So after spending several hours battling the fill and drain bolts, I finally was able to drain and add the 1.8 quarts and get the trans fluid changed. Unfortunately, while it DID quiet down the rattle almost totally which is nice but not important, it didn't do a thing to help the difficulty shifting into every gear that I am having which is a major disappointment. I am by myself so have to way to see or inspect the linkage but I would hope that whatever is causing the problem is a simple quick cheap and easy fix and something that doesn't require or involved opening up or messing around with the transmission in any way, especially since I just went to all that trouble to change the fluid in there. I am covered with cuts, scrapes and bruises and I still have to change the oil and bleed the clutch and that brings me to my next problem.
I have read everywhere that the bleeder valve is 8mm. So I cleaned out the reservoir, bought some fluid and planned on using my adjustable wrench to crack the bleeder. Doused it several times with WD40 and PB Blaster - and it won't move. My wrench just kept slipping off and I was getting worried that I would end up rounding it off so made a special trip to the store and bought a new 8mm and 10mm just to be sure since it looked bigger than 8mm to me, basing in on my ratchets. I can't get the ratchets over the bolt on the bleeder because of the nipple on the valve sticking out too far to get it all the way there. Well the 8mm is too small and the 10mm is too big. WTF? Is this valve SAE? I have searched and searched everywhere and can't find the information anywhere.
Hi, in order to help you we would need to know year, make, model, and engine since these cars were made from 1982-2005 in quite a few variations, I am assuming since you removed the reservoir it is probably a 95-05 which still leaves us with the engine and trans combination variable.
On the inside my car looks like a fighter jet.
The rate at which my problems and disasters are happening makes it hard to keep up posting the status here. Since the last posting, here are some of the fun things that have happened.
I made a second trip to Home Depot, returned the 8mm and 10mm and instead got a 3/8 and a 9mm. The 3/8 didn't fit either - and here is the real mind-boggler - neither did the 9mm but it was "close enough" and was all I could use since I had exhausted all other sizes. Still - the bleeder would not move.
Drove the car from Home Depot to a storage facility where I have some more tools put somewhere, but before I ripped the place apart searching for them, decided to give it one more shot using all of my force with the 9mm. Finally - all of the sudden, it broke free and out spurted a few teaspoons of dirty black fluid all over the inside of the radiator area and on the electrical wiring that runs along the bottom of the cooling fan. I hooked up the clear plastic tubing after closing the bleeder again, filled the reservoir to the top with clean new fluid from my new bottle of DOT-3, pumped the clutch pedal a bunch of times, pushed down the pedal all the way to the floor and wedged something against the driver's seat so it would stay down there, then - back to the bleeder - and opened it up.......nothing. No pressure at all not even a drop. Puzzled, I repeated the same process 2 or 3 more times and then using the same syringe that I used to suck the old fluid out of the reservoir - stuck the tip down into the hole at the bottom of the reservoir and tried to see if there was a vacuum there when I pulled up - there was and it was really strong. But nothing I did up at the top with the pedal, master or reservoir had any effect at all down at the bleeder and slave area. It was as if there was a blockage in the line between the two. As time went by and I was not able (on a Saturday night heading into a Sunday when every place is closed) to get the car into any gear or move it at all, I realized just how much of a problem I was looking at yet still didn't realize how bad things were going to get over the next 24 hours.
The storage place gate locks at 9pm so I wasn't going to be able to get the car out of there by then and it didn't open up again until 6am. I made the unpleasant decision to stay in the car all night with no sleep and then call a tow-truck in the morning. 6am called, truck arrived, got towed to one of the few places open on sunday stood outside the door from 645am until they opened at 8am - inside and long story short, spent from 8am until 5pm there after the parts guy took 5 hours to deliver the first MASTER CYLINDER and then was told that that part was faulty and had to wait another 4 hours for the next one to get there. Got my car at 5pm when the place closed - was charged $400 and when I got out to the car, it was covered with new damage everywhere around the hood and drivers door - scratches, scrapes, paint chips, broken plastic pieces, black marks that won't come off - and then I got in and found the clutch pedal catch / engagement point had moved from the very bottom within the last 10% of travel right at the floor - all the way up to the opposite end at the first 10% so that my left knee hits the steering wheel when I shift gears now.
That is where I am now. I can't even begin to describe how upset and pissed-off I am about the car's appearance and damage cosmetically - but my real question for this forum is about the clutch pedal catch point being so high. Is there a way to adjust that downward so it engages closer to the half-way point - without me having to ever go near this place I spent 10 hours at yesterday again?
We still have no idea what car you have, engine, or trans to answer your question.
On the inside my car looks like a fighter jet.
Just a note since, as mentioned no year or model, the slave cylinder for the trans on the EcoTec will go out at 130,000 miles. I had two do it almost to the mark. My 2005 Cavalier clutch fluid has always been black & will turn black days after I bleed it clean. When it started going out I bled it & that lasted a week, bled then another week, bled then several days & it went totally out.
2001 Cavalier 5-speed manual 229500 miles.
First / original clutch lasted 185K and was replaced 3 years ago so I only have 40K on this new clutch. That cost me $1000 - which I don't have now since I am in a lot worse shape in every respect than I was back then. I am not having any issues with this clutch slipping or showing any of the symptoms that my first clutch did when it was on it's way out - which was basically just slipping. At no time did the bite point change - it was always about half-way down both before and after that clutch was installed.
That is, until this last few months when, as I described - I just thought the sinking clutch was due to dirty or contaminated fluid. I had examined the slave area and all around the master both inside the car up underneath the pedal area and under the hood and it looked just fine. The bottom line is that I don't believe a word this repair shop rip-off place told me and think they screwed something up big-time when they put the new master cylinder in there. I don't really think there was anything wrong with the master to begin with.
No matter how I got to this point, though - my problem is with this crazy - at-the-very-top bite point that I have now. It literally is in the very first centimeter of the last little bit of pedal travel that the clutch engages or disengages. I never had anything like this in all of the years (17) that I've driven this car so I am unhappy, ticked-off and most of all, worried about what the problem is. Having just spent $500 on a new power steering pump 2 months ago that did not stop or solve the original leak that killed the previous pump (probably a rack - which I sure as hell cannot afford) - and now this $400 on the new CMC that has resulted in a situation that was worse than what I started with.....not to mention that I damn near killed myself between the trans fluid change and adjusting the rear/parking brakes (I decided to use the ball of my hand as a hammer when I couldn't get the drum back over the shoes and now I can't move my wrist and it is all swollen and could be broken).
Just spent $300 on 4 new tires so I could pass the state inspection for my tag renewal and I know that when I go to turn on my AC in a few weeks, that is going to be the next disaster. I can just feel it.
Being a 2001 there is no clutch adjustment so with the high pedal it's probably a result of an aftermart master cylinder. My car is the same way after a rino clutch install since that was the only local clutch kit available. If it was air the pedal would be low. The only thing I could say is try an OEM master or space it from the firewall.
On the inside my car looks like a fighter jet.
