I have a question. My clutch pedel has been acting up latley. It will not be sticky when i turn on the car. I have to pump it 15 to 20 times to get it sticky again. I have to fill up the clutch fluid res. every 4-6 days and sometimes my clutch pedel wont even be sticky at all it will just flat out go to the floor and stay there. This makes it hard to drive back and forth to work and i would really like to hear what every one has to say. I think it is the pump because it is the orig. part and the fact that i have to reaplace the fluid so often. please tell me your diagnosis. Thanks guy & gals

 

Sounds to me like it's a good time to replace your Clutch master and slave cylinders.

 

I guess we'll work with this thread rather than the other one!

From what you described your Clutch Master Cylinder (MC) is probably working just fine - your Slave Cylinder (SC) is likely leaking all of your hydraulic fluid out unless you can find an obvious leak at the MC side. If you run your hand under the MC, you should not feel any fluid leaking from here - if so, it's either the reservoir rubber gasket (external), or the hardline connection that may be leaking (rare, as long as it's torqued down correctly).

Get up under your dash and run your finger along the pushrod that connects your clutch pedal to the inside of the MC piston - if you feel any hydraulic fluid here, or if it's drained down behind your carpeting - clean this up immediately! DOT 3 fluid will eat your paint off in a matter of days and is critical that you get this mopped up and off the protective layer as quickly as possible.

Any fluid leaking, inside or outside, the MC will require MC removal and replacement - or rebuild for substantially less. VB was selling Clutch MC for $49 last month, the rebuild kit is only about $12-15, IIRC. The rebuild kit gets you everything that you need, but if you're not good with your hands, and don't keep things spotlessly clean inside the piston bore, you'll be doing this job again very soon.

For the SC check, reach down and squeeze the rubber boot that holds the metal rod that pushes on the clutch fork and if it feels 'squishy' at all, it's your SC leaking internally. The piston here has a rubber cup that can give out, causing your hydraulic fluid to leak out at the SC, which isn't as visible as the MC leaks. VB again has the complete SC for about $29, which isn't a bad deal, or the rebuild kit for about $10.

Either way, you may want to replace or rebuild both MC and SC at the same time to avoid having one part that's now at peak performance, and another part with 100k miles on it already - this leads to replacement of the other part in short order.

Good luck, now have a look at it and report back,

(BTW, I just did both these jobs last weekend in about 2 hours, total - easy work...)

 

and replace the damn soft line too!! I replaced the master and slave cylinders but not the soft line because it looked okay. 3 days later the soft line blew. Mazdatrix has a SS braided soft line, but they ripped me off for shipping.

 

Everyone in the history of the intraweb has ripped people off on shipping.