Clutch issues :(

[solo_ryder]

Ok, so in the last 3 days, my clutch is slowly getting worse, allow me to explain.

I have been noticing a "chunky" feeling in my pedal lately, now it is at the point where the pedal is stiff and has more vibration then normal in it, it is not as easy to get into first as it used to be and it seems low on the pedal. However it still grabs fine at high rpm... I inspected the clutch in February and it was fine, I had the flywheel resurfaced, the slave cylinder is also new and I bled the line for what seemed to be forever until that nasty fluid was gone. The slave seems to fully engage the clutch from what I see... but when driving it seems the distance between where the clutch used to grab and now is much shorter, its hard to explain but it is horrible and very frusterating

SO what can it be?

A bad pressure plate?

Air in the line?

Bad slave or master?

Need help here guys!

[TREVO123]

Sounds like your pressure plate is startin to go and gettin Gettin tooo loose or to hard.. either or..

[solo_ryder]

Yea, I think so too, I may go get a ACT one

[solo_ryder]

OK, abit of an update.. I was thinking to myself.. why would I "feel" a bad clutch via a hydrolic clutch system? Well I bled my slave cylinder and this grey/clear s--- came out. I bled it a few times and drove around, the clutch was perfect and light for about 20 min then got shitty again. That leads me to believe that :

1. My slave is bad (even though it is new)
2. My master is shitty
3. My fluid can cause this (it is dirty)

I bled my brakes for about 30 minutes one time and i could barely get it to come through clean, the whole system is dirty and this may have something to do with it.

[jeremypotter74]

Thats how a big problem started for me. at first it felt like yours, within a couple of weeks the throwout bearing started making some noise and then, BAM, everything flew apart.

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[hgallegos915]

I would look into it before that happens.. same thing here.. it started to vibrate.. a few weeks later.. i would say like 6 lol BAM it all fell apart and the car was stuck in gear.. luckily the case didnt break.

[solo_ryder]

Well, I bled out some fluid from the clutch line and it was nasty! I think the whole system is dirty as I recently topped it up and bled the fluid till it was clean. Now the clutch is alot better. I am going to replace the slave again and get the system flushed.

[princessgurl]

That doesn't sound good at all

[solo_ryder]

That doesn't sound good at all

Sure isn't.. You trying to get your post count up

[princessgurl]

yeah i'll work on that

[Kirk95gs]

yeah i'll work on that

Off to a great start!

[princessgurl]

lol !!!!

[zzzoomx3]

throw out bearing - very same thing happened to me in my RX7. it was the throwout - but i had to replace it all because of it.

[pippagrrrl]

solo_ryder.... I was just wondering how your situation turned out? I'm having issues with my clutch, but I don't think the entire thing needs to be replaced (hopefully!!!!!).

So, what happened is that my car was fine. The clutch was fine, no noise, no vibrations, nothing. Maybe adjusted a little low, but I like that. Anyway, on Sunday, I went to pick up a friend. As I said, everything was fine. About 2 hours later, we hopped in my car to go to the store, and all of a sudden, I could barely put it into gear. It grinded a little bit putting it into reverse, but otherwise, all the other gears were just extremely difficult to get into gear - no grinding. The next morning, I was going to take it to have it looked at, but I couldn't get it into gear at all.

Now, I've driven manuals a lot. I love them and prefer them. I've had clutches go bad, and I've had a transmission go bad. But it has NEVER happened like this. It has always started to slip first and there were always fair warning signs. I've never had this happen before??!!!??

I'm a broke, broke, BROKE college student who has been without a car for almost a week now, with like next to no money to fix it. I was quoted almost $1000 to replace the clutch (OMG)!! I don't know what to do at this point. The car isn't drivable right now because I can't get it into gear. After a ton of research the past couple of days, I FINALLY figured out that my brake and my clutch fluid come out of the same reservoir. But that reservoir is full. The fluid is dark, which doesn't seem right to me. Perhaps it's dirty?? I don't know....

So, do you have any ideas about what the problem could be? How do you flush the system? How difficult is it to replace the slave and/or master cylinders? From what I've been able to tell, this may in fact be the issue???

Any help/advice from anyone would be GREATLY appreciated!! I love my MX-3! But, I also have to have a car to get around!! And I can't justify spending $800-$1000 to fix it. Oh, and I have a 1992 MX-3 5 spd 4 cylinder 1.6L! Thank you sooooooo much!!!!

[LongJohn]

Yes, the clutch shares a reservoir with the brakes. Regarding the original poster, and not pippagrrrl, if you are getting junk in your fluid, you should bleed the clutch and all of the brake lines. You are probably getting junk pumped back in from the brakes.

Be careful with running out of fluid. My MX-3 ran out of fluid while my wife was driving it, and the clutch self destructed -- one of the anti-chatter springs popped out and jammed the clutch so it wouldn't disengage.

Does the clutch pedal feel softer than it used to? Don't trust looking at the side of the reservoir. Pop the cap and look inside. My old fluid had stained the reservoir and made me think the fluid was fine when it was not.

With the engine off, put it in first, push in the clutch, and start the car. Does it lurch forward, and if so, does hitting the brakes cause the engine to stall? If not, your clutch is still disengaging, and I would strongly recommend flushing out the old fluid (and make sure there is no air in the line).