Hey All,
I was driving into work today on the highway...Once I reached my exit, I pushed in the clutch to down-shift and instantly lost MOST of my clutch pressure. The car is still driveable, but has a similar feeling to riding the clutch while starting out and shifting and the pedal is very soft. I limped it to work as i have a 50 mile drive and was closer to work than home while it happened. As I type this the car sits outside...I am looking for any advice or info you can offer.
Car has just under 100k on it and has had (2) slave cylinders (I think) replaced. Both of the times I had to replace the slave cylinders, the pedal went to the floor and never came back. I have been reading this morning about a design flaw w/ the placement of a hydraulic line...Now i'm thinking the previous two "issues" were related to this and I got hosed by the dealer...No pun intended? Could my issue today be related.
Please help!
Thanks,
-Jordan
What year and motor is your car?
It's a 2004 w/ the 2.2 Ecotech (non-Flexfuel).
Any chance you have the habit of keeping your foot on the pedal and don't completely take the pressure off? Aka "riding the clutch". It's a very effect give way of destroying slave cylinders. It causes the throwout bearing to be engaged too much and can transfer a lot of heat to it. Not trying to give you a hard time...just asking.
Dennis
When I'm not shifting, I have my foot on the floor next to the clutch. I don't consider myself to be a clutch rider.
Did u change the clutch out with the slave cylinder? More often than not the clutch gets soaked with fluid and needs to be replaced as well.
The clutch has never actually been replaced. The last slave cylinder was replaced around 30k miles ago. I took the car to my mechanic last night and he seems to think it's just the clutch wearing out.
The best way I can describe the feeling is this: There used to be a point while pressing the clutch that would get harder and haarder; once you pushed through this point...It relaxed and went to the floor. A similar feeling to when you draw back a compound bow...If that makes any sense? That peak of pressure is no longer there. When I press the clutch now...It just goes to the floor.
It seems driveable, but definitely not normal.