Hi folks,
Has anyone any suggestions for clutch slip on a Terrano II 2.7TDi. Car was bought online form UK company (found out it was built in France for sale in Cyprus).
It's a 53 plate with 24K miles. Symptom is clutch slips (4th / 5th gear after around 2000 - 2200RPM with foot to the floor). Doesn't do it from cold (takes 1/2 an hour driving or more to show), no better/worse towing or 4WD.
First noticed problem at 11K miles, got worse and by 13K miles (Nissan dealer replaced clutch under warranty at 13K but stated clutch hardly had any wear). Noticed slip again at 21K miles, went away, came back again at 23K miles (last month Nissan dealer checked clutch control set-up/tolerances and was in spec, then raised High Tech inquiry with Nissan). Just back from towing in France and clutch OK again!
Other things:
What is a clutch damper? (and why does the 3rd thicker pipe in the block dissapear all the way to the rear offside wheel well)?
Could heat / cold be allowing pressure to build up which is partially activating the slave cylinder?
Is it normal to be able to feel substantial heat at bottom of gearstick after driving at motorway speeds for a while?
Problem is my warranty runs out in 5 days and I've still not heard back from Nissan (anyone know what rights I might have at this stage?).
Any ideas??
Thanks,
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Clutch slip doesn't get 'better' and would be expected to get a lot worse under towing. I think the problem is with the actuation mechanism, possibly air bubbles in the pipe from dodgy seals. I have all kinds of wierd and wonderful problems with hydraulic clutches in the past!
Heat at base of gearlever on a long run would be normal.
Could be heat related - i.e. causing air bubbles in s/cyl to expand.
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PS - as regards warranty, write a letter to Nissan dealer explaining the problem and noting it occured within warranty. Send it Special Delivery to the dealer and to Nissan UK - and print out the online delivery confirmation to keep.
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I think the clutch damper is indeed the third, thicker, pipe that goes rearwards. I think it was inroduced to remove some resonance in the system. Works by this length and volume of hydraulic fluid being pressurised with each actuation of the clutch. (Presumably the pipe stretches slightly as we all know liquids cannot be compressed.....)
Perhaps your issue is caused by the clutch pedal not fully returning to the top of its travel , so the "vent" port in the master cylinder remains closed. Then, heat causes the fluid in the pipework to expand and partially release the clutch.
But with the clutch's spring being diaphragm type, would there be enough movement to make this happen?
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Thanks for the replies so far folks...
I'm far from being even an amateur mechanic but I like to have bit of a go (most of my experience is electronic and mechanical)..
I worked on my Blubird's hydraulic clutch years ago when the pedal had no resistance. I got to know a bit about the master cylinder operation as the plunger contained a check-valve that had become stuck with debris and the hydraulic fluid was just passing through instead of pressurising with each pedal press...it didn't have this crazy clutch damper set-up though.
I was wondering if there was some kind of pressure equalisation system when the pedal was fully up... Interestingly the clutch pedal sticking was the first problem we had (a bush was found to be faulty in Sep 2004 as the pedal was stopping just at the point where the free play starts on the upstroke of the pedal). Nissan have told me that I should expect there to be a bit of light travel on the pedal before feeling more resistance as the clutch starts to operate (although I have always felt the "biting-point" to be high on this car from day one). Not being a 4X4 driver before I managed to confirm this by asking a couple of other owbers if I could have a go of their clutch pedals. Anyway the clutch wasn't slipping at that point.
Post continues...
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Continued...
Between Jan and June 05. I had fully bled the clutch (as per the workshop manual) suspecting air in the system. There was none and the problem was still there again after about an hour of road testing.
Problem seems to be intermittent now. I towed the caravan up north at Easter, on a car-only trip up the mountains (still snowy) the clutch slipped a few times. Towing back down, I couldn't replicate the fault. Noticed it again in July for a few weeks (dealer investigated at this point}, The problem was still there until we went on holiday to France for 3 weeks. Slipped on the way to the ferry but never slipped once in France and not once since!
My guess is more towards cooling down than heating up. I'm staring to think driving may cool the large damper pipe, the hydraulic fluid (I assume) wouldn't be effected so much by the temperature but that the pipework contracts and increases the pressure in the line to partially activate the clutch. France was considerable warmer than Scotland and no problem in france. Someone had suggested a test by getting a coupling made to bypass the damper to minimise the amount of fluid between the master and slave cylinders.
Anyway thanks, I took the advice and wrote recorded letters to dealer and Nssan. I'll let you know what happens in future posts.
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Folks,
Dealer got in touch and raised a job card while still in the warranty period.
Car to go in for some checks this week.
Still to hear back from Nissan Customer Services (dealer suggests that nothing will be done under warranty but NCS may offer a short continuation up to 6 months if the fault returns).
Thanks again...
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