clutch pedal problem, soft, comes up slow Options

[hurley97]

so I get my car back from the body shop and first thing I notice is the clutch pedal feels different. heres what happens...

so when I'm at a stop light I keep it in gear with my foot on the clutch. after a few seconds
- revs drop 200 or so rpm
- can't pull it out of gear
- let off the brake it moves forward like an auto
- when I give it gas and try to start normally the pedal stays on the floor and comes up really slowly

more specifics:
- does not happen when the clutch is in and its NOT in gear
- driving normally it feels fine, a little soft at the top sometimes but not all the time
- if I pump the clutch pedal it starts to feel normal again (not soft at the top)
- last two times I drove in reverse I couldn't get it out of reverse to go forward, had to turn the car off and start it again
- checked the fluid and it looks fine, no bubbles or anything abnormal

only thing I could think of was that its needs to be bled but it still seems a little weird. how does air get into the fluid lines without touching them (I assume the body shop didn't touch them since they were just supposed to paint the car). if bleeding doesn't do the trick what else should I check? what else could it be?

[97lestyousay]

Is the slave cylinder leaking?

[hurley97]

you know... I'm not sure. it was raining so I really couldn't tell, but the fluid isn't low. I assumed if it were leaking anywhere the fluid would be lower

This post has been edited by hurley97: Feb 22, 2007 - 11:25 PM

[97lestyousay]

The reason it does it in gear is because its releasing the clutch
also why the rpms drop and it creeps. I would say slave or master
cylinder if it was bled it shouldn't need it again. Not sure why it
would just start doing it. Maybe it didn't like someone elses foot.

[hurley97]

yeah, it was just bled like 7 months ago when it was put in and I didn't figure it made any sense to have to re-bleed it so soon.

if its not leaking how would I know if one of them is bad? I'll look for leaks tomorrow at work and report back

I explained it to someone at work at they said it was odd but it might just be from the car sitting longer than its used to (when its with me I drive it every day) and to just drive it a few more days and see if it goes back to normal. does that make any sense? I think your right Randy, I think my car just missed me lol

[vsideboy]

aye, mine is starting to do it.

If you hold it in gear just before the biting point after a few seconds the pedal will sink to the floor and the biting point becomes almost immediately off the floor rather than the usual inch from the floor.

I think its one of the cyclinders letting fluid leak from one side to the other rather than leaking externally, so you might not see any leaked fluid hurley as its probably leaking internally.

Not sure yet how to fix it other than a total strip down.

[hurley97]

no visible leaks from the clutch lines, slave, or master cylinder.

so today I was waiting for a while with the car NOT in gear and my foot on the clutch and when I went to put it in gear it wouldn't go in, I had to pump the pedal to get it to go in

when I'm at a light with the car in gear, the clutch all the way in, and my foot off the brake it'll eventually creep a little. the time it takes before it creeps has gotten longer and it almost feels normal otherwise

I think I'm going to bleed the lines then go with your hunch, Randy, and get a new slave cylinder... it's not expensive and it can't hurt

[Bitter]

if theres no air in the system and no external leak, it could be an INTERNAL leak. the cup seals could be passing fluid and not holding pressure on the correct side.

[bindertch]

It sounds like the seals in your master cylinder have gone. If your resevoir isn't losing fluid and you can't find any leaks then it is the o-ring inside the master cylinder. You should be ablde to get a rebuild kit from a parts store for like $30. It will have a new master cylinder plunger and a few o-rings. If it was the slave cylinder you would see a fluid leak and there would be a steady loss of fluid from the resevoir. This happened to me on an 84 S10 and I had the entire clutch system replaced because it needed it any way.

[97lestyousay]

It sounds like the seals in your master cylinder have gone. If your resevoir isn't losing fluid and you can't find any leaks then it is the o-ring inside the master cylinder. You should be ablde to get a rebuild kit from a parts store for like $30. It will have a new master cylinder plunger and a few o-rings. If it was the slave cylinder you would see a fluid leak and there would be a steady loss of fluid from the resevoir. This happened to me on an 84 S10 and I had the entire clutch system replaced because it needed it any way.

I would agree with this, you should see a leak at the slave cylinder if that was the
problem it can't leak internaly from the slave side it just leaks out of the seal on the end.
I replaced both on my truck and it wasn't much more for a rebuilt master
cylinder than the rebuild kit so you might check that.

[Bitter]

if theres no air in the system and no external leak, it could be an INTERNAL leak. the cup seals could be passing fluid and not holding pressure on the correct side.

It sounds like the seals in your master cylinder have gone. If your resevoir isn't losing fluid and you can't find any leaks then it is the o-ring inside the master cylinder. You should be ablde to get a rebuild kit from a parts store for like $30. It will have a new master cylinder plunger and a few o-rings. If it was the slave cylinder you would see a fluid leak and there would be a steady loss of fluid from the resevoir. This happened to me on an 84 S10 and I had the entire clutch system replaced because it needed it any way.

do i hear an echo?

[presure2]

its either the slave or the master cylinder, steff.
in my cousin joe's case, it was the slave.

[hurley97]

so I was going to order a slave cylinder from work today but someone said to have Alvin (one of the technicians who has a Supra and knows a good amount about Toyotas) look at it first.

I tried to show him what was wrong and the car wouldn't do it, it was fine all day yesterday and I'll go out and try again today

the body shop drove the car less than 2 miles in 2 weeks, I guess the car wasn't used to that and the seals just hardened or something either that or its the first signs that my slave cylinder will have to be changed pretty soon