Can any experts explain this please - Car Mechanics Query

[Dodge]

As many of you will know I have rather a penchant for Land Rovers and a couple of months ago bought another one - A 1990 G reg 110 CSW.

Anyway mechanically it is excellent having had huge amounts of work done to it and over the last few weeks have been getting it up to the standard I want - Has made a welcome change from the workshop for a week or two.

There is just one thing I cannot get my head around - The clutch master cylinder is leaking slightly buy ONLY when I tow our caravan or a trailer - WHY??

During day to day driving not a drip from day to day - the minute I hitch a trailer or or our caravan on the back clutch fluid starts to drip off the clutch pedal after about a dozen gear changes.

I really cannot understand why, unless it is purely coincidence but has anyone experienced this before??

A mate is coming over tomorrow evening and we are going to replace the master and slave cylinders anyway but I really am at a loss to understand why - I have had land rovers all my life and never experienced this before

:? :? :?

 

[pip1954]

some thing to do with weight? be interesting to know why
pip

 

[Woody Alan]

I'm inclined ...and that may also be a reason, your vehicles different inclination....to think that excess heat from he mechanical effort from the engine clutch and gearbox is having an adverse effect on a borderline leak, but hey I'm no mechanic so it's pure hypothesis.

Got to be something though...

Regards Alan

 

[jpt]

Had something like this years ago on a lorry, running without a load was fine but as soon as it had a load on the clutch started playing up it was a combination of the clutch slipping and a hydraulic leak.

We found out where it was leaking from and changed the parts and the clutch slip went away. We asked the manufacturer why this happened and after a few months they came back with the answer, well what they thought might be the answer.

They said that as far as they could work out the addition of the load caused the clutch to work harder which caused more heat to be generated by the clutch which was transferred into the fluid. This in turn heated up the components in the clutch system more, but still within operating tolerance, and caused a faulty component to move which caused the leak. Except they took several pages to say this.

That was the only time I have heard of this happening as usually if there is a fault it will do it all the time.

john

 

[Woodchips2]

Hi Roger
I'm not a mechanic but when you tow a caravan you are nearly doubling the load on the clutch when you start off so maybe the extra strain is making things vibrate a bit more and hence the leaks. Many years ago when I started caravanning I used to research towing vehicle/caravan combinations and I can remember reading that the Land Rover and caravan are not good bed-fellows I think because of the Land Rover chassis and the relatively crude suspension of the caravan. It wasn't lack of grunt because the Land Rover would pull most caravans but too many shocks would be transmitted between the two. Whether this still holds I don't know but we saw very few Land Rovers towing caravans but many Freelanders. Hope you get it sorted.
Regards Keith

 

[CHJ]

Does the clutch fluid reservoir have an air bleed hole in the cap, is it blocked, extra work in clutch housing could be being transferred to oil, building up system pressure.

 

[Dodge]

Well have tonight replaced the clutch master and slave cylinders, obviously replaced the fluid and bled the system.

Let's hope I have solved the problem!