Had the first major roadtrip with the '04.5 last week into the weekend...drove basically straight through from the Dallas area to Central Illinois with the only stops being for fuel or rest areas. Then did the same thing a few days later coming home. Operating temp is presumed to have been roughly normal although the outside temps were rapidly dropping on the way up, getting into single digits by the time I arrived at the destination (and then not getting above freezing on the way home until I was back in Texas).

At a few points where we got off the freeway and had to stop at an intersection, I found that if I kept the clutch pedal fully depressed in anticipation of the green light, it hung up a little before engaging. No such issue was observed if I was in neutral and then waited for the light to depress the clutch pedal and put it into gear.

There were no noticeable issues in shifts between the gears once moving.

Prior to the trip and for the life of the vehicle since I first acquired it last summer, there has been a very slight pulsation on the clutch pedal at idle.

At present, the car has a little over 133K miles on it, and the clutch is presumed to be the original.

Not having had a manual Jag prior to either the '03 or the '04.5 X-Types in the current stable, I wasn't sure if this is simply indicative of benefiting from a flush of the clutch fluid or whether this is early warning of a clutch that is going to grenade on me sometime in the foreseeable future...any guidance will be appreciated.

Side note from the trip...car rode extremely well and I was more than content with my fuel mileage...got just under 26MPG while averaging a little over 70MPH for the drive.

 

Holding the clutch pedal fully depressed at red lights is rough on the throw out bearing because the bearing is loaded and spinning at engine speed. Perhaps heat from the throw out bearing is causing the hydraulic part of the throw out bearing to bind. I strongly recommend always shifting to neutral and releasing the clutch at red lights and such.

I doubt the 'hang up' is indicative of imminent clutch failure; rather, I would take that as a warning to stop holding the clutch pedal at red lights!

I can't imagine that flushing the clutch hydraulics would hurt anything. At best, it may flush out any crud that might be contributing to the 'hang up'.

I don't think the slight vibration in the clutch pedal is related to the clutch 'hang up' or anything to worry about.

 

I don't ordinarily hold the pedal in...but the concern was raised by seeing this happen after having close to 400 miles at one fell swoop before coming to a stop. The lights were the sort of intersection that in the wee hours of a morning tend to be demand lights that go green almost as soon as the sensor is tripped. The comparison was local stuff where I come just shy of roll-stopping intersections where there is no cross-traffic.

The last time I had any sort of an issue with any of the manual-equipped vehicles was when I grenaded the Miata a few years back...that was at speed when it just let loose in fifth gear and left me with nothing but fourth (direct drive). That was a fun few weeks of slipping the clutch to get going while awaiting the replacement from Flyin' Miata...

Since I know there are a few other manual tranny X-Types in the forum, I didn't know whether this was something that would have resulted in the 'oh yeah...*groan*...been there...prepare to pony up for XYZ.'

 

You probably have air or moisture in your clutch fluid, that expands as the engine and trans warm up. I would bet your problem will go away with a complete fluid change.....