Hello, hope someone can give me some advice about my defender 90 dti (L). A couple of months ago the gear stick got very sticky and after some advice i put some clutch fluid in the egg cup thingy... and all was well. I used it on Friday with no problems then Saturday morning i discovered that the clutch pedal had very little movement on it and i could hardly get any gears at all, i refilled the thingy and things are better but the clutch pedal still dosen't travel as far. As you will have guessed by now i am no mechanic, so my question is what if anything can be done 'to get me by' and could this be a 'big' problem thats going to cost heaps.
thanks
Hello old girl, I understand how you feel. I chased a clutch problem for a few weeks and even had a 'Specialist' look at it. He fitted a new clutch plate! The problem was a 'snatching' clutch, but the true cause, which I found myself, was simple and I think will cure yours.
First, the clutch pedal pushes a piston in the 'Master', which is where you put the fluid, driving the fluid down a pipe to a little thing called a 'Slave', which pushes the clutch. Rubber rings around the pistons in both master and slave stop all that fluid from leaking out but they do tend to age and refuse to do the job properly. The fluid gets past them and escapes so you must then top it up. But air gets into the system and that does not let the Master drive the Slave properly, so gives a short and weak 'pedal' as you describe.
It is possible to change the rubber seals, fill with fresh fluid and 'bleed' the air out of the system but, to be honest, for the cost of new 'Master' and 'Slave' you are better off having them changed as, if any water has got inside them, which it probably has, then they will be so corroded that any new seals will be damaged within a few miles. The 'Slave' is most likely corroded as it sits so low down that off-roaders driving through deep water regularly flood it.
My own snatching clutch (common fault on Defenders for a number of reasons) was due to the piston seal in the 'Slave' catching on the corroded inside of the cylinder and releasing in jerks.
Hope this saves you some money. Good luck.