A bit of excitement for an old bloke

[Rocky]

Out on my weekly 'B' road run this morning and all of a sudden the clutch pedal has no resistance.
I didn't want to believe what just happened but I knew I didn't dream it.
Playing with revs and banging the lever around I managed to get it into 4th and travelled the 10 klms back to the main road at a steady pace trying to recall all the tricky bits between me and the closest garage. I got it into 3rd and lucked it through a busy unregulated open-road intersection on to the main road back to town and then struggled the length of the passing lane to get into 4th again. Drove the 10 klms back to town in 4th and timed my way through several sets of traffic lights on major intersections and a couple of roundabouts and got it into 2nd for the last tricky intersection and the quick U-turn into the garage on the other side of the road.
Timed a gap in the traffic and turned into the garage driveway only to find some old dick in a Commode parked almost in the middle of the driveway. With the car almost stalling I managed to creep through the gap with a couple of cm on each side. Got abused by a big mutha in a 4WD for my trouble.
New Slave cylinder required - 80,000 klms & 20 years so I guess that is fair (?)
Asked them to do the brake fluid, diff and gearbox while they have it up on the hoist. Guess I'm up for the best part of a grand.
Last clutch was in my Nissan Bluebird at about the same mileage. Had to push it across a railway crossing.

[CeramicND]

If you're doing the slave cylinder, may as well do the master as well. That's $200 in parts.

Sent from my SM-A315G using Tapatalk

[charcoal]

At least you have the reassurance that "Crystal" has increased in value substantially over the last year...probably doubled from the last Shannon's valuation.
Sorry to hear about your misfortune and well done to be able to limp it to the repair shop without any incident.

[Rocky]

Thanks Charcoal. Not sure I'm understanding. You're saying there has been a change in valuations?

Good point Ceramic. I was wondering that myself. I guess there is not really any way to inspect the Master. In my limited recollection of these things the Master tends to last a bit longer than the Slave but if the Slave is corroded then you would expect that the Master would be too.(?)

[StillIC]

I have:
dríven from Geelong to Avalon to Geelong to North Melbourne with no brakes, only park brake.
dríven across town with no clutch, rev matching all my gear changes and choosing roads so as I didn't stop. Except I did stop, and then took off on the starter motor (I feel your pain).
Drove to Uni with no clutch master fluid, then got there, parked and used a biro body with my thumb on one end to transfer fluid from my brake master so I could get home hassle free.
dríven from Eastern Creek to Newcastle with coolant leaking out of the throttle body on to my alternator, which then started failing at Hornsby (I wrapped a rag around it) filling the coolant every 25 km.
dríven for a week with a blown head gasket, refilling coolant every 5 km.
dríven from Putty to Tenambit stuck in 5th gear (where it took me about 30 minutes to get through one uphill, traffic lit intersection in Rutherford).
dríven from Eastern Creek to suburban Penrith with a shorted ECU, maximum speed 70 km/h downhill, 25 km/h uphill.
Did a whole day supersprint at Wakefield without a working ignition relay, stalling the engine on the brake to stop it and hot wiring it to start.

But I have never had to push a car across a railway crossing. Holy crap!

[Rocky]

Thanks for that Still - very entertaining.
Wife gave me a serve for not just parking it and calling a tow-truck.
I am amazed at some of the innovative 'fixes' people come up with to get a car home. We had two young Canadian blokes drop in on their Australian tour. They arrived in a completely knackered first model Tarago that they had bought off another tourist for a Grand. They had a "Bill of Sale" consisting of a hand-written receipt on an exercise book page from the previous "owner" who had in turn bought it off someone else - all without Transport Dept. involvement. The Tarago literally expired as it pulled up outside our home, dropping a considerable amount of sump oil into the gutter. They had dríven the last several hundred Ks with a 10 litre bottle of Coolant hand-held on the dashboard gravity-feeding through a long piece of hose into the radiator. When the lads eventually left a week later the Tarago remained and I eventually found someone who would take it away for the parts.

[The American]

If you just have the slave cylinder replaced, it is three bolts accessible from below, plus the fluid line to disconnect, and then the reverse with the new cylinder. 10 minutes setting up a vacuum bleeder to bleed, and that should be it.

As the slave cylinder is $80-100 and there would be less than 2 hours work, I can’t see you getting a $1000 bill for the job.

[Rocky]

You're right, of course, American. I have now decided to put a new Master cylinder in as well so I will get to spend my Grand after all.

[wyrdeman]

While you are there you may want to look at replacing the clutch lines (both hard and rubber) with a single line.

An example: https://www.mx5parts.co.uk/clutch-line- ... -4224.html or
https://mx5mania.com.au/products/braide ... lave-na-nb

This makes just one line from the master to the slave and made bleeding easier (for me).

Nick

[greenMachine]

Wot he said ^^^

[Rocky]

Now there's a good idea. It will have to be when I next get the fluids changed as I am kind of hoping to get my car back before the weekend and it won't happen if I keep phoning the Garage owner and adding jobs to his list. If it looks like still being in the garage next week I will order one of those and tell him to hang on to the car until it arrives.

[Snowmotion]

At least you were moving when it went.
I had same thing (98 NB) but when I was pulling up to lights.. That tested me.
Eventually worked out I could start it in 1st and drive the few km's home.

I did as other suggested, swapped out all old parts of the system while i was doing it.

[PaulF]

I'm surprised that you guys have had such rapid slave cylinder failures. I've experienced multiple slave failures in multiple cars, including my NA, and they've always started as slow leaks - sit at the lights with the clutch in and the friction point slowly drops to the floor until you're stalling even though the pedal is in the carpet.

That reminds me: I learned the hard way that a genuine Mazda slave (or rebuild kit) is the worth the extra cost over a cheaper aftermarket unit.

[93_Clubman]

New slave cylinder required - 80,000 klms & 20 years so I guess that is fair (?)

Replaced original on my 1993 NA8 in 2004, & replaced the replacement around 2014 - still ok.

[Rocky]

OK, that's interesting Clubman - about every 10 years or so. I think my first and only on my Bluebird was about 15 yrs/100,000 klms.
I'm thinking I will have the 2006 Mazda 6 Hatch done later this year as it has 15 yrs/85,000klms on board and must be heading into that territory. It is mainly dríven by the Missus so we don't want any unexpected clutch issues.

Got Crystal back today with new Master & Slave fitted. Also Diff & Gearbox oil changed. $612.
They forgot to do the brakes so I will take it in again in a couple of weeks and they can flush the radiator as well. Maybe new fuel filter too.