2012 V60 D5 - clutch slipping or not?

[shortfat007]

Hi, I have a 2012 V60 D5 with Polestar update, 58k miles. On the motorway last week I noticed that pottering along at 70 and c.2k rpm, if i floor the pedal, the revs jump to about 3000rpm with no appreciable acceleration, then drop back and then the car picks up. Same in fifth. It doesn't happen all the time. I'm not keen to rush to a new clutch and a £1000 bill if I can avoid it. Anyone have any suggestions/ideas? All googling leads to a new clutch and flywheel...

The clutch doesn't slip at all when pullnig away, no shudder etc....

Help!

[Thassos]

Does sound symptomatic of a worn/slipping clutch, in my experiece of worn clutches they tend to show up over say 40/50 mph with foot down say going up hill to produce max load on the powertrain initially, i suppose a leaking clutch slave or anything else leaking onto the clutch could produce a similar effect, keep an eye on the brake fluid resv level incase its csc related, do you know the history, i guess the polestar upgrade is going to give more strain on the clutch with the extra torque so perhaps thats why its showed up at 60k ? i doubt yould need a new dmf / flywheel unless its been really abused...but thats only my thoughts, replaced the clutch on my D5 around 90k due to csc failure (common) but otherwise going strong at around 139k currently with no more clutch issues..

[benr7310]

Definitely sounds like clutch, but doesn't sound too bad. If you're gentle with the throttle it'll last another month or so.

[Zebster]

I wouldn't panic yet.

Your car almost certainly has a self-adjusting clutch, featuring a complex mechanism in the pressure plate to maintain a constant clamping force on the driven plate in compensation for plate wear and spring aging. Unfortunately the controlling ratchet mechanism can become sticky and may then be slow to respond. This is a common problem on Honda diesels with which I am very familiar, having suffered two periods of temporary clutch slippage in the ten years I owned my Accord (which then went to the great scrapyard in the sky at 185k miles, still with its original clutch)... many owners make efforts to 'shock' the self-adjuster into action, often successfully, sometimes by brutal use of the clutch, although I simply drove mine very carefully for a couple of weeks (to protect the driven plate from wear) and on both occasions achieved an apparent full recovery.

[shortfat007]

Thanks folks for your advice, the car is now boked in for clutch, flywheel and slave cylinder work.

Looking forward to being able to put the foot down and make use of some of that Polestar torque!

[Lincolnite]

It will be interesting to see how much wear there is as 58k is nothing for a clutch. Pal of mine has a V70 2.4d with 235k on the original clutch!

In terms of your slippage, I had a Citroen C5 with identical symptoms- which started at about 40k, although the slippage was in 6th gear at a higher speed. Eventually had it looked at & it turned out to be a oil seal which was leaking onto the clutch.

[Toprivetguns]

It might require a gearbox oil change or a simple re-adaption of the gearbox settings. My gearbox has issues with a harsh drop down to third gear. I had a re-adaption under warranty and it cured the issue for the moment.

I'm only commenting because I have a D5 V60 2014 with the polestar upgrade @ 66k

[GMcL]

I've got an S60 D3 with remap running 470+ Nm torque which started doing the same thing last year. I parked the car up over the summer, left it in gear with the handbrake off, while I used my other car. This winter no clutch slip whatsoever. Would confirm what Zebster is saying and the clutch self-adjuster catching up.

My car had a gearbox oil change at 54k miles. I do this with all my cars at around the 50k mark.

[CJL]

They had a problems with clutches around this time. The friction material wasn't up to the job,

[GMcL]

Who's they? Volvo don't make clutches.
Volvo, like all manufacturers, fit gearbox components.