Pajero Owners Club of South Africa

Hi guys,

I'm hoping someone in the forum can add some insight from experience or their knowledge of the manual clutch system on a 2001 DiD.

My Paj has done 225,000km now with no real problems. However, on 2 occasions during the past 4 years, my clutch has gone soft making it impossible to select any gears.

The first time was about 3 years ago (185,000km). I had been driving without any noticable clutch problem, parked the Paj for about an hour, and when I started up again and wanted to select gear, the clutch was soft and I could not engage any gear.

The 2nd time it happened (about 18 months ago), I did notice while driving around town, that the clutch was a bit soft, but I could still change gears. After parking for a few hours, I had the same problem as the first time.
On both occasions, after switching the engine off and on a few times, the problem disappeared and I have not experienced this problem again.
I had the hydraulic line checked and no blockage was found.
Anyone else had this problem?
I often worry that the clutch will pack up while I'm somewhere in the sticks. Will the manual clutch give any signs of giving up the ghost, or will it happen suddenly?
Any advice or comments??

Do you experience any slipping in gear on hill etc?

Have you checked the rubber dust cover under the gearbox. Australians reported a lot of problems from water from the aircon drain pipe running into this cover if not properly sealed and then causing rust on the plates. Dont think this is your problem, but worth a look.

Maybe drain all fluid from the system and refill with fresh hidraulic fluid of correct grading. Make sure you bleed it properly. Your problem sound like air bubbles in the system to me?

CATS

Sent from my GT-I9500 using Tapatalk 2

hi nev
i had sort of the same problem a few weeks ago and mine turned out to be mud that built up behind the clutch and was preventing it from engaging again and this made the pedal go soft would still drive but as soon as i put the hammer down it would slip at high rev 4000rpm
cheers

CATS,
Is the Pajero clutch vacuum assisted? I experienced this on my late '80s Land Cruiser station wagon when the vacuum system picked up a leak.

Roelf

To be honnest I dont know.

CATS

Sent from my GT-I9500 using Tapatalk 2

Thanks for all the input guys. Clutch does not slip at all, even on those 2 occasions when I experienced the problem. Will try find out from the agents whether the clutch is vacuum assisted or not, but the theory of bubbles sounds a possibility. I did have the fluid drained and replaced after the last time it happened and so far so good. I guess if it doesn't reoccur then it would be safe to assume that it was the fluid.

Thanks for all the help. I'll post further comments if I find out anything further.

Regards,
Nev.