Hydraulic clutch problems...

[The G-Man]

Yesterday I discovered that my clutch master cylinder was leaking and fluid was entering the cabin. Today I bought a new one at Advance Auto Parts. I installed it. Boy was that a bitch. I bled it, with a bottle of old, but still sealed 12oz bottle of brake fluid. It gained some pressure. I thought it was good until I tried to go for a test drive and I could not get it into gear, which I guess meant that I had not gotten enough pressure to fully open the slave cylinder. Is it possible that I just needed to adjust the stroke so that the master cylinder was completely pressed in?

Then I started bleeding again. I was getting some pressure, then I forgot to check the fluid for a while and the MC drew in some air, a good bit. So I continued bleeding. Then while moving stuff around I knocked the bottle of open brake fluid into the engine bay, around where the cruise control thingy is. I found an old already opened bottle of brake fluid in the garage. I pressed on. Now I was getting no pressure whatsoever. I bled through about 1/4 quart of fluid. All that was coming out at this point was completely clean. I gave up. I had been working on it since 5:30 and here it is 11:00. So yeah, still no pressure.

On Wednesday afternoon I plan to rebleed with a brand new bottle of fluid. If that does not work I may try to replace the soft line from the reservoir to the master cylinder. If that does not work I will take back the master cylinder and exchange it for a new one, saying this one is defective (I may try and return my old one, and exchange for a new to save time). If I do that and it still does not work I will replace the slave cylinder. However I do not think that is the problem, the slave looks fine, no leaks. I could possibly be wrong.

[NAiL05]

Well bleed more and see what happens. And for the gear not going in it could be your pedal adjustment as you mentioned. Try adjusting the pedal and see whats up first.

[TypeG]

it sounds like you're not bleeding all the air out. i hope you wiped up all that brake fluid you spilled, that stuff eats paint like crazy. later.

[EXCoup]

I agree I changed my clutch, master, and slave for no reason because I could not properly bleed it. It took someone who really knew what they where doing to bleed it. And it was fine after that.

[The G-Man]

Well bleed more and see what happens. And for the gear not going in it could be your pedal adjustment as you mentioned. Try adjusting the pedal and see whats up first.

I had it bled at the time I could not get it in gear. Not thinking that I could adjust it I started bleeding again. I ran the cylinder dry and sucked in a shitload of air.

[bmxicansd]

I had it bled at the time I could not get it in gear. Not thinking that I could adjust it I started bleeding again. I ran the cylinder dry and sucked in a shitload of air.

i ran into this a couple of times. I would advise changing it with a oem honda clutch master. I put 3 in and they all crapped out either after the install or months later. I put a oem one back in and its been good since.. knock on wood. Your other options can be to adjust the pedal "pedal play and friction point", and bleed the system again.. air in the system = headache..

[The G-Man]

I do not see why the parts store stuff won't work. I put on a similar brake master cylinder 6 months ago and it is great.

I am thinking that it could be a leak in the hose between the fluid tank and the MC. I do not know why, but haynes manual says to clamp that line shut. I did, and I think that may have broken it. What sort of hose should I try and replace it with? I assume a high pressure fuel line would work.

Of course I could have actually broken the MC shortly after installing it by pulling the pushrod too far back.

[timmy0tool]

i've used a remani unit and it had the "nissin" stamp on it. it's fine!

check for leaks at other places like the dampener and the slave itself. usually when the MC goes the slave should be replaced as well. bleed with only new fluid. old fluid that sits around especially in open air collects water particles and mixes in. after you bleed readjust the pedal to the right position. double and triple check your work. use only DOT3 or better fluid. fuel line should be ok for that but make sure you terminate/connect them w/o leaks (duh!). good luck!

[The G-Man]

Thanks for the advice. I know old fluid gets bad. But I decided to use it anyways because I spilled my new stuff. The slave may be bad. All I know is I will be working on it all afternoon tomorrow.

[The G-Man]

I got it!

I should have adjusted the pedal to begin with though!

I replaced the Slave cylinder just for good measure. Then I had to bleed out that shit fluid.

[cb7rolln]

i had a prob similar to this with a new oem clutch. first park it on a steep incline (nose first). second have the car running and start pumping the hell out of the clutch pedal, then hold it down. repeat the proceedure until the vehicle goes into gear. my car refused to go into first or second. i did this about 5 times and it never gave me trouble again. if this doesn't work just pretend i never said anything.lol. lmk if it works. good luck dude.

[The G-Man]

Now I am sort of having a different problem. Today the clutch pedal was stiff as a motherfucker, and the friction point was at the very tip of the pedal stroke. Like there is .5'' of play before the clutch starts to become disengaged. I stalled twice! I have not stalled in like 7 months. wed3k always says it is impossible to change the friction point in a hydraulic system. Is there a solution to this, like maybe try another master cylinder or something?

[The G-Man]

Well, wtf. This morning the pedal was really soft. It was cold, there was ice on the windows. Leaving school this afternoon it was much firmer. The fluid should not be so delicate to the temperature.

[Granite CB7]

and the friction point was at the very tip of the pedal stroke. Like there is .5'' of play before the clutch starts to become disengaged

I have a new slave cyl. to put in but in the hot weather, my factory slave cyl. would do this, the friction point was literally right off the floor. I think it was b/c the piston was not fully extending outward (b/c of low compression = fluid loss). Is this a Honda one or auto parts store one?

[The G-Man]

Auto parts store.

I like the friction point right off the floor though.

I do not like it when I have to move my foot 6 inches before it engages, then it engages right when the pedal stops moving.