Clutch Plate Contamination - can it be flushed clean?

[BilboBoggles]

TD5 with 250,000 on it. Had a new clutch at 230,000ks

Over the weekend lost the clutch pedal. Found the master cylinder was very low - so topped it up and went looking for leaks. Looks like the Slave cylinder was leaking for quite a while. It's gone in for a new Slave and Master. But over a cup of fluid came out of the bell housing. Unfortunately the new clutch is heavily contaminated. I had noticed it starting to judder in the last few weeks, and it has not bitten as well as it usually does once or twice - I put that down to the huge power increase from the recent ECU upgrade I had done....

BUT I wondered if anyone has had much luck flushing a TD5 clutch with BrakeKleen to remove the clutch fluid. I really really don't want to buy a new clutch again.. So I'm hoping it will be driveable with a good clean. What do you think?

[JDNSW]

You can try, but it is unlikely to be successful once the fluid has been burnt into the surface of the linings.

At that mileage it should only be necessary to replace the driven plate - the flywheel and pressure plate will clean up OK. But you still need the box out to replace it.

John

[bee utey]

As lads we used to douse brake fluid contaminated brake linings with metho and light them. The low heat of burning metho would bubble out the brake fluid and leave them clean and dry. Just remember its very hard to see metho flames so don't make the mistake of touching the facings until you are absolutely sure they're cold. A few drops of water on the metal parts will check that. And also all the metal parts are best cleaned with soapy water, brake fluid is easy to get off.

[Patchy]

Brakes shoes are one thing but having to remove the gearbox again in a couple of weeks/months will be a huge PITA plus it will be one of those thing in the back of your mind waiting for when it does fail and when it does it will be were and when u dont want it to happe murfies law haha

I'm a diesel mechanic and I would never recommend cleaning and reusing a friction plate as they are fairly cheap if you go to a decent brake and clutch place. Which if your paying for the labor to remove and fit gearbox will look like pennies once you've paid twice just my thought.

cheers Brian

[BilboBoggles]

Understood, and if I end up splitting the engine to gearbox again will definitely put new bits in. Im talking about flushing the clutch in situ.
The annoying thing is it had a new clutch and flywheel less that 30kk ago..

[Patchy]

Ah different story I thought you had already removed the gearbox and could physically see it soaked.. I would run it and see how it goes most of the fluid would have just run down the inside of the bell housing plus with the clutch spinning any fluid tends to be flicked off... let it roll my guess is it would be ok but you will know with in a week or so...best of luck mate.

Cheers Brian

[ian4002000]

IMO I would be using brake cleaner to clean the friction surface, I cant seem how it would harm a friction material.
You can try slipping the clutch a bit to burn the oil out of the surface but I would try the brake cleaner first.

[snafubar]

Patchy is on the mark I reckon.

Drive plate is designed to be replaced. A wear component, and so cheap if u goto the right place.

A good soap and water scrub of the flywheel, flex plate and housing, followed with mild pressure clean (minding the engine rear main and gearbox input seals!) will sort the rest out.

Check for glazing on the contact surfaces. May need sand blasting.

I should mention the flywheel. When u had the clutch done at 230k, did the flywheel get done? Or has it been swapped out as per the recall? They can disintegrate, although I haven't heard of one that let go with shrapnel in the cabin yet.....yet!

Sent from my HTC Incredible S using AULRO mobile app

[Patchy]

Yeah small squirt prob wont hurt but getting into actually clean it is near on impossible and you could actually make it worst drowning it by washing the mix of brake cleaner and brake fluid into the friction material...

By operation a clutch should spin and flick most contamination away from itself so any fluid you have on it will most probably just be near the out side and not near the centre of the plate.

Its up to you but if you really want to do it maybe disable the engine by pulling ecu fuse or fuel from engine and spray it while someone cranks the engine just by the starter motor they way your not actually washing it into the clutch.

hope you know what I mean haha.

[bee utey]

Its up to you but if you really want to do it maybe disable the engine by pulling ecu fuse or fuel from engine and spray it while someone cranks the engine just by the starter motor they way your not actually washing it into the clutch.

Probably not a good idea, the starter motor would be sparking, and spray cleaners are generally flammable.

[Patchy]

Probably not a good idea, the starter motor would be sparking, and spray cleaners are generally flammable.

Haha I was thinking the same thing when I wrote that bit but thought of the places I've sprayed brake cleaner and im still here :p and saying that the starter should be fairly sealed if it's sparking you have other issues

[BilboBoggles]

Just updating in case anyone is interested in knowing the outcome...

It's Done!... My land rover guru flushed it out with water first, then a couple of liters of brakekleen, and then dried it out with compressed air for a hour or so. Well the Clutch is better than it was before by miles, all judder is gone, and the pedal is now nice and smooth and progressive. I guess that slave cylinder had been failing slowly for a while.

I'm not sure how long it will last - After all the issues with that clutch I think if it fails again I'm going to put an Auto in it... ;-)


Thanks for all of your comments.

[460cixy]

It's like trying to clean brake pads total wast of time.

[ian4002000]

I would normally only be cleaning grease from dirty hands of brake pads or similar and Brakeclean should work well

[goingbush]

I'd be shoving a hose in the bell housing drain hole, and turn the tap on let it fill up and then pull the hose out and let the bell housing drain, that will wash out excess fluid, then just put it in 4th (high range) and ride the clutch with your foot on the brake or parked up against a tree, 5-10 seconds should do . too much and you might glaze the pressure plate / flywheel . Might not help but worth a try if your splitting the box