| Motoring Discussion > Land Rover Discovery 3 - How many clutches is normal? | Miscellaneous |
| Thread Author: Mike Hannon | Replies: 9 |
|
New Sun 9 May 10 16:10
Land Rover Discovery 3 - How many clutches is normal? - Mike Hannon
|
|
My pal in the UK has just had the third replacement clutch fitted to his 2007 Discovery 3 2.7 diesel, after just 37,000 miles. After having replaced it twice before, this time the dealer said it must be fair wear and tear and it would not be covered by the guarantee. After kicking up a big fuss my friend got them to refer it to Land Rover and they eventually agreed to cover the £1,400 cost of replacing the clutch and flywheel as a 'goodwill' gesture. My friend had to point out he had had four Discos and a Freelander 2, never towed or went off road, had never worn out a clutch in his life and only actually used the car at weekends anyway. While he was waiting for the job to be completed by the dealer he had a phone call from Land Rover 'Care' telling him they wanted the loan vehicle back because, as it was a goodwill gesture and not a guarantee job he could only have the loaner for 48 hours! And when he picked up the car he found the service department had come up with a list of jobs and replacements they said required urgent attention - at a cost of guess what - nearly £1,400. I am aware the forums say Discovery 3 clutch problems are by no means rare and Land Rover seems to be very cavalier about responding to customers' complaints. But I thought something ought to be said because the more we talk about it, the more we find it impossible to believe he is at fault. When I next get to the UK we are going to the Honda dealer together to suss out the CRV. |
|
New Sun 9 May 10 16:27
Land Rover Discovery 3 - How many clutches is normal? - -
|
|
My own feelings on these is that first and reverse gear are too high in high range, coupled with an engine that like most modern diesels has little or no urge below turbo spool revs means that even though they don't mean to drivers are slipping the clutch in normal driving...i imagine the 3 litre won't suffer quite the same as it's got that bit more torque at the bottom end, but time will tell. For loading purposes low range is specified and needed, but that's of no use in normal driving as you can't change ranges on the move ASFAIK. I know someone who used to have a Disco 1..well 2 of them actually, he would have to stop and engage low range to get the thing on his drive, never understood the attraction of them. Quite why LR didn't offer the V8 Diesel in Disco as well as RR sport i don't know, same chassis etc, that would have been a better bet. Ironically your pal's vehicle might benefit from a remap specified to increase fuelling at low revs so he can pull away at tickover. May i humbly suggest too you take your pal to test drive a Landcruiser (Amazon pref) though i understand LC5 may be getting a new engine soon, the auto's and reliability of all of them are superb. |
|
New Sun 9 May 10 16:36
Land Rover Discovery 3 - How many clutches is normal? - Fenlander
|
|
>>>I know someone who used to have a Disco 1..well 2 of them actually, he would have to stop and engage low range to get the thing on his drive. His driving at fault then. Our 200TDi and the 300TDi's owned by friends towed heavy horseboxes and builders trailers all over and I've never had to use low ratio on the highway even towing. Those engines pulled like tanks and were almost impossible to stall at tickover. >>> never understood the attraction of them. Probably the most fun, flexible and useful family car we've owned. Can't quite justify the costs of a newish one at the moment as no need to tow or use 4x4... but may well return to one in the future. |
|
New Sun 9 May 10 16:43
Land Rover Discovery 3 - How many clutches is normal? - -
|
|
Those engines pulled like tanks and were almost impossible to stall >> at tickover. Yours must run differently to the hundreds of them i've loaded FL have you tweaked the fuelling a bit, never had the power to get themseves up on the truck in high range, i'd always have to select low. My mates driveway was to be fair very steep, but no worse than ours which our pick up romps out of in high....i know how quickly cos i see the black lines evidence swmbo leaves..;) |
|
New Sun 9 May 10 18:25
Land Rover Discovery 3 - How many clutches is normal? - Fenlander
|
|
Well the unmolested handful I've driven/used/owned over the years on/off road must have indeed run very differently to the hundreds you've driven up the transporter ramp. But if you just don't like them then you don't and nothing will change that. |
|
New Sun 9 May 10 19:20
Land Rover Discovery 3 - How many clutches is normal? - R.P.
|
| CRV - can't recommend it highly enough. |
|
New Sun 9 May 10 19:30
Land Rover Discovery 3 - How many clutches is normal? - Stuu
|
| GB, back when I was in the trade, when they intruced the Td5 most of us thought it was a step backwards for guess what - torque! The old Tdi Disco was noisey as hell but was a real slogger whereas the Td5 always seemed to lack grunt at the lower end. I wholly agree with your assessment - ive driven the current Disco with the small diesel and it really doesnt have the muscle for a massive car like that. Backing it up a steep driveway I had to give it a stack of revs to stop it stalling in reverse - useless. I can quite see how you could use up a clutch quite often. |
|
New Sun 9 May 10 20:37
Land Rover Discovery 3 - How many clutches is normal? - Manatee
|
|
>>I can quite see how you could use up a clutch quite often. In my experience it's pretty difficult to wear out a clutch in anything like normal use. I say this because I have never had to replace one, even on the many old bangers I had as a young adult, some of which by the law of averages I must have acquired with a well worn driven plate (certainly everything else about them was well worn). Normal use does not include using the clutch as a friend used to do though - he would always hold the car on the clutch at uphill junctions and traffic lights, even for several minutes. He could wear out a clutch in as less than 10,000 miles. I think I'm very easy on clutches, and take care not to get heat into them, even more so now I have a DMF as well! A recent clutch experience may be worth recounting though. Sorry for the length. At about 68,000 miles, the clutch on the diesel CRV started slipping. The revs would rise when at maximum torque (i.e. foot to the floor and around 2000rpm). I really couldn't figure this at all. I couldn't believe I'd worn it out, and thought maybe it had become contaminated by an oil leak. It didn't do it all the time, maybe only once every day or two, so I monitored it for a couple of weeks. It didn't get any worse - curiouser and curiouser, you'd expect a worn out clutch to go from bad to worse fairly quickly. Anyway, I then went on holiday for 2 weeks and towed a 1200kg caravan about 1,000 miles. This seemed to effect a cure. Given that towing necessarily works the clutch harder, this led me to wonder if the problem had been a glazed plate, and if the extra work had maybe roughed it up a bit and stopped the slipping. I forgive you if you don't think much of this theory, but stay with me if you can - All was well for couple of months, and then it started again. Now a clutch job on a CRV is £1000+ if you take the recommendation for a new DMF and pressure plate, so with nothing to lose I "roasted" the clutch at about 3000rpm, in gear, stationary with the brakes on. That was 5 months ago and it's been fine since. Now, I reckon if I'd just taken it to a Honda dealer, they'd have pulled it down, replaced the flywheel, clutch and cover and charged me £1400 or so. Would they have bothered to tell me that the plate was nearly full thickness, and that there were no signs of damage to the flywheel and pressure plate, were that the case? I don't think so. Maybe my theory was correct. Then I found this thread on Civinfo, the Civic forum - goo.gl/eusC so I've decided I might have been right. I'm now at 79,000 miles and it's behaving perfectly. I would have posted this before but for it being such a long story, and at the time it was topical the old place was shut for repairs. Anyway, make of it what you will. Last edited by: Manatee on Sun 9 May 10 at 20:38
|
|
New Mon 10 May 10 10:42
Land Rover Discovery 3 - How many clutches is normal? - Mike Hannon
|
|
All very interesting so far - thank you. Just as aside, the first clutch was replaced not because it was giving evidence of slipping but because the gear indicator on the dash was not working properly. When my pal mentioned this to the main dealer service department when the car was in for a service they immediately decided to replace the clutch because it was some sort of known fault that resulted in a false indicator reading. Forgive me for not explaining this very well but I'm not well-up on modern electronics. I agree the Disco 3 appears overweight for its engine but my pal was very impressed with its power after the TD5 he had before. Anyway, he needs the ease of access more than any off-roading ability or toys, so we'll be running the rule over the CRV shortly. I tested one a few years ago and was very taken with it, only deciding I didn't really need anything that big just for the sake of a couple of days' snow a year - that was before the current winter, of course... I have no experience of the oiler but I do think it's a shame that - like almost everything around these days - the CRV has been touched with the ugly stick. |
|
New Mon 10 May 10 14:57
Land Rover Discovery 3 - How many clutches is normal? - Lygonos
|
|
Just traded in an 85k mile CRV '05 for a new FRV as we need 3 baby seats across the back. CRV was petrol auto - 54k miles in 3 years - fantastically easy to drive, huge boot, great driving position without being overly aggressive/massive. Handled the snow in winter flawlessly, handles nicely in wet/dry on Michelin Latitude M&S tyres. Other than tyres nothing had needed repaired/replaced although the rear pads were down to their last 10k miles or so. Engine used under 0.5litre oil between 12.5k mile services. Exhaust still looks in good condition, no knocks/squeaks, all trim still feels screwed together. ~26mpg urban, 30-31mpg Motorway/backroads (measured - onboard computer surprisingly within 5% of this - most onboard comps seem wildly optimistic) IMO prettier than the newer Mk.3 CRV. Would happily have kept it for another 50k+ miles. Last edited by: Lygonos on Mon 10 May 10 at 14:58
|
Forum Version 3.0 - By Khoosys
Car4play Forum
