here's the story, my clutch lost pressure while taking my girlfriend home yetsterday. I got her home and made it to my house with what little preasure i had. after poking around for leaks and whatnot i discovered that my slave's boot had ripped away from the slave housing (metal part) where the two meet. A friend of mine had a parts car, so i went over and pulled the slave (not new but better than the one i have) and the master (less than 3k miles on it) they both worked in his car great. so today I put in the slave and tightened everything up. i added fluid and becan the bleeding process. here's my steps:

1. pump clutch w/ bleeder valve closed
2. push petal to the floor, and open bleeder valve with tube running to jar of DOT3
3. close valve, relese petal and pump once more
4. repeated for about 20 min.

here's the problem. the first several times i bled it i got foamy fluid in the tube. after a few more times it turned to solid fluid (with tiny bubles). after the car has been sitting for more than 30 min or so the clutch will fall to the floor. i pump it a few times and it builds up pressure but still feels like it has air in the line. I'll check the resivor a little later tonight and get back to you guys, but when i was doing it i couldn't find a single leak anywhere. Am i not doing something right here? sorry for the long post.

thank you guys
Alex

 

I just had a problem similar to this one and found out that it was actually my master cylinder that was leaking down where the push rod is connected to the pedal itself. More than likely you have a bad o-ring in there and you need to replace the master cylinder.

How many miles on master cylinder?

Ad can you look under dash to see if there is any liquid under there?

hope your a contortionist.

 

there are 108k on the master that i know of. i've checked the firewall, no leaks. its not losing fluid, just getting air in in the line somehow. everything is tight. maybe i just didn't bleed it enough?

 

Chances are very, very good some foreign material has got into the master cylinder and torn up one of the rubber "cups" that holds the pressure in the system. A rebuild kit is cheap and it only takes like 20 minutes to do. If that does not solve the problem, look to the slave cylinder for the same issue.

EDIT: If you are positive you are not losing any fluid then maybe you have not bled enough.

 

He said he replaced it with a new master.

My clutch bleed procedure usually follows;

1) Fill a glass full of DOT 3 fluid.
2) Grab a silicone hose, attach one side to the bleeder screw and the other side into the glass.
3) Open Valve, pump pedal multiple times.
4) Close valve, refill master.
5) Open valve, pump pedal more.
6) Close valve, Refill Master.
7) Open Valve, pump just a little, not enough to halfway drain the master.
8) Close Valve, refill master, hope in and away you go.

- Tech

 

when my master was leaking it did not appear to lose any fluid either. it was just enough of a leak to allow air into the system and not until it was removed did we notice any fluids on it. So if you rebuild it then it should be good as new. me personally I just prefer replacing rather than rebuilding... then I get a nice clean look and besides... whats money? LOL

 

Just had a clutch hydraulic problem as well... thought it was the slave cylinder... no leaks... turned out to be a bad clutch master cylinder. We rebuilt it, but I'd replace it with a new part if money isn't an issue.

Josh

 

right now the old master cylinder is in. i have the new one in one of the storage bins. i didn't put it on because i didn't have a 12mm wrench handy and since it wasn't bad i decided to hold off. I'll probably put in the new one and start over again. Tech, so when you mean the valve is open, you mean that fluid is running through the hose? it seems to me like you wouldn't get anywhere if the valve was open and you pumped the clutch (it would suck in the fluid in the hose)

 

It is pumping fluid through the hose, and that's the whole point.

If you have it in a container of fluid, it's going to cycle the fluid through the system (also flushing it in the process) and getting the bubbles out of the system. I've always been taught to bleed my clutch in this way.

By Valve, I mean the bleeder screw on top of the secondary.

 

i've just changed my slave and master culinders....
I've always lost pressure after bleeding it many times... so i decided i should get new master and slave on the car.
i bought both of them for under $60 from autopartswarehouse.com
and first i changed the master .. did not notice anything wrong ...!
then when it came to slave, i took it off and noticed the rubber part of it is torn a part and thats where the air was coming in ... with little leaks.
anyhow, i've had to change the clutch hose because it was hard to take it off from the slave... but all of that thing was easy repair and the clutch now feels like new!