After starting this post 31000 miles ago the clutch replaced under warranty has failed at 58000, today had the following parts fitted.

LR008556 Clutch Kit £173.02
LR014072 DMF Flywheel £323.67
LR016976 Slave Cylinder £65.52
LR018299 x 8 Flywheel bolt £11.84
LR006247 x 2 Transmission Oil £45.20
Along with 5 1/2 hours labour for £302.28 this gave a pre VAT total of £921.23

I had a discussion with LR Customer Care regarding durability targets and secured a 50% contribution toward the repair so ended up paying £552.73. Still feel a bit sore that it failed but at least some help from LR.

I spent some time looking at the parts removed, the friction plate and pressure plate looked pretty much like new, the machining marks were still very evident on the pressure plate and the friction plate showed very minimal wear, the clutch face on the flywheel was similar with original machining still evident.

The flywheel itself was out of spec with regard to radial play, the clutch side could be moved relative to the engine side for quite some angle before any load on the damping springs became evident, no other issues were noted re the flywheel.

However I cannot see why the flywheel in this condition can have contributed to the clutch slipping failure and wonder if anyone has a good explanation.

My take on this is that we have a dual mass flywheel, which is little more than a torsional damper in the driveline, its purpose is to even out the cyclic irregularity caused from the firing cycle of a 4 cylinder engine and improve the driving experience. The driven side can only move relative to the driving side by a designed number of degrees before the springs become coilbound, it cannot slip.

The clutch is fitted on the driven side where we have seen no significant wear on the flywheel, the friction plate or the pressure plate, so dimensionally the installation is within specification and should perform according to that specification. The only variable I can see that can cause slipping could be a reduction on the pressure applied by the pressure plate through a weakening of the diaphragm spring unfortunately that would be somewhat difficult to measure.

Sorry that this has gone on a bit but would really appreciate comments and if anyone can provide a good explanation as to why it is commonly believed that the DMF is the root cause of clutch failures.

Do I understnd the setup right?

The center of the dm flywheel is bolted to the crank. The outer edge of the flywheel is free to move relative to the center, and this movement is restrained by a set of springs. The clutch cover is bolted to this outer edge, and clamps the friction plate between the outer edge and the clutch cover. the gearbox input shaft is driven by the solid, two faced friction plate.

If this is so and the springs "go out of tolerance" then the outside of the flywhell will not only move radially, but will also tend to move back and forwards, not nessesarily parrellel to the engine. As the friction lining is held parrellel to the engine, the wandering back and forth would reduce the pressure to a single patch of the flywheel.
Massive overloading, such as offroading (with or without a caravan), would heat and damage the mating surfaces which would be obvious, occasional slipping would have to continue for a considerable time before wear was evident. But the slipping would be presistant at high torque, just not long enough to build up high temperature damage.

Just the ramblings of an auto driver after a nice bottle of red  Tangiers Orange - gone, missing her
Replaced by Ewok what a mistake - now a happy Disco Sport owner

I have not had the pleasure of inspecting removed parts yet of a clutch system slipping on a freelander 2. I have however replaced other clutches on cars due to warn out clutchplates and broken fingers on the presure plate.
On inspecting a new clutch plate and presure plate I have for a freelander 2 I have noticed a few things.
Firstly on the presure plate there is a self adjusting system that adjusts as the clutch friction plate as it wears.
My thoughts on this design is this. On close inspection of the auto adjuster it would appear to me that this could very easy become clogged with dust from clutch as i wears and not adjust properly causing clutch slip and premature wear and early failure of the friction plate.
My next comments would have to be on the presure plate itself. For this type of car and weight it would appear that the fingers of the presure plate do not look man enough for the job it is suppose to do.
I would of thought a much more heavy duty unit would of been fitted here bearing in mind of the stress and loads that are likely to be placed on it.
verdict, Presure plate and clutch plate not man enough for the job it is intended to do. outcome, premature failure and this will continue untill there is a revision of this problem and a more heavy duty unit is available to replace the original weaker one.

It's amazing what a good bottle of wine will do !

The Dual Mass Flywheel is actually two flywheels bolted together, the engine side (or driving side) is full diameter and also carries the starter ring gear, the clutch side is also ful diameter to carry the clutch cover.

The springs are merely the damping elements and have no influence on any movement or play in the flywheel other than than the radial movement it is designed to do. Axial movement is restrained by toleranced bushes etc and all the clutch clamping geometry is on the driven element so any movement between the elements would not affect that.

The URL below shows a lot of google images of DMF's

Still no closer to an explanation !!

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=dual+mass...mp;bih=707

superspark wrote:

I have not had the pleasure of inspecting removed parts yet of a clutch system slipping on a freelander 2. I have however replaced other clutches on cars due to warn out clutchplates and broken fingers on the presure plate.
On inspecting a new clutch plate and presure plate I have for a freelander 2 I have noticed a few things.
Firstly on the presure plate there is a self adjusting system that adjusts as the clutch friction plate as it wears.
My thoughts on this design is this. On close inspection of the auto adjuster it would appear to me that this could very easy become clogged with dust from clutch as i wears and not adjust properly causing clutch slip and premature wear and early failure of the friction plate.
My next comments would have to be on the presure plate itself. For this type of car and weight it would appear that the fingers of the presure plate do not look man enough for the job it is suppose to do.
I would of thought a much more heavy duty unit would of been fitted here bearing in mind of the stress and loads that are likely to be placed on it.
verdict, Presure plate and clutch plate not man enough for the job it is intended to do. outcome, premature failure and this will continue untill there is a revision of this problem and a more heavy duty unit is available to replace the original weaker one.

Increased pedal load might be understanderable with a cable.
But with hydraulic actuation? Another member of the failed FL2 clutch/DMF club, twice.

Pedal load should be proportional to spring pressure so would expect that if I have to push harder that I am working against a higher load, no science here though, it only feels firmer

Nice animation of a DMF can be found here

 138,000 miles & counting