Clutch slave cylinder died again!?!?

[mrbonk]

Greetings,
Today, while pulling into the servo, the clutch slave cylinder on my GQ patrol died again. Fluid pissing out of the rubber seal around the little pushrod that comes out the end of it. I've pulled it out and it's totally buggered.....the bore is rough and there's a large amount of 'shite' all over the end of the cylinder....looks a bit like rust, but I suspect it's something else.

Now, this was a brand new unit from Repco, which was only fitted in November 2005. Surely it should have lasted longer than this??

Question is do I fork out for a genuine item instead this time? Do I take this one back to repco and demand a replacement? I'm just amazed that it's only lasted this short amount of time.

[badger]

did you change the master cylinder and give it a full flush last time?
if not my bet is thats why its stuffed again.

[Z()LTAN]

my mate has had 2 gq's and he has had this problem with both numerous times.

Do you got offroad a bit? and through mud/water ?

Because the rubber boot around the cylinder pulls back from time to time and water/mud finds its way in there and scratches the rod, thus scratching the bore and seals.

He got around this by filling the boot with red rubber grease from new, try it.

Do what badger said also, as you may have crap in the system too.

[beretta]

Is your GQ TD42 or TB42? Have you recently changes the master cylinder? Because they are different and I have been caught out with it.

otherwise, it sounds like it badly needs a flush out as a starting point.

[mrbonk]

It's a TD42.

The master cylinder was replaced shortly after I replaced the slave cylinder. I was originally going to put a kit in the master, but when I pulled it down, it was pretty much buggered, so I got a local mechanic to put a new one on for me. He apparently flushed the whole thing at that stage.

I think I'll just put a genuine slave on it this time and flush the whole thing from top to bottom. I don't fancy having this happen again.....especially when I'm on the beach, miles from nowhere

[beretta]

Has your clutch been slipping at all?

[orsome]

hey yeah i replaced mine and the oil was really crap in the master cylinder and its gone into the slave and stuffed it quicker just need to replace both master and slave and fully fluch the lines maybe the prob

[mrbonk]

Has your clutch been slipping at all?

Nope.

[beretta]

Definately sounds like crap in the line to me.

[mrbonk]

Hmmm.....couldn't get a genuine one today, but Repco had one, so I got it instead. The guy there told me something interesting though. While he was ringing the stuff up on the computer, I pulled the cylinder out of the box and had a look at it.

Stamped on the bag is a warning that says "Use DOT3 fluid only!". I asked him why that would be and he said that if I was to put DOT4 (or whatever) in it, there was a good chance that it would ruin the bore and the rubber seals etc. WTF?? I'm wondering now if that's what's gone wrong with the existing one.

I have no idea what sort of fluid the mechanic would have put in it when he did the master cylinder, but it was thin as piss when I drained it yesterday. Certainly a lot thinner than this DOT3 stuff I've just bought looks anyway. Is it possible it's just had the wrong fluid in it and that's what's killed it?

[mav]

there was a warning out a few years ago about landcruisers voiding the warrenty because they had dot4 fluid put in the brake system and it was stuffing the abs system!!!!!!

[mrbonk]

Well, I put the replacement in this afternoon. My god....the amount of crap that came out of the line was ridiculous.....looked like very fine black powder all in the bottom of the bottle after I finished flushing/bleeding it.

So, here's hoping that with a nice clean system full of DOT3, it lasts longer than 12 months this time......

[Z()LTAN]

sorry to burst your bubble but dot 3 and dot 4 are exactly the same... dot 4 is just a more refined and newer version of dot 3... both are made from the same stuff.

But if you were to use dot or dot2 (wich are very hard to come by) then you would have a problem.

Them stamping Dot 3 only on the thing is only to cover their own asses. So they only need to cover and insure against one thing.

Use dot 3 if you want but just to let you know. Its all gravy.