Soviet

Yes, I have searched. However I feel the other threads covering this matter have been poorly documented. Car is a MY2001 w/ 40k.

Progression of symptoms (All within a few hours over 20 miles of driving)
- Car was locked out/grinding when downshifting into second.
- Downshifting from 6-5-4-3 on the highway required more effort than usual, and sometimes wouldn't work at all.
- Finally I come to a stop, put the car in neutral, and when I go to leave the red light the car will not go into gear at all.
- Forcefully jam the car into third and head home.
- At this point I notice a whining sound as I depress the clutch.

I searched s2ki on the matter and determine the following troubleshooting procedure.
1. Check Fluid (This appeared to solve most people's problems if it was low).
2. Bleed Clutch Fluid (This appeared to get air out of the system and also solve most peoples problems).
3. Replace master/slave cylinder.
4. Replace clutch/fork/spline/something?

The OPs weren't very good about following up with how the problem was actually solved.
- OP simply replaced his clutch and said everything seemed to be working fine.
- The other OP didn't respond back with his progress

SO...
1. I checked my fluid and it was topped up. It was dirty, but topped up. I was told a competition stage 2 clutch was put in about 5k on this car so I assume the system was bled.
2. Bled the clutch fluid, made absolutely no difference.
3. I am at a point where I am thinking about replacing the master/slave cylinder however I am unable to clearly see a leak around the cylinders.

I did however discover a puddle of what seems like clutch fluid under my car after taking the video. I checked to see if my clutch fluid level changed but it didn't appear to. Given that this leak is far away from the slave I am leaning towards replacing the master cylinder.

Here is a picture of the leak. The real source is obfuscated by the plastic liner. You are looking behind the front driver's side wheel.



Also I recorded this video after bleeding the system. Towards the end the clutch had pedal had no effect and wouldn't pull the car out of gear:

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VE0G9ASFQiE&feature=youtu.be[/media]

My plan of action is to order a new slave/master cylinder however I thought I would consult the s2ki gods first.

Soviet

Halp

starchland

Driving, Can you shift gears w/o the clutch?

What happens withs the car off?

Something is not allowing the clutch to do its job, pp, clutch disc, would be my guess

Soviet

Haven't really tried shifting gears without the clutch. Isn't that pretty terrible? Won't that grind hard?

When the car is off I have no trouble going through the gears. I moved the car in/out of my garage by just putting it in first, then turning it off. And then putting it in reverse, etc.

Wouldn't losing hydraulic pressure make the clutch pedal pretty ineffective?

starchland

Yes losing hydraulic pressure is bad
If you can get it to shift w/o the clutch by matching revs, it will help rule out a tranny issue. I would say the noise it's making points to something internal

AE_Racer

jack up the car and support it properly. have someone depress the clutch pedal while you observe the slave cylinder. you should see the piston move the fork a decent amount. this will rule out clutch hydraulics.

also, if the master is bad it generally leaks inside the car down the firewall.

Soviet

OK. Thanks. I'm currently out the country and need the car to be running the day after I get back so I may just pull the trigger and buy the master/slave since I do have some visible fluid leak and the car is 14 years old. Since its an easy install, hopefully I can pop it in before I need to use my car.

Danfotoman

i had a slow leak from the slave, i kept filling the clutch fluid but it was ruining too many pairs of shoes. some say it goes away, some say it's just the o-ring, but replace both master and slave. other leak hot spots on ap1....oil filter housing (and hoses) and vtech solenoid. i have an '02 w/80k/mi, she runs fine, but at age 13, shit's gotta get changed up

Soviet

UPDATE: I got back from vacation and just changed the master clutch cylinder and bled the system. Nothing has changed.

I have the car up on jackstands right now. One thing I noticed in this state is that as I press the clutch pedal, it feels like there is a thumping going on. Very strange. I may try to bleed the clutch some more as I haven't gone through 500ML.

Soviet

Bled the system again more fully, nothing changed. The clutch pedal vibrates heavily when pressure is applied.