NA8 Clutch Troubles

[kazman]

Hey guys,

I think my clutch may be shot, but before I fork out for a new one I thought I'd check with the forums

Symptoms are:
Yesterday I noticed my clutch engaging closer to the firewall for the first 2-3 shifts after starting it before and after work, however it felt normal after that so I hoped I was imagining it. Today, I noticed the same thing but on the way home this arvo it got much worse. The first time I would engage the clutch after a stop it felt normal, 2nd time it was close to the firewall, 3rd time it was engaging with my foot to the firewall and attempting to stall the car (repeated numerous times, with the same results). Sitting at traffic lights the car would attempt to stall after a few seconds (with my foot on the clutch and the gearbox in 1st). However, when driving at speed it would shift without too much trouble and the clutch engaged at a fairly normal level .

I gave the slave a quick bleed, and although the fluid looked quite old/brown there were no apparent bubbles. The master cylinder seems to be squeaking a little, and the slave cylinder appears to have around 20mm travel (can't tell what's happening while the clutch is playing silly buggers though). There seems to be a bit of bearing noise with the clutch depressed, although I don't know if that was always there or not.

Background on the car: It has 190k km, I've put 30k of those on in the last 6 months, and I give it a regular thrashing.

If you bothered to read through all that I'd appreciate your opinion on what's gone wrong (NitroDann to the rescue? ), as it currently seems I'll be dropping it off at a mechanics tomorrow morning for them to sort it out.

Cheers fellas,

Kieren

[Russellb]

Slave or Master Cylinder bypassing internal
A worn out clutch slips will slip when trying to accelerate in a 4th or 5th

[droo]

I had this with my NA8 a few months ago.
The engagement got closer and closer to the firewall, all in the space of a week i was changing gears normally having to crush the pedal to the floor.. then I couldn't engage first gear at all.


Turns out BOTH my master and slave clutch bits were leaking.

I ended up replacing both with non genuines for $160 or $180 from a local clutch specialist (both were cheaper then non genuine parts from repco/supercheap/bursons and *cough* autobarn.. and both arrived the next day (unlike a lot longer as advised from the other sellers.

Removal and installation is very straight forward.
Just need to raise your car for the slave one..

I also made a batch of 50% auto transmission fluid and 50% acetone as a WD40 replacement as i began to strip off one of the clutch line banjo bolt heads. (is that what they're called?)

the mixture worked amazingly well and the bolt heads came loose with bugger all effort (with a normal spanner) after leaving them soak for 5 min.

You'll need a mate to help you re-bleed your clutch line. That was the single hardest part of the change over in my experience.

[JBT]

Yep, hydraulic system problem most likely.

[kazman]

Thanks for the replies, I ended up taking it to a mechanic this morning as I wasn't sure of the problem and didn't want to replace parts willy-nilly trying to repair it. I was told that the clutch fluid was contaminated, so the clutch master and slave cylinders were replaced.

Cheers,

Kieren