I've been slowly leaking brake fluid for a little while now. It's never affected my brakes, and I can always tell if it's getting low because when I accelerate, the brake light will come on.

But today, I was backing up into my parking spot here at work, and the clutch went all the way to the floor and stayed there. I pulled it back up, opened my door, and pushed it again, it went all the way down, and was making a hissing noise. The noise was coming from under the car.

what do you guys think? Do I just need to replace the line? or do you think there a problem with the MC?

I haven't had a chance to peek under there, because this JUST happened, and...it's in my work parking lot...

 

It could be the clutck master or the clutch slave. You need to inspect them. Seems like a lot of people on here are having trouble with them here lately.

 

It is not neccesarily the metal line itself. Often times, I would actually look at the slave cylinder or the master cylinder. Usually the rubber hose located on/near the slave cylinder is what breaks from being too old. (At least, this was the case on my former 240).

If you're going to replace the slave cylinder, IMO, I would change the master cylinder at the same time. It is almost a 10 year old car after all. That is what I would do.

2nd, fix the tiny leak in your brake lines.

You seem to have 2 problems on your hands right now.

 

well, I assumed the fluid was leaking from somewhere in the clutch system and not my brakes. They both pull fluid from the same reservoir. I suppose it COULD be a leak in the breaks, like a bleeder screw not tightened down all the way or something like that, but it seems like it would make a BIG mess if that were the case...stripping the paint off the wheels and such.

 

Well, I got everything off, and it turns out I was right on my original assumption, it was the clutch line that had ruptured and was leaking fluid slowly until it really ripped open..

Anyways, I had already bought and recieved a new clutch master and slave cylinder, and I had figured I would replace the line with a steel braided anyways, so I had that. It's all back together and stuff...but I still need to bleed the bastard. Hopefully I won't run into any problems.

So at least now I know what was draining my brake fluid ever so slowly, and I am relieved it's not a problem with the brakes.

Cheers!