Kevinmacd

You will be back, the accumulator and slave willl fail

OEM+

It's going in Tuesday. The dealer has all the parts.

OEM+

I dropped the car off this afternoon so they can work on it tomorrow. I may have it back tomorrow, but they said more than likely Wednesday. I'll let you know how it goes when I get it back.

dmilzoff

I have a similar problem - clutch very stiff after the car sits for a number of days. No leaks.

Questions - My car has 50,000 miles. The last 5,000 with tune, exhaust, LWFW clutch (which I love) and 540 HP at the wheels. Did the high HP accelerate the accumulator failure?

I would rather not convert to GT2 / removing the slave cylinder option, but I also do not want to be replacing the accumulator and slave cylinder every 10,000 mies.

rmc1148

Hp should have nothing to do with a slave cylinder or accumulator, it seems the luck of the draw with most. I would replace as needed myself as I also have know desire to go the GT2 route= but that said I might if I drove a lot and the problem was recurring.

Macster

After sitting how many days? The accumulator will retain pressure a good while but I know of no call out for the number of days it is supposed to retain this.

When my car's accumulator was bad the clutch was hard to press after sitting unused for 12 hours and in fact at the end was hard to press with the engine off. The accumulator had lost its ability to accumulate and hold pressure.

There is a "test" that involves running the engine for 20 seconds then turning it off and fully depressing and releasing the clutch pedal and counting the number of times until the pedal gets hard. I've been told one should be able to get to 35 and other sources give a smaller number.

While I did this test once before my car's accumulator went bad I forget how high the count got. I do not think I got up to 35 but I got close. I have not bothered to do this test again now that the car has a new accumulator.

My point is that just because the clutch is hard to press after the car has sat unused for days may not be a sign the accumulator is bad.

Added: Also, I have followed this issue since I got my car in 09 and I do not see any correlation between its occurrence and HP. Stock cars (mine for instance) have manifested this failure as well of course as mod'd cars.

I can't say it will eventually happen as maybe later years received a better accumulator. The factory unit lasted around 50K miles and the replacement unit is creeping up on that mileage. I can only hope the replacement unit will prove to be more robust and longer lived than the original unit.

The techs tell me that if the accumulator fails there is no harm in continuing to drive the car. What may happen though is the clutch slave cylinder fails. I do not know if this failure arises from the accumulator failing or not. My WAG is not but it is just a WAG. When (if) the slave cylinder fails -- leaks fluid -- that must be addressed as the fluid is nasty stuff to have leaking out onto other things.

Oh, right now and probably forever I have no interest in the GT2 clutch modification.

Kevinmacd

I may not start my car for days, and the pedal is fine. Had the accumulator and slave replaced 6 - 8 months ago. I can tell you if the slave goes, it can cause funny clutch engagement points and they were varying all over the place besides overflowing the master cylinder.

dmilzoff

Macster, thank you for your input
I did the 'test' that you described and the clutch pedal got hard after only 2 engagements.
I will replace the accumulator and slave and hope that the new parts last at least another 50,000 miles.

OEM+

$1700 later I got the clutch back. We'll see what it does. It won't get driven for two weeks so we'll see what it does.

rmc1148

Curious what all they did for 1700?

OEM+

Parts + labor for the accumulator and slave.

Kevinmacd

Thats the problem with the dealers, they always charge book time , even if they do it in less time. I found a great Indy all they do is Porsches, they charge actual time.

I paid $461 for both slave and accumulator and $300 labor.

rmc1148

If or when it happens I will do it myself, but I agree a good indy is the way to go.

OEM+

So I just got back from a 9 day vacation, only 12 days after they replaced the slave and the accumulator...and the clutch pedal was stiff again. Is this normal after 9 days or should it feel completely normal.

I'm going to give the dealer a call tomorrow. So far they've been excellent to deal with throughout the entire time I've owned the car, so hopefully they'll take care of me on this. The service manager knew I was going away for 9 days so hopefully that will help me out.

I'm just curious if after 9 days it should still be normal or if a little stiffness is normal? All the other manual transmission cars I've owned I've never had this problem after it sitting for even longer than this, so I'm thinking this isn't normal.

Thanks in advance, though

Macster

If the clutch action was hard after the car sat 9 days that may be normal. AFAIK there is no call out as to how long the pedal action should be easy after the engine has been shut off.

Mine's never sat that long unused so I have no direct experience. The few times it sat a week unused I can't remember now how the clutch felt when I started the engine. I was like a kid on Christmas morning upon getting back in the Turbo.