Anyone hav a clue what's going on?

In the summer when we had the blackout in the NE, I was stuck in hot traffic inching along. Later on that evening, I noticed a strange noise as I engaged the clutch, almost a "whirring" noise (sorry, hard to describe). Also, my clutch fluid in the reservoir was black!

What has been happening intermittently since then is that the clutch will engage almost as soon as I release the pedal from the floor. sometimes it is fine, others, it's bad. I can't figure out why it's doing that, I drained most of the fluid and replaced it (turkey baster) but it's still doing it.

I *think* a slave cylinder seal is damaged and letting fluid seep past, causing it to engage sooner, but I really have no idea.

Help!!

 

First, I would completely drain your clutch fluid then refill it and bleed it. Then we can go from there. For the bleeding procedure, do a search on the topic, there have been a ton of posts on it in the past few months.

 

Thanks, I'll try that in the spring. Got a winter beater for now

 

Yeah do that, and if you need a new master cylinder, I have one virtually new (used like 2 months) that you can have for 100CDN$. I live just down the road from you. Well OK about 200 kliks down the road.

 

Thanks. I do have the mcleod adjustable in there, since 2002 sometime, so I hope it's not that. I have a feeling it's the slave cylinder. As a side note, I checked the fluid again today and it was black again. I think either a seal is disintegrating, or the black fluid was still in there from before (in the lower part of the system) and it has just mixed in now.

 

Hey, quick question, how do you drain the fluid from the system? I know how to "bleed" the system, but how do you completely empty the fluid out? Is there a fitting on the slave cylinder braided steel line that will undo allowing me to drain?

 

Not quite sure on that one. I think there is just a flare nut fitting (or something similar) and you can unscrew it. Like a threaded fitting that attaches the hose to the slave cylinder. Double check it, you should be able to just pop your head under the car and look at it. I remember it looking similar to the fittings you get with aftermarket oil gauges and such. HTH

 

INteresting..

I just opened my mcleod box (from 2002) and lo and behold, there's the complete master/slave assembly, with fluid still in it, and what appears to be a brand new stock master cylinder. wtf. i have no idea where the new one came from lol. Anyways, I'll bring it to work tommorrow to see if the shop monkeys know how to get it apart. there appears to be a small roll pin that needs to be driven out, but after that I dunno. thanks for the answers!