Technical Doblo 1.9 JTD 2005: failed clutch bleeding or faulty release bearing ?

[frankal]

Hello,

I have a venerable 2005 Doblo 1.9 JTD with 256,000 km on the clock, and I love it dearly despite its inherent ugliness. I bought it second-hand at 242,000 km, supposedly with the full clutch kit (including master and slave cylinders) replaced.

About a month ago, the gears started becoming increasingly hard to shift, until the slave cylinder finally gave out (it's made of plastic ).

No problem—I replaced both the master and slave cylinders and did what I believe was a thorough bleed: reverse-filled the system (pushing fluid from the slave bleeder screw up to the reservoir). Result: gear shifting is possible but still a bit stiff, and the biting point is right at the very end of the pedal travel. Annoying.

So, I tried bleeding it another way, pressurizing the hydraulic circuit—same result.
I bled it once more, the old-school way: my wife pumping the pedal (no comments please ) while I handled the bleeder screw—still no improvement.

What do you think? An air bubble stubbornly stuck in the system? A faulty release bearing? I’d love to hear your thoughts before I go to the trouble of dropping the gearbox.

Thanks!

 

[bugsymike]

Hello,

I have a venerable 2005 Doblo 1.9 JTD with 256,000 km on the clock, and I love it dearly despite its inherent ugliness. I bought it second-hand at 242,000 km, supposedly with the full clutch kit (including master and slave cylinders) replaced.

About a month ago, the gears started becoming increasingly hard to shift, until the slave cylinder finally gave out (it's made of plastic ).

No problem—I replaced both the master and slave cylinders and did what I believe was a thorough bleed: reverse-filled the system (pushing fluid from the slave bleeder screw up to the reservoir). Result: gear shifting is possible but still a bit stiff, and the biting point is right at the very end of the pedal travel. Annoying.

So, I tried bleeding it another way, pressurizing the hydraulic circuit—same result.
I bled it once more, the old-school way: my wife pumping the pedal (no comments please ) while I handled the bleeder screw—still no improvement.

What do you think? An air bubble stubbornly stuck in the system? A faulty release bearing? I’d love to hear your thoughts before I go to the trouble of dropping the gearbox.

Thanks!

I had a 55 plate on of those with 225 k Miles on it, apart from rust I wish I had kept it as a lot easier and cheaper to work on than the 1.6 and 1.3MJs.
I bought it with an alleged clutch issue, priced accordingly at £300 around 7 years ago, without testing as 100 miles away, as soon as I went to load on trailer I knew the gearbox was shot. Luckily I picked up a recon box s/h for £80 and a dual mass flywheel then fitted a new clutch kit and ran it for four years with the only issue a crank shaft position sensor which stopped the vehicle , but 10 minutes later cooled down and allowed me to drive the other 20 miles home and to replace it.
Re bleeding I used to get my 10 year old daughters to do it as they would listen to the instructions unlike my ex wife.
Apart from that the only other method I would use is careful pressure bleeding.
Although I have had success removing a bleeder completely and just kept topping up the reservoir until all bubbles have stopped flowing out and replaced bleeder.
If possible can you jam the clutch arm at gearbox and see if you have a rock hard pedal?

 

[frankal]

Thanks for this reply.

I've ordered an 200ml syringe to reverse-fill more efficiently the clutch circuit, I suspect the one I used at first (100ml) was too small.

If possible can you jam the clutch arm at gearbox and see if you have a rock hard pedal?

Nice idea ! I'll give it a try.