mjweston

just started noticing the past two days...1) clutch travels almost 60% down to floor before catching 2) it's becoming more and more difficult to shift without roughness in stick 3) when coasting down the highway in 5th or 6th gear, I can depress the clutch almost 75% to floor before the car responds. 4) still able to use the clutch and shift but getting worse and worse. is this likely the slave or master cylinder or is the clutch adjustable? just hit 105,000 on a 2004 year model.

advice? suggestions?

thanks

mike

V6 Donut

did you check to see if you have fluid in the reservoir?

slalom44

As iridedumped suggests, your symptoms are consistent with low clutch fluid. Adding fluid to the reservoir won't fix this because now you have air in your line. You need to bleed your line at your slave cylinder.

Some people will tell you that you need either a new clutch master cylinder or slave cylinder. I suggest that you bleed the line, look for leaks, and see how long before your level drops.

If you detect a leak, obviously you need to replace something. But if it's like mine, you may have to top off your reservoir once every year or two.

mjweston

ok. thanks. topped off the fluid level and then drove it for about 10 minutes. pedal feels normal. I will drive it a few more days and see if the pedal issues return. if not I may just adopt a wait and see. cost to replace both slave and master ranges from $350 to $950. (950 at the dealer

mjweston

okay. thanks. out of curiosity, what causes air to develop in the lines so that they have to be bled? do you only have to bleed the line once and then you are just adding fluid every 1 or 2 years or do you have to re bleed as well. I guess if you are adding fluid that infrequently, you may still have a leak but it must be a very very small one?

stupkid

If the fluid gets dirty it can leak through the master. And if it gets low enough in the reservoir it can suck in air. Mine was pretty low and kind of leaking through the firewall when I got my car. The fluid was pretty dirty so I changed it out and no more leaks. Then about a year later my friend's mom, a supervisor at honda, gave me a master and slave and I swapped them both out in about an hour using the DIYs found on here. Didn't need to replace them but did it anyways haha.

And I have the same fluid from about a year ago in there right now, changed the fluid a few times because I did some other work and thought I might as well change the fluid while I'm under there. It still works fine and is still pretty clean.

slalom44

When your fluid level is low and you press on the clutch, you're pushing air into the line. Adding fluid to the reservoir won't displace the air already in the line. The air bubble won't go away by itself. That's why you have to bleed the line.

It's hard to tell how often you will have to add fluid. In my case I couldn't find any leaks or even wet spots around the master or slave cylinders. When it got spongy I bled out the line, giving me fresh fluid throughout. After about a year I started to see the level in the reservoir drop a little, so I topped it off. No need to bleed it each time, but it's a good idea to replace and bleed your clutch fluid every few years to keep everything from rusting out - brake fluid is hygroscopic (absorbs water) which will corrode metal.

tr8al

Did not know where exactly to post this but I thought it would help to save the members money. Majestic seams to be the first name for an OEM clutch kit. Their price delivered to NJ was $777. Just ordered from Real Honda Parts.com in Texas. Their price delivered $731.88. Next best was Auto Fair Honda.

P.S. The Pilot bearing is included with the flywheel, no need to order seperatly.

engifineer

If leaked, it will leak again eventually.

The previous owner of my car had the fluid run low on him. He thought it was the master cylinder and bought one and topped it off in the meantime. Didnt leak for the last 8 months he owned it. I was at a test n tune (autox) this past weekend, got it nice and hot. At the competition even the next day, it leaked and I almost did not have enough pedal to get me through the event. He had already given me all the spare parts, so I went home and took the 20 min to change the cylinder and bleed it

Leaks do not permanently go away, and if the fluid is low, it will eventually be low again at some point unless you fix it.

In case you do not see where it leaks, the master cylinder will most times leak into the floorboard, but on this car it actually goes behind the carpet and from what I can tell, through a body seam. I never had a wet spot on the floor and when I jacked it up, it started running out from a plastic guard under the car where it came through a body seam.

mjweston

thanks. we did now find a leak right under the dash (near above the clutch) pedal, so we know the master is leaking/oozing. plan is to bleed and replace the master and then check the slave to see if it is also leaking. I think the leak on the master is probably very slow but, knowing it IS leaking, I've decided to replace. I'm assuming that it will be easy to visually look at the slave cylinder and see if it is dry or not.