Ok, so the other night I was driving around and I was sitting at a red light with my clutch all the way in and the car in 1st. The car started to move forward like an automatic and when I tried to take it out of gear I couldn't pull it like the clutch was out. I did the only thing I could which was push the brake and let go of the clutch, killing the car. This happened once and didn't happen again until yesterday, when it started doing it more frequently. Here's the raw symptoms:

• Car shifts just fine at speed
• Clutch engages even though pedal is in
• Only does it while sitting still with clutch pedal all the way in
• Pedal loses almost all pressure after dying but regains after pumping a few times

DEATH said that he had a similar problem and replacing the slave cylinder fixed the problem. Any ideas?

sounds like you have a leak in your clutch hydraulic line system, either air is getting into it from somewhere, either at the slave cylinder, or at the clutch master cylinder, another possibility is that you clutch master cylinder is worn out. Causing the fluid to escape past the piston inside the clutch master cylinder, resulting in a loss of pressure. It would also create the symptoms you described.

-Try changing your clutch slave cylinder, its fairly easy to do it yourself.

-If that fails then replace your clutch master cylinder, i did this myself on my car and it wasnt hard, but its nice to have a helping hand around and such.

Good Luck
Hope this info helps

Cool. So that's my first attempt. Here's the big question:

Is the slave cylinder located inside the gearbox or more importantly, do I have to take the gearbox off to get to the slave cylinder? (I don't know what it looks like or where it is)

the slave is right in the front of the tranny. There is a hard line that wraps around and feeds into it. If you open your hood and look down you should see it right under the radiator hose.

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You are my personal hero.

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no the slave cylinder is bolted onto the outside of the gearbox.

if you open your hood, look down to where your gearbox and engine meet up, you will see either a little blue or brown slave cylinder.

sorry i dont have a good picture to show you where it is located, but i think you can find it.

Good luck

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But what about the master cylinder? I'm guessing the gearbox has to come off for that. I shoulda replaced it when I did my clutch but there are a lot of things I wish I knew then that I know now.

This post has been edited by thespacepanda: Feb 12, 2008 - 5:58 PM

pic of a slave clyinder



pic of a master - it's in the right upper corner right below the white vac routing sticker




the slave is located right under the 2 coolant hoses.

you'll need to bleed the system after you replace either of these, keep in mind.

Thank god I don't have to drop the tranny. I've never bled the clutch hydraulic system before. I'll probably ask my friend at the shop how to do that cuz I assume it's complicated. Then again I have made incorrect assumptions before....

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clutch bleeding is a quick two man job!
Open the bleeder valve on the clutch slave, its got a little rubber cap on it.
Pop the cap of off the reservoir on the master cylinder.
Pump the clutch. add fluid to the reservoir, pump the clutch some more, add fluid..
keep doing this till you are confident no air bubbles are still coming out of the bleeder valve

then close the valve, top off ur reservoir, close everything up, and roll off like a champ.

Just bleeding the system often cures clutch problems

Well great. Isn't this lovely.

So we replaced the slave cylinder and completely drained and refilled the reservoir. I bled the the valve and made sure there was no air in the system and my clutch felt nice and stiff again. Start the car and try to shift....

BAM. Still doing the same thing. Anybody got any ideas besides the master cylinder?

om having the same problem, and i replaced my entire clutch and master cylinder very recently before the problem started, i just ordered a slave cylinder so i'll try putting that in and hopefully it will remedy the situation. although spacepandas last post has me worried.