danspach

So i did the first half of an oil change last night...filters are on the way...and in having a look around noticed some dampness around the transmission drain plug. When I say "dampness", the area was glistening and a drop was forming at the lowest point. It has also leaked on my floor. Not a puddle but enough for me to put down a piece of cardboard. I assumed it was engine oil so planned to dig in when I changed the oil (along with taking a sample to send to Blackstone).

I live in NY and have not been driving the car with the salty roads so she hasn't seen the regular use of the fall (background).

I cleaned it up the best I could without breaking it the de-greaser after I took the pics and will look again tomorrow night.

I'd like to determine exactly where it's coming from and noticed a few things.

1. It's not dark like my engine oil was. The drop and the immediate area looked like clean fluid, not 5k mi engine oil.

2. It doesn't whack your in the nose like gear oil does.

3. It seems to easily remove the cosmoline in the area where it has accumulated. You can see in the last few pictures it's spotless and that was the result of me using only enough pressure to dry it off.

Do I have a leaking clutch accumulator?

I had done some high level reading about the accumulator when I bought the car but not recently so any tips for what else to check to confirm or deny would be helpful. Is that reservoir in the frunk or the engine bay?

Some pics for the mechanical sleuths:

you can see the drop forming where the serial number (?) is:



Driver's side output flange...front of car is to the left. Looks like its dripping down and being blown back judging by the clean and dry spots behind each of the fins in the casting:



Passenger side flange ...front of the car is to the right:



passenger side looking toward the top of the trans:



further up the trans on the passenger side....don't see any obvious signs of leaking:



this is how clean it was after just drying it where in the pics above I had plenty of cosmoline on these parts:

911mhawk

The clutch reservoir is under the drivers side cowl cover, easily accessed and checked from above by removing battery cover and one torx bolt. If it's leaking your clutch slave is shot or the accumulator is leaking.
Also check the power steering reservoir level on the engine.
Fluid on top of the transmission would be a giveaway, pump the clutch pedal and you may get clarity.
Pentosin is nasty stuff, clean it off anything that's not metal or it will eat it away.

Kevinmacd

Yup suspect pentosin, which will clean off the cosmoline! Hows your pwr steering fluid level?
If its down, suspect slave or accumulator!

danspach

Thanks for the response guys. My oil filters arrive today which means I'll be back in the garage to finish the oil change and will take another look.

I'll try and get a better look at the top of the transmission while under there and separately check the power steering fluid level.

If power steering is low, we're assuming it's the accumulator or the slave as they are known weak points but it could also be power steering-related, right?

I also presume that even if it's leaking and potentially ruining hoses, I need to keep the res from going empty for fear of killing the pump if it goes too low?

Gauging my next step if I see the slave or bomb are leaking.

Never liked the feel of my clutch. BBi ?

Has anyone tried removing the coupler in the hydraulic pump to remove the power assist of the clutch while keeping the power steering? Seemed like an interesting and clean way to address the issue.

(https://rennlist.com/forums/997-turb...-pentosin.html)

Was planning on doing an auto=x this weekend. Should I not be driving the car?

(Sorry, that's a lot of questions)

Macster

Pentosin is water soluble. Engine oil is not. Get some on your fingers and stick in some water. If the stuff dissolves most likely Pentosin. If you get an oil slick on the water engine oil.

You do not want to run the power steering fluid level low. This is not good for the pump. If the pump gets damaged from low fluid it almost certainly takes out the rack and other hardware that gets the power steering fluid with pump debris in the fluid.

My advice would be to at least not track/auto-x the car.

With my Turbo with a bad accumulator I kept driving the car. The techs told me this wouldn't harm anything. But there were no fluid leaks.

A week or two later when I spotted fluid stain top of the clutch slave cylinder reservoir I checked with the techs and they said to stop driving the car. So I left it at the dealer and used my other car.

In the case of your car since you are not sure what's wrong my advice would be to stop using the car until you get this sorted.

Kevinmacd

if the slave or the accumulator is leaking, I suggest you do both!

danspach

took a bunch of pictures of the accumulator and the top of the trans....driver's side is dry. passenger side is exhibiting signs of being the source but with all the fins in the casting there is no clear path down so no obvious "stream" of fluid. cleaned more thoroughly and dried everything.

Having said that, there was a collection of fluid at the drain plug again after the car sat and did exactly nothing for two days so I have a persistent leak. definitely pentosin.

also, checked the clutch reservoir. full.....like to the top full, over the "max" line...soaked a little up to lower the level a little

power steering....nothing on the dipstick.

Time to do some reading.

danspach

yeah, ok...see all the threads about fluid migration. Had read them when researching the car. Now I'm in the club.

new slave?

BBi slave?

this?:

https://rennlist.com/forums/997-turb...-pentosin.html

32krazy!

if your not dropping the trans just install a new turbo slave and enjoy the car for the summer

danspach

I know I included it as a possible remedy but I REALLY don't like the feel of the stock clutch so I'm reluctant to throw the same part back in.

If I replace both the slave and accum, will it change the character of or make the engagement of the clutch more consistent because it's a new part?

Has anyone tried taking the drive coupler out of the hydraulic pump explained in the linked thread?

Kevinmacd

The reason the pwr steering fluid is not showing on the dipstick is the slave or accumulator is leaking. The pwr steering is pumped to the slave to assist on the pedal feel. Replace both!

Your feel of the stock clutch may have been due to the leak.

911mhawk

+1^
This is a ~$500 DIY or well worth the shop charge if you're easily frustrated and not much of a wrench.
I did a stock slave with a heavy duty Clutchmasters PP and lwfw and the feel is great for around town and the track.
If you do the GT2 mod, do real deal GT2 set up with correct spring, new PS reservoir from a tip car and any other small parts. That scenario is long proven.

32krazy!

yes it will improve the feel until it starts to fail. if you want a permanent solution that works and doesnt fail the oem gt2 setup is the way to go. it will however require a trans removal and some minor modifications to the trans bellhousing case. its a 5 on a 10 scale in difficulty from start to finish if you are handy with tools.

if you want to drive your car all summer and do this as a winter project simply replace the slave with a new slave part

danspach

Guess for me it boils down to this:

Even if I mod the pump and and eliminate the pressure on the clutch side I still have a slave which is sending fluid to the clutch reservoir and starving the power steering side. Modifying the pump won't help address that, right?

Either way I'm looking at a new slave.


Also, to remove the accumulator, I see people calling for a 27mm wrench cut in half and ground down to make it thinner. Could I use a basin wrench or a 27mm crows foot or is there no enough room for a straight shot?

jpflip

Note: The first accumulator I had replaced was 22mm in size but all the ones I installed after were 27mm. I remember trying a crowfoot but I was not able to get it to sit properly on the accumulator because the head of the ratchet or the pry bar were too big.....


If you are a contributor on Renntech, I did a small diy for the slave replacement: https://www.renntech.org/forums/tuto...r-replacement/