Clutch gone?

[Flying Torquewrench]

Lately all is not well on the car front. My other car is an Audi A4 which broke down 140 miles away from home on a Saturday night at midnight. The exhaust camshaft had fractured throwing the timing out and as a result the ECU told the gearbox to stop working. Fortunately the pistons did not hit any valves and it is 'just' a exhaust camshaft replacement.


As bad luck never arrives on its own the clutch in the Nissan Patrol started slipping today. As I am building a new garage I have been going up and down to the builders yard yesterday to collect concrete blocks. Every load was about 2 tonnes, which the Patrol pulls relatively easily. To get into our village there is an incline of 11% and the road narrows to one narrow lane. There is no room for two cars to pass. As 'luck' would have it, twice a car coming from the other side just kept driving whilst I was climbing my way up. I had no choice but to come to a stop and then the Patrol has a real hard job to get going again. Not surprisingly as the Patrol + trailer + load is nearly 5.5 tonnes. To get it going uphill from a stop needed a fair bit of revs and gentle control of the clutch. However even then, you could smell the clutch on both occasions.

Went out today and noticed that the clutch would slip when accelerating upwards from 30-40mph. The revs would increase but the speed would not increase untill the clutch bit again and then the revs would come down and we would continue as normal.

Not being very familiar with the clutch (we haven't got them on the aircraft), is this a sign of a worn out clutch or a glazed clutch? Reading on the internet there are ways to deglaze the clutch but I am not sure if I just delay the inevitable.

 

[solarman216]

Bad luck mate, to evaluate your clutch, HB on hard heel and toe the brake and throttle, clutch down 5th gear hard on brake full revs on throttle slid foot off side of clutch, it should stall within 2 to 3 seconds, if it slows near to stalling it is in a poor state if it slows then revs rise again it is very bad if it hardly makes any difference it has gone and not worth the risk of driving, Rick

 

[solarman216]

Incidentally in that sort of situation did you not think to put it in low box should of coped easy on that, if Patrols are like T2's and means you are also in 4 wheel it is not a problem, nothing is going to break, and once you are back on level ground just stop and go back to 2 wheel, Rick

 

[Flying Torquewrench]

Cheers Rick. In all fairness I didn't think to put it in the low box. :doh

Read somewhere else to try and drive off in 3rd or 4th with some revs going. It is not going anywhere and it stalls quickly. Will try your test later today.

In general I don't notice any slip whilst pulling away at the traffic lights etc. It is nearly always when accelerating whilst doing a reasonable speed. If I put my foot down you can see ghe revs increase but the car is very slow to accelerate.

At the moment she is booked in with the garage for a clutch replacement on Monday. She has done 125k miles and I am not sure if or when the clutch was changed previously. Hopefully the clutch was worn out and this was just the final straw instead of me burning up a clutch in good/reasonable condition.

 

[panelbeater]

perhaps the hill has glazed the friction plate

 

[Flying Torquewrench]

Panelbeater, any way to get rid of the glazing if that is the issue? Anything is worth trying at the moment.

Clutch has always worked fine.

 

[Banshee]

I wouldn't bother trying to remedy an old clutch.

When you see the work involved to get to it you'd be silly not to replace it while you are inside :thumb2

 

[Flying Torquewrench]

Read a few stories on the net that you could remedie an old clutch without taking it apart.

However in my case I am not sure if the clutch was worn anyway and this was the final nail in the coffin. Or that I just ruined a perfectly good clutch. I assume that I will only find out when the clutch has been taken apart.

It is a shame that I can't do the work myself, but with nobody around to give a hand I am not taking my chances with a heavy gearbox.

Thank you all for your help.

 

[Banshee]

Read a few stories on the net that you could remedie an old clutch without taking it apart.

However in my case I am not sure if the clutch was worn anyway and this was the final nail in the coffin. Or that I just ruined a perfectly good clutch. I assume that I will only find out when the clutch has been taken apart.

It is a shame that I can't do the work myself, but with nobody around to give a hand I am not taking my chances with a heavy gearbox.

Thank you all for your help.

I'd offer to help mate as you're only in Worcester but I'm chokker block at the minute with stuff :doh

 

[Flying Torquewrench]

No worries Banshee, I really appreciate it though.

I am building a double garage so haven't really got any spare time either. The garage quoted £560 to do the job but not sure if that is just the clutch or also a new flywheel.

Once the garage is build I will have a proper space to work on our cars and hopefully a bit more time.

 

[Flying Torquewrench]

The garage remved the gearbox today and found that my Patrol has a Dual Mass Flywheel which is slightly worn. Not excessively and the garage has advised against replacing the DMF.

The reason for not replacing the DMF is because there is no stock available in the UK or abroad. It would have to go on back order from Nissan with a lead time of months! Also the cost would be well over £1000.

I don't really want to go down the second hand DMF of eBay etc as you still don't know their real condition.

However I have read on the net that you can convert a DMF to a single mass flywheel.

Has anybody done this modification?

 

[RJL Services]

i would check with motor factors as a lot of cars with dual mass flywheels you can convert to solid older type most do a clutch and flywheel kit see if they do one for yours:thumb2

 

[Flying Torquewrench]

Cheers RJL

I have seen a solid flywheel for the Nissan Patrol on the net but was't sure if yo could just unbolt the DMF and install the solid flywheel.

Everything is back together now with a new clutch installed. I will find out tomorrow how badly worn the DMF is. Knowing the garage if it was badly worn he would have advised against bolting it all back together.

However he did say that one day it might cause an issue. Just thinking now if I should buy a solid flywheel and keep it as spare. If there ever is a problem then it is just a case of taking the gearbox off and fitting the solid flywheel.

Cheers

 

[luke1987]

Ive checked with my parts supplier for you and they are available direct from nissan within a couple of days not on back order here.

 

[Barrbeast]

A new DMF will just fail again :nenau

When the DMF went on my 3.0 Trol I imported a solid flywheel and HD clutch kit from Oz, one of the best mods I ever did :thumb2

These are the guys I got it from, really helpful on the email.

http://www.directclutch.com.au/#

 

[Flying Torquewrench]

Very interesting Luke1987. May I ask who your parts supplier is and have their contact details?

Barrbeast. Having done some research on the net, I have found some conflicting views on that. Some people share your opinion whilst others say it is the worst thing they have ever done.

The jury is out and I need to do a bit more research on the subject. Also get an idea with regards to prices of the various options.

At the moment it runs fine, so I have got some time to do the research.

Thanks you both for your input! :thumb2

 

[Blocky10]

Very interesting Luke1987. May I ask who your parts supplier is and have their contact details?

Barrbeast. Having done some research on the net, I have found some conflicting views on that. Some people share your opinion whilst others say it is the worst thing they have ever done.

The jury is out and I need to do a bit more research on the subject. Also get an idea with regards to prices of the various options.

At the moment it runs fine, so I have got some time to do the research.

Thanks you both for your input! :thumb2

I've found that you have to alter your driving style a touch after converting to solid flywheel. Changing gear at different revs made driving my brothers 55 plate transit less noisy due to vibrations. The clutch was stiffer too but it's done 50k since and not been a spot of bother.