clutch advice needed

[pat_y]

Chaps, i am new to cerbie ownership so come seeking your help, i have recently (2 weeks ago) managed to purchase a '97 4.2 41K miles with service history etc.
As i've been gaining confidence in how the car feels i'm noticing some slightly odd clutch behaviour. 3 or 4 times now it feels like it's slipping at high revs (5.5K plus on fullish throttle) in high gears. Doesn't do it every time though, most of the time it seems fine.
According to the paperwork with the car the clutch was replaced at 38K by a specialist so i'm very suprised (and a bit annoyed) that this seems to be happening after just 3K miles. Or is this just another of those slightly quirky things that early cerbies tend to do?
Apparently the clutch didn't slip on the test drive and the previous owner is sure it never slipped on him.
Any thoughts on what else this might be before i get clobbered for a fairly painfull bill on a new clutch?

[esso]

If its only done 3K on the clutch i would find out who fitted it and be asking them the question,there could be several reasons why its slipping.

[WIL35]

Might be worth checking the master cylinder first.

My clutch slipped at high revs after I had replaced the master cylinder, clutch and slave cylinder. It turned out that somehow the system was pressurising itself after a short drive. I would get home, open the bleed screw and fluid would shoot out! The valve in the end of the master cylinder wasn't working properly, was fine once I had rebuilt the old one with new seals.

[pat_y]

Thanks for this chaps, i have e-mailed the specialist who fitted the unit to find out what the story is, like is it a 4.5 clutch with modified bellhousing, is it an AP unit etc etc, so i'll see what they have to say about it.
There are a couple of other things of note about the car, the clutch action is nice and light, after reading many other peoples experiences about clutches this seems to be a bit of an exception as most people say their clutch is quite heavy.
It also doesn't like shifting into revese easily, all other gears are nice.
i shall try to remove the inspection panel in the drivers side engine bay to have a look at the master cyl and see how much fluid is in there, also check see if the system is pressurised.
Living in Southampton my closest specialist is Andy at APM, anyone know roughly how much he would charge for a clutch change.

Edited by pat_y on Monday 18th May 11:24

[fatjon]

A leaky slave cylinder can wet the clutch plates causing it to slip. On stripping one down this weekend I found that swelled seals can also prevent the slave from fully retracting which holds the clutch kind of half disengaged.

There is a trick for getting into reverse without a grind. Put it in 5th then pull in smartly over and down into reverse, that seems to make it pop in without a fight. It just become habit after a while. I think they nealry all do it, it's a quirk of the T5 box.

[pat_y]

fatjon said:

There is a trick for getting into reverse without a grind. Put it in 5th then pull in smartly over and down into reverse, that seems to make it pop in without a fight. It just become habit after a while. I think they nealry all do it, it's a quirk of the T5 box.

Thanks Jon, tried this trick with the box this morning and 'hey presto' no more grinding. Top tip.

[SimonKD]

I'm sure someone once said it's better to vary the gear selected before putting Her into reverse. Vary between 1, 3 & 5 otherwise wear will result constantly using 5 before reverse. Do I remember correctly?

Regards
Simon

[headcase]

Im sure i read in trhe manual that you have to do that, maybe wrong though its been a while since i saw one.

[crazymatelot]

headcase said:

Im sure i read in trhe manual that you have to do that, maybe wrong though its been a while since i saw one.

It does say that, because as I understand it, for some reason the gearboxes were built with no syncro on reverse gear.

[ridds]

No gearboxes do because you physically move a gear into mesh to reverse the direction of travel.

All other gears are pre-meshed.