V70 P3 D5 - Clutch Bleeding Issue & EGR Cooler

[duncanellison]

Hi Brains Trust, I need help.....

I've had a few years of the coolant intermittently getting frothy and being lost to the point where the warning light comes on. Figured it was a head issue and I confirmed this with the usual CO tester. Resigned myself to scrapping the vehicle rather than a £4,000 repair bill.

However... local garage told me they have had five Volvos in the last year with similar symptoms and it turned out to be a pinhole in the EGR cooler. Bought a new one for £200 and fitted it and the engine now runs and passes the CO test with ease.

However ..... it's a real struggle to get to the rear bolts on the EGR and to assist, I unclipped the clutch pipe union to get the flexible pipe out of the way, figuring, no biggie, I'll just bleed it at the end of the job.

Jumped in to start the engine and the clutch pedal went straight to the floor, no resistance at all - aaaagh. Figured that I probably had air in the system now, so went to slacken the bleed nut on the plastic part on the clutch housing to find that it won't turn no matter what I do.

VIDA says slacken the nut, pump the pedal 20 times, relock the nut - easy. But 1) there's absolutely no pressure on the pedal, so no chance of it moving fluid to the slave cyl. and 2) if I put much more pressure on the bleed screw, I'll likely shear off the plastic part and then be in a much bigger amount of pain.

At this stage, I'm ruling out some big issue with the clutch mech. itself as it was working 100% fine before I (stupidly) undid the coupling, but has anyone seen this before and got any guidance for me?

[duncanellison]

Well, solved one problem at least. Why did no-one tell me the big nut on the clutch bleed pipe is actually a counter hold for the smaller one which is actually the thing that unscrews - doh! Still got absolutely no pressure from the master cylinder though. Will try a pressure bleeder next.

[duncanellison]

UPDATE: After a lot of messing around, I seem to have my clutch back. I had to use a pressure bleeder at 25psi to get the system to prime, then about 150 pumps on the pedal with the bleed screw partially open.

Prior to this, there was absolutely no resistance on the pedal at all, just as though the linkage had fallen off.

After checking what's required on VIDA to change the slave cylinder or the plastic bleed screw assembly (Driveshafts / Starter motor / front sub frame / transmission and all it's connections / tons of special tools etc etc) I think I dodged a bullet.