Cyber Logic

OK wow... well first off let me give you a littlt bit of background... a few weeks ago my car outta the blue overheated past like 5 bars and into the red for like 2 seconds... I quickly shut the car off as it hit red and coasted to a stop on the freeway and it cooled down and has run great ever since... Now yesterday on the way home I noticed in rush hour I now seem to have white smoke coming out my exhaust... not tons.. but visible... seems to go away by the time I get home 45 minutes later though... anyway so there is that... and then now I go into the garage to go to work and I start the car and notice when I put the clutch in that it feels kind of weird and then I try to shift into reverse and it wont go... no reverse no first nothing... I let the clutch back out and it doesn't move.. just stays down... now I can't get into gear and my clutch pedal moves like 1 inch... what the hell is going on with my car? I've never had a problem up until now... note i've driven the car hundreds of miles in the past few weeks with no issues... plz help!

jyeung528

sounds like a coolant leak.

how's your coolant level.

CKit

Sounds expensive...

fadiss2k

If you pull up on it by hand does it stay up and when you press it it goes thump into the floorboard? If so try bleeding the clutch. The white smoke could be many things that i cannot tell you to diagnose so easily.

Cyber Logic

OK here's an update... the car still will not go into gear but the clutch does go back to it's normal position... when I push the clutch in though it takes like 0 pressure to get it all the way to the floor.. and only like the last inch feels like it has any resistance at all. Any ideas? The clutch pedal is basicly just dead... it goes down with no pressure and returns just the same.

2poor2mod

have you checked the fluid level in the clutch master cylinder? if it is low, refill with DOT3 brake fluid then bleed the clutch to get rid of any air that may be in the lines.

Cyber Logic

Thanks for the suggestion... upon your suggestion I checked the master cylinder and it does appear low to me... I'm not sure how full it's supposed to be... but it's so low i only see a little green fluid wayyy down there where it curves... could this be causing it? How full should I fill it? Also... since I'm missing fluid... and aren't leaking any... any idea's where my clutch fluid went?

2poor2mod

your fluid is very old and has never been replaced im assuming. the fluid if new sould be the tanish clear color of brake fluid because thats what it is. your fluid is very low, fill immediately, there is an indicator line on the side of the resovoir with a min and max level line. I am assuming that the low fluid level has nothing to do with the smoke but i could be wrong, in most cases where the master cylinder is leaking it is where it comes through the firewall into the cabin and attaches to the clutch pedal. it is a common problem with our master cylinders. hope this helps

Cyber Logic

GOOD CALL!!! I filled it to the Max line and bled the clutch and it feels like a new clutch lol... worked great thanks so much! I still gotta find out where the fluid leaked to... is it possible it was burnt away in the last 80k miles? There's all kinds of black and green fluid inside the master cylinder top. I do still have a small amount of smoke coming out of both tailpipes though... any ideas here? Also lots of visible condensation coming out of the both exhaust... bottoms of both pipes look like they are always wet... Anything I can try to figure out what it is?

Polar_Excitation

Hello Sir,

With regards to your white smoke from the tail pipes, this is generally an indication that your are leaking engine coolant into the cylinders and it is emerging as steam from the tail pipes. The cause of the leak is generally attributed to a poor seal between the cylinder head and engine block (e.g. head gasket is not doing the job). Based on the information you provided eariler about overheating the vehicle, you may have warped the surfaces between the head and engine block. If this is the case, your engine coolant level will drop the more you use the car, also the head gasket will suffer and compression/power will degrade.

I would suggest the following:

1) Performing a compression test on the engine. If you warped the head/block you can expect a compression drop.

2) Drain the oil, check for water intrusion.

3) If you continue to use the vehicle, check the coolant level regulary, it will drop if it is making its way into the cylinders.

4) Perform a visual inspection of the edges of the mating surfaces between the head and block, you may see coolant seeping out.

Do some troubleshooting and we'll take it from there....