Patrick L

I have a similar sympton that 1st gear is difficult to engage, and it gets worse recently that I even heard the gear grinding twice. How do I know if my slave or master cylinders are bad? Anyway to check them?

andrew911

Well, I got word on my car. The dealer said they lubed the pedal bushings, adjusted the servo springs, and now everything is good. They said one of the helper springs may eventually need replacement but for now it is still good. They road tested the car and don't recommend anything else at this time. I'm glad the bill wasn't too bad (about $400, including checking things on the computer for the motor, adjusting a few small things etc.)

My thinking is that they didn't find the problem though. Why did I have that problem when the car was hot if it was spring/lube related? I think it's the slave, but I'll take the car back and drive it around to see if it re-occurs. I hate having the feeling when I don't know if things are totally fixed, but they are the mechanics and hopefully are right!

-Andrew

andrew911

The more I think of it, I'm thinking it is the hose that goes to the clutch slave cylinder. They probably road tested the car and it operated well, and that was it. If I repeat the scenario from the other night when I had a problem after attempting to drive the car after already driving 1/2 hour earlier, I bet it will repeat. My thought is maybe the car gets up to operating temp, then after sitting for a while the temps increase due to heat sink (or whatevet the physics are), then when I go to start again and drive off and the hose is balooning....humm. This is going to bother me until I can get home and pick up the car and try it....

Is the clutch feed hose Brian Newall speaks of in his post the same as the "rubber hose between the clutch slave cylinder and the steel line" that KirkF speaks of?