hokiemax

Hi guys. I think my clutch master cylinder is shot. Here are the symptoms.

1. The clutch pedal resistance progressively decreased over a span of 2-3 days. The pedal does rebound, but resistance is almost non-existent.

2. Can't shif. With the engine running, cant shift the gear out of neutral. With the engine off, it shifts fine.

3. Clutch biting point. It's REALLY low.

What do I do now? Should I have the car towed? If so, what's a reputable shop?
The fluid in the clutch master cylinder is low. Below the "minimum" mark. Should I add fluid and see what it does?


Please help.


NOw come to think of it, maybe that funky smell in the car was the clutch fluid leaking... hmmmmm...


Your help GREATLY appreciated.. thanks..

Suzukuh

Also if you look inside the car where the clutch pedal is you should see fluid leaking out of there. It looks pretty sludgy. I would check that and see if so its the master cylinder.

PJCC

Have you ever flushed the fluid? How many miles does the car has? You can add fluid and see what happens. What's the condition of the clutch? I think you should provide more info.

kvu3

Sounds like your slave cylinder went bad. Mine went bad too when I had the S.

hokiemax

The car is a MY 2000 with 43k miles. This is my 2nd S2000 and I bought it used 1 year ago.


I don't think the clutch fluid has ever been replaced. And I haven't checked for leakage around the pedal area yet. a

How do you tell whether it's the master cylinder or the slave?

nightcrawler7188

could be either. check both..they're both in plan view. since both of them are problem prone you might want to go ahead and swap both for new ones. a new master is ~$75 and a new slave is ~$40

hokiemax

I searched for the clutch cylinder replacement in the DIY section, but couldn't find anything.

Is this a hard job? What's involved? Could someone give me a pointer on where to locate the parts and the install guide?

Oh man I don't enjoy working on cars anymore......

How much would it cost to tow the car to Ptuning in Manassas?

MacGyver

Knowing what I know now, I would have replaced the master cylinder myself when it died last year... it's a fairly easy job, expect to spend a few hours on it if you're not familiar with the process, but there's nothing difficult at all. Same with the slave.

I think the most frustrating process is bleeding the damn thing afterwards

Check the firewall... if you see fluid running down it, it's the master cylinder. If not, check for fluid around the slave... replace if you see some. If no fluid is obvious, it could be a bad internal seal on either, so do one at a time.

nightcrawler7188

totally. locate the cylinders first. you will see it is very straightforward how to take them out. just remove everything attached to them. make sure you use a line wrench/flare nut wrench so that you don't strip the fitting on the clutch hard line

it's also in the honda shop manual. if you don't have one you can find a pdf of it somewhere online

animeS2K

If you're going to bother doing one, might as well do both for the relatively minimal additional cost vs. peace of mind/flushing the whole system, etc. At least that was my philosophy when the slave went recently.

Even having PTuning do it, I believe the total cost for parts and labor was under $300 (don't quote me on that!).