Need urgent advice for clutch slave piston fix...

[Madaz-mx5]

My clutch was starting to play around, and after just a few hours it was as if i had no clutch pedal.... meaning if i was to force a gear change it would scrape gears and etc etc

Anyways i somehow drove it to a nearby mechanic and they showed me that there is absolutely no clutch fluid.

He just rang me and said that there is a leak and that an original slave piston kit would cost $165, and labour would cost $165, and total with gst would be $365

It sounded like a huge rip off, maybe cause he thinks I cant take the car to another mechanic anymore (cause its almost impossible to)

Just wanted peoples advice if he is ripping me off or if that is really what its going to cost me

Also, if he is ripping me off, would a refill of clutch fluid (and taking out the air that has built up now) take me an hours drive to my local mechanic??

And one more thing... could the fluid have been used over a long time and thats why it has emptied now? (though i dont remember any uneven fluid levels)

Any advice/ideas would be greatly appreciated

[Garry]

Rip off! Run away now.

If you add some more fluid you might be able to pump up the clutch enough to get you to someone with more realistic prices. It's less than 1 hours labour to replace it. I dont know any mechanic that's worth more than $165/hr. $165 for parts including fitting sounds more reasonable.

[Madaz-mx5]

OK i really thought so....

He has already added fluid and done something to de-air it as it has been used without fluid...

he had to hoist it up and do something..

how much should I pay and run (if i should run?)

[ndragun]

You could fill it with fluid and get it some distance - just try to keep your foot off the clutch... fluid will leak as long as clutch is engaged.

I wouldn't have thought it'd be a hard job - you can reach in and change the slave cylinder through the drivers side wheel arch in about 10 minutes....
But, having said that... you need someone else to help you bleed the fluid... and you can probably charge some to dispose of the old fluid... and i'm not sure how much i paid mazda for the new slave cylinder (165 doesn't sound far off)... so i couldn't really say whether that is expensive or not.

I'd still do it myself anyway.

[jules]

HE IS KILLING YOU ON THE LABOUR!!!

This job should take about 1/2 and hour to do.

1/ Jack up the car
2/ Undo the hose to the slave cylinder (catch the remaining fluid in a tray)
3/ Undo 2 bolts holding the slave to the gearbox
4/ Reattach the new unit and hose
5/ Bleed the cylinder via the small bleed screw on the cylinder.

DONE!

He's obviously bled it on the hoist, so you should be able to drive it as far away as possible from him. This is a piss easy job to do. If you lived up here I'd offer to do it for you for a beer it's that easy.


Jules

[Andrew]

I thought the origional Maxda slaves were around the $100 mark

[Madaz-mx5]

He just called me

I told him nicely that I will take it as it is

He said you are wasting my time its gonna cost you $100 for just the fluid and bleed

I told him to piss off cause he told me $10 for fluid

So now hes taking out the fluid and giving it to me and told me not to go back there ever again

which does my job cause im going down the rd and getting some fluid and leaving!

[Andrew]

All the info i could find on miata.net garage - linkage

[CT]

Now, if he purchased the $50 slave rebuild kit it would take I reckon 2 hours to rebuild and remove and refit said device, plus 5 minutes and 10 bucks of fluid to bleed it. But, if you buy the Mazda unit for say $120, then it only takes about 15 minutes on an hoist to remove and refit, plus the 5 minutes to bleed.

So, the price is not that crazy given the solution - it's just the WRONG solution.

Did you ask him if he priced a new unit?

[Li7hium]

He said you are wasting my time its gonna cost you $100 for just the fluid and bleed
I told him to piss off cause he told me $10 for fluid
So now hes taking out the fluid and giving it to me and told me not to go back there ever again

I have a policy to never piss off the person who effectively has the time, position and ability to do subtle things to my car which I will regret much later on.

I hope this mechanic isn't too spiteful.

Matt

[Bevan]

which does my job cause im going down the rd and getting some fluid and leaving!

That's the best idea. If he's already blead it, he's done the harder part for you! Just top it up and off you go. Hope he hasn't done anything else to your car in the meantime... I'd get down there ASAP and grab it.

[jules]

Nice guy
Bet you're glad you didn't give him all your money now.

So, what part of Sydney are we talking about?


Jules

[Madaz-mx5]

I was in the city right now, but now i dropped the car off in the inner west at my local mechanic

I didnt tell him to piss off i was actually really nice to him and i told him yes I undrstand etc... cause I had the same thought of not saying things to the guy that has my car

I got another mechanic to refill the fluid for $4 (after the guy emptied it)

AND also now at my local mechanic the guy found that the master cylinder is leaking and is really obvious... (holy *&^% could the first guy have stuffed up my master??)

anyways my local mechanic guy called up for aftermarket parts and was quoted $170 for master and $100 for slave and (let me remind you that the first mechanic asked for $165 labour) this guy said hell do both master and slave for $100 labour

Anyways now all im wandering is if he should have gotten genuine mazda

He told me genuine would be alot more costly


Forgot to add.....
The slave 'may' not be damaged, but he is replacing it anyway as a new master will have more pressure, and the old slave may be due for a change anyway

just wanted to add that incase someone has a thought

I can still backout of repairing with these parts if I call him soon cause he ordered the parts when I was there

Double edit: after reading the articles on miata.net, I am totally confused about which ones the master amd which ones the slave!

[kitkat]

master is the one your pedal pushes on, slave pushes on the clutch.

[Uncle Arthur]

MX5 mania does an exchange clutch slave cylinder for next to nix.