6G Celicas Forums

Hey guys, I'm still racking up the miles (slower these days) and I've cleared 275,000 now. The problem I'm having is this: I get a shuddering when I engage the clutch, not unlike the problem Coomer described a couple months ago in his build thread. The difference is my clutch has almost 100,000 miles on it, so I'm guessing it needs replacing. Any thoughts on this? Also, the more severe and noticeable problem is that after my car gets warmed up I have difficulty shifting into first from a dead stop. If I slide it in as I'm rolling to a stop, it's no problem, and I also have absolutely no difficulty shifting into any of the other gears. It's only at a dead stop when I have put the car in neutral at a light and taken my foot off the clutch pedal. I depress the pedal normally, and then I have to really fight it to get it into first. Sometimes I try pumping the pedal a couple of times, but that rarely helps. If it's really bad, sometimes I have to throw it in reverse, and then try first again. I took it to a tranny shop, and they claimed they couldn't replicate the problem. I've been putting up with it for a little over a year now, so that means they tried it when the car was cold. After describing the symptoms they suggested it might be the clutch, even though I was sure it was the synchros (tried Syncromesh, by the way, and that didn't help). Any thoughts on this? Could my worn out clutch be causing this problem?

master and/or slave cyls

most likely the master. You can get a rebuilt one from an auto parts store for about $80 with no core charge.

Awesome guys, thanks! I'll give that a shot.

I know, bringing back an old post, but I thought I'd put the fix in here to help future searchers. I tried replacing the master and slave cylinders and I still had the same problem. Ultimately I ended up having the clutch replaced, including the flywheel, and now it runs and shifts like a dream again. No more jamming when trying to go into first and the shudder is completely gone.