Clutch Diagnosis

[cpa]

Driving home tonight, I noticed my clutch pedal would go about two-thirds to the floor with no resistance at all, a "floppy" pedal. When I'd get close to the floorboard, I would then feel resistance and the pedal would engage and shift normally, except there would only be release pressure about a third of the way back up. Next shift, the process felt the same.

I noticed at a stoplight if I pumped the clutch, it seemed to get better for a shift or two, but then went back to the "floppy" pedal routine.

I'm going to the track on Thurdsday, and would rather not break something if I don't have to.

Last time out to the track (about three weeks ago) on the last run of the night I did notice an "organic" smell from the clutch area. I have an ACT clutch with a street/strip organic disk. The clutch was fine from then until today though.

I'm going to go and see if I can check the fluid level and hopfully that's it. Would it be the master cylinder or clutch slave cylinder? Other thoughts?

[JRCivic]

Check under the dash to see if there is fluid leaking out of the middle of the rubber seal on the end of the clutch master cylinder... where the pushrod comes out and meets the pedal. If it is leaking, it is time to swap the clutch master cylinder... AND swap the slave cylinder at the same time. It will break shortly after anyway... kind of like headlight bulbs blow one after the other !!!

[cpa]

Thanks, I'll check there. I didn't see anything leaking outside of the car, but my fluid was low. So, I refilled it for now and the pedal felt better in the garage. We'll see how she drives today.

[CivicR]

As Jim said...you need to look under the dash/inside the car for the leak from the clutch MC...not the outside...

[cpa]

Thank you much. Brake fluid on the floorboard - that's where all the fluid went! Now I've got new master and slave cylinders, at least the first ones lasted 104,000 miles.