time. When its cold it drives fine with no juddering but once its hot it judders slightly pulling off but the main problem is going into second when going down the gears, its very juddery and i put the clutch back in until ive slowed down more. Its getting very annoying now. I first thought engine mount but it doesn't do it all the time so cant be. Please help
 
Clutch bracket maybe, which can corrode causing trouble for the push rod as it gets rusty spray it with some WD40 but make sure the white clip is in tact, I could be wrong mind so hopefully someone else may have a idea
https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/gearbox-issue-or-the-new-clutch.280945/#post-3508715



2a6mex3.jpg
 
Thanks for the helpful comments, well one of then haha ;)

When i first had the freelander it used to knock when i let off the accelerator and i have now noticed its stopped but the juddering has appeared. This morning the knock was back and juddering was nearly gone, just slight juddering from pulling off but i mean slight. Also the slave cylinder etc all looks relatively new

So this knock is something to do with it, i have also noticed the thrust bearing is a tat noisy, i never noticed this before
 
Hi, I think your clutch plate is buggered mate, with possible broken or uneven spring pressure ( this last one from severe overheating at some stage) I think you need to need to consider a complete clutch change!!
 
After driving it over the last few days and feeling it and checking the it all over i had a feeling it would be clutch. I dont mind doing a clutch, ive been working on cars for the past 7 years and wont be the first clutch change ive done on my own but i dont know much about these freelanders so didnt want to start ripping bits apart for a possible easy fix.

Is there any clutch kit that's recommend? Or follow the basic rule of dont buy a cheap one
 
I put a LUK replacement clutch in mine
The kit included slave cylinder, friction disk and pressure plate

It's a bit of a job because of removing things to get the box off.
And the box is heavy - I recommend 2 people or some sort of engine hoist to take the weight
 
I will get my parts man on it

My last car was a integra dc5 and i did the clutch on that on my own and its a subrame off jobby, did it in a day, just used jacks to lower the subframe and box

It shouldnt be a problem on my own but i have plenty of mates who owe me favours if i did get stuck

Looks like i will have a busy weekend when i do it....

Clutch replacement
Discs and pads
Rear shoes
Coolant change
Service
Back to 4wd
 
Mine's the same. It's been happening since the clutch was replaced and presumably was due to contamination when the monkey fitted it. Fitting stiffer engine mounts reduces the extent of the juddering but you want to get it done before it takes out the hyrdomount and shearing the upper engine mount bolts like mine did. I fitted a polybush on the lower tie rod and shimmed the upper mount to stiffen it up a tad. The suggestion from another mechanic was to drop it into third and leave the clutch slipping and on the point of stalling for a few minutes to try and burn off the contaminants. Best case scenario is it works and helps you out for a little while, worst case is you've already caused uneven wear and a new clutch is definitely needed.
 
hydramount-jpg.5183


Thats the hydromount for the 1.8 series. On the drivers side of the engine theres a big metal engine mount arm. The arm rests on the hydromount (rubber mount filled with fluid) and if split it will make the juddering really bad!
 
Yeah you'll know if it's split. You get a little ledge and it's sloppy and it moves all over the place. With the other engine mounts as a quick temporary fix you can whip them off and take the rubber balls out and wrap some old credit cards or something similar around the ball before squashing it back in. Makes driving around slightly more bearable haha.
 
Do you have any pics of that? Would love to see what you mean

I plan to get the rest of the stuff i need and do the clutch in the next 2-3 weeks so should be ok.
 
Have you decided which one you're keeping yet? Shimmed my top mount like you suggested as well, 2mm aluminium insert has tightened it up pretty well ready until i can get an upper polybush. Got my rear door lock in as well, it was considerably easier than the front one!

That's my top mount. If you take the black metal mount off completely, you simply push the rubber ball out of the big hole in the mount. I wrapped my ball in 2mm aluminium but a plastic credit card will do the same job really. You can see the aluminium sticking out of the mount slightly where my finger is pointing.
 
I've had the same problem with my Freelander 1.8 since I bought it and I believe a large part of your problem is running the car in 2WD. I had to take the propshaft off a couple of days after buying it as the VCU was locked solid, and it was horrible to drive until I got the propshaft back on again. Refitting it didn't cure the problem but made it a lot less of an issue. With the propshaft fitted everything felt much tighter with much less wobble when starting off.
I think my car had been used to tow a caravan before I got it as it has two power connectors on the tow bar. The clutch may have been replaced in the past by some cowboy who bought the cheapest one available, and probably didn't get the flywheel skimmed.
Or it may just have been over heated and warped by too much clutch slipping while towing.
Either way it is like yours and gets worse after an hour or so of driving.

Edit.
My car had around 105,000 miles on it so like Krisboats I thought the tie rods bushes may be causing the problem and replaced them with poly bushes. I now get quite a bad vibration from the engione at 4000-5000 rpm and it made no difference to the original problem, so if you do plan to change them keep the originals as you may wish to refit them.
 
Last edited:
Soooo ive found the issue! The mechanic who did the clutch is to blame! Poor workmanship



2 missing bolts, the nut and bolt in the picture was barely done up. Also the arb bolts were finger tight and in by a few threads. 3 bolts missing from the undertray. Going to give it a thorough going over i think
 
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