Hello everyone. I did use the search function but was not able to find my exact problem. Here goes...

Background info...
I bought this car about 10 months ago, was told it had a new clutch, 2 months later, after normal easy driving, the clutch is toast. Nice huh?

anyway, myself and a friend replace the clutch.

Everything is cool, up until about 4 days ago. I notice the pedal seems abnormally spongy, and also if I push down on the clutch all the way, it will go MAYBE 1/4 inch until it engages. So basically there is no room for the pedal to travel back up before the car starts moving. ALSO it is becoming increasingly harder to get into 1st and 2nd gear, especially 1st. Not so bad in the higher gears as I'm already moving. and last but not least, I twisted and contorted myself to "inspect" the clutch pedal and noticed that on the rubber boot/rod going to master cylinder, it was glossy and looked like a light coat of oil. I did check the slave cylinder and did not notice any leaking at all. I hope I'm explaining this ok with my poor nomenclature/mechanical function word selection.

But yes in summary, spongy clutch pedal, almost no pedal travel(coming back up) to move, light coat of liquid on boot(inside car) going to master cylinder and hard to get in gear.

I've done a bit of scouring on the web and it would seem the first best thing to do would be bleed the system but if this is the case of a bad master cylinder, should I even bother?

Any bit of info would help as I'm desperate at this point..

Thanks
Matt

 

Couple things don't add up & maybe some is terminology.

You say it engages pretty high? You press down the pedal to DISengage the clutch. So I bet you mean the clutch disengages very close to the top of the pedal-travel?

How about fluid inventory in the clutch master reservoir? Is it losing fluid? If so, where's it going? The wetness around the pushrod suggests you should probably lift the carpeting to see whether it's leaking into the fiber mat underneath the carpet.

A bad master cylinder that's leaking back into it's reservoir will act like this... Disengage the clutch (press down the pedal) & hold the pedal down. If it's in gear, after awhile you'll have the clutch dragging and trying to move the car. If you were looking at the throw-out lever (down at the slave cylinder) you'd see the lever slowly move back towards the slave even while holding the clutch pedal down. Then when you begin lifting the clutch pedal, the clutch will engage & the car begin moving while the pedal is still quite close to the floor.

If you have air in the hydraulic lines, normally that results in the clutch disengaging close to the floor, not close to the top of pedal-travel.

But if the clutch disk itself was wearing out, then you'd have clutch disengagement closer to the top of the pedal. Eventually as it gets worse, the clutch will begin slipping.

 

Thanks for the response Jim. And yeah sorry about the bad terminology, Im learning as I go.

Ok so when I press the pedal all the way to the floor with my foot and DISengage the clutch, the pedal barely even travels back up before it ENgages. And yes of course the pedal is spongy and all that stuff. I did not see any excess leakage by the carpet or on the firewall.

 

That sounds like you have air in the clutch hydraulic lines. Bleed the clutch. Its good to bleed it (and the brakes) every couple years anyway. (The fluid absorbs moisture from the air & gets corrosive.)

If you've looked and it's been leaking fluid into the carpeting, then I'd say replace the clutch master cylinder first, because that forces you to bleed the system anyway.

 

I looked under the dash, at the pedal assembly today, and there was a bead of brake fluid on the rubber boot going to the master cylinder. I plan on replacing the master cylinder now.

Also, I was told that I might as well change both cylinders while I'm at it, so I will do the slave too, since it doesn't exactly look new.

My question about the slave is this- I have a 1998. So a 6th generation. The bleeder on the slave is in a weird position. It looks to my like I have to take the front engine mount off to really get to it. that or remove the slave(remove the two mounting bolts) and bleed it, then reinstall. Anyone have any adice on this before I start? I apologize as I get the feeling this is a really obvious answer, but I just want to make sure.

Thanks
matt

 

Never heard of having to take the mount off.....also know that you have to bleed it on the trans - if not the piston is just going push out of the cyl.

 

On the '98-'99 Accords there was a recall on the clutch system. Check to see if your slave and master cylinder are made of plastic. If they are, you will need to replace the whole system; master cylinder, slave cylinder, AND the line between them, which is the expensive part. Honda service bulletin 98-084

 

Poorman what unit are you with?

Anyway, the bleeder valve on the slave is in a very akward place, so to get to it, I did actually unbolt the front mount from the engine, hold it back by wedging it with a crescent wrench, and then bleed the system.

here is a pic of the slave..
http://cdn0.autopartsnetwork.com/ima...1711715TOK.JPG

I could not find a pic with it installed, and I do not have a camera, as I am a poor man as well.

 

That pic is/was my oldest son just after OCS....may he rest in peace.

 

I am very sorry for your loss. I'm sure he was a fine officer...