Clutch pedal to the floor
 

I rather hoped I would not ever have to post this as the clutch & cylinders were allegedly changed last year by the previous owner.Coming home from work tonight I went to pull away from a roundabout & I had the dreaded foot to the floor & no drive. I hooked my foot under the pedal & it has come back up & got me home.I have had a look & can see no leak from under the car or from the master cylinder (which is plastic & does look pretty new). I have posted recently that my clutch seemed to be getting much heavier of late. Am I being ridiculously optimistic thinking it is just the seals in the master cylinder going ? The previous owner did say he had a cylinder fail within weeks of having it fitted & had it replaced under warranty.

Maybe there was very little fluid in the system and this caused the episode. Whatever, I think you can be reasonably sure that the clutch master or the slave or both have reached the end of the line. The master is known to have a poor seal material and this erodes quite quickly. This leads to a black suspension of rubber dust in the fluid. The MGR/OEM slaves are also well know for their poor materials of construction and short life (sometimes very short). The best advice for these is to fit the Freelander diesel slave. It's half the price and fits all 75 and ZT models including petrol versions. It's usual to renew the clutch itself when the slave is done, but if that's only a year old too, you might get them to check it and maybe save a few pounds.

TC

Take the top off the master cylinder, top the fluid up and whilst bleeding it, keep it topped up. It doesn't hold much fluid, so it is advisable to cut off most of the black nipple which is fitted to the cover - just leave enough of it in place to form a seal for the cover, to give a bit more space for fluid. Then keep a close eye on the level to see if any is being lost.

I'm reliably informed that if the pipes entering and leaving the gearbox are both metal, that the slave cylinder has been changed and changed for the more reliable unit.

I was surprised (shocked!) by the pedal staying down when I bled mine a while back, especially so when the pedal is supposed to be fitted with a return spring. I now believe this is because the return spring is configured to only lift the pedal up from above around the halfway down position. Below the halfway point, it helps to push the pedal down. With no hydraulic fluid and no pressure, it goes down and stays down until lifted with your toe.

Thank you gents. I will have a crack at bleeding the master cylinder & see if that works. I assume it is dot 4 fluid ? Looks like I will be using the motorbike for work tomorrow, just in time for the freezing weather ! Great !!

Yes, DOT 4

clutch pedal to the floor.
 

I had the same problem over a year & half ago, the garage we used to use fitted me a new clutch, master & slave cylinder, none of which ever worked as it should of done from the time I collected the car. The gear selection became a big problem and on returning the car to the garage I was informed a new gear box was required. After less then 12 months the pedal went to the floor again! (which is why a new clutch was fitted in the first place). Our new garage said the clutch fitted was very nasty and badly fitted, they fitted another new clutch complete with master & slave cylinders & over 30,000 miles later the gear selection is as sweet as when the car was new !!!

I've just had a reply from the previous owners & they reckon the receipts for the car found after I bought it have been thrown away, despite leaving them my address & the garage that fitted the clutch & cylinders have gone out of business. Smells fishy to me.:confused: The only thing that still makes me think the clutch replacement might be kosher is I doubt it would be original after 138k.

As I suggested above..

Check the two pipes as they emerge through the seal on top of the gearbox, one pipe going to the master the other to a bleed nipple - metal means the slave has been swapped out for later ugraded unit. Plastic could mean original or original replaced with OEM slave cylinder.

It does sound rather fishy.

my pedal went to the floor today as well, I've added fluid twice because i don't have the rubber condom and it was all gushing out thru the tiny bleed hole so i plugged it with a screw, everytime i added fluid I just pumped the pedal and on my way i went, i heard that is not the way to do it, you have to bleed the air out thru the bleed nipple, is that why me pedal hit the floor a copule of times? there's air in the sysystem? or is the pump going?

Hi,

Firstly,since no apparent leak,you have to know from what side comes the prob.

Disconnect the quick fit connector (Under the battery tray).
If you can get a hard pedal ,rule out the master.
If no change,dismantle the master and clean the little valve:

Attachment 50611

Far cheaper than replacing the all unit :}

Mike