Hey guys. This is my first manual car so bear with me. In the past, 1000 miles my clutch has been TREMENDOUSLY soft. It moves easily and when I engage the clutch I dont even feel it catch anymore unless I dont shift properly and the car jerks. At first I thought my clutch was going, but my friend said that the car wouldnt engage properly if it was.

This leads me to thinking that possibly the clutch fluid needs to be changed. Is this accurate? I dont want to take the car in for something that doesnt need to be done. Would changing the fluid bring back some of the pedal 'feel' of when I first got the car?

Here are my cars specs:

2008 Z
16,600 miles
simple bolt ons (exhaust/intakes)

Another thing I should point out is that since I did learn how to drive manual on this car the first 1000 miles were particularly rough. I stalled plenty amount of times and definitely did not treat the clutch the way its supposed to.

 

Changing the clutch fluid will not fix the clutch. 17,000 miles is too few miles to need a new clutch. You may have a fluid pressure leak. Take the car to the dealer and have it checked.

 

Say your crusing in a gear at 3.5k RPMS and your give it a bit, not punch it, but some heavy foot, does the rpms go high(er) before it actually catches and rpms catch with your wheels. Kinda like a slipping clutch?

 

No ive done this and the car responds fine. I'm pretty sure the clutch engages fine but the pedal has probably like half of the feel as it did for the first 15k miles. Is this just normal that over a time a clutch gets lighter and lighter? Also, the thing I notice more than the lightness is that the actual catch point is alot shorter, and possibly higher than it used to be.

 

I am having the exact same problems as you are, first manual too lol. So let me get this in perspective, the clutch feels a lot softer and the engagement is higher/shorter than when you bought the car right? Those symptoms are exactly what I'm getting, at first I thought the clutch was going out, but everything else seems fine, so it couldn't be that.

 

Im going to try to flush my clutch/brake fluid this weekend and get some new stuff in there. If it goes down I'll post the results. Hopefully it works.

 

Any updates?

 

Many people change the clutch fluid line out with a stainless steel one and then put in some DOT4 fluid. The problem will most likely get worse as you get closer to summer. Let us know how it goes, and please be sure to bleed all the air out of the clutch line- it may take a while for you to get it all out.

 

My clutch was doing the same thing. Cost me $1400 In repairs so I would take that in asap if I were you.

 

Any updates?

 

hi,

i'm having the same problem as you are, my car has done around 40,000km's now. Its a Track version. bought the car at 37,000km's+

I've taken the car for a few hard drives around windy roads with my friends,
after that hard drive i noticed my clutch was abit softer than before and also my gear shifts seems to be alot less stresser too, like not needing to put much effort to changing gears.

but the main problem is my clutch, its just exactly what you're having now,

can you please give an update for what you have done to see if that fixed the problem?

i was thinking that it probably needed a clutch fluid change but does anyone know what the maintanence guide says about when to change clutch fluid oil or if any of you know?


thanks in advance

 

dude, check your messages???

 

Still nothing?

 

I am having this EXACT same problem!!!!!

The clutch is catching much shorter and the pedal feels softer, almost bouncy. It requires less effort to push it down but you don't really feel it as much as before. Dealership told me it was fine but I'm not crazy man it feels different!

 

you know u can adjust the clutch pedal

 

It's not that, the engagement is much higher and the pedal feels really soft, it's not normal.

 

exactly, its not the engagement point so much but the whole clutch altogether just feels different. It feels shorter, lets out quicker, feels bouncy.

Also I have power loss in the 2000 - 3500 RPM range then the power really kicks in. Before it was kickin in at much lower rpms, now I really have to smash the pedal to the floor to get the power. My exhaust is also higher pitched, before there was a deep tone in the 2k - 3500 range but now its much higher pitched and you can really hear the engine whine or the transmission. . .

I have no idea what it could be

It's like every time I push the clutch in, its bouncing against jello, before it was real smooth, stiffer. .

When I try to shift now, the clutch just lets out too quick and my tachometer bounces obviously because it was not a smooth shift. Clutch is very light, very soft, bouncy, and lets out too quick basically.

 

I also feel some power loss in the lower rpm band also, but then again, my tires are almost done lol. About the exhaust tone, maybe it has something to do with the warmer and weather.

 

Having a similar problem. Symptoms sound all too familiar. I also have a thread started. I am taking the car in for service (warranty thank god) and they are gonna dig into it. Will update when I get it back.

 

just remembered i made this thread. i still havent found a solution and the problem is just getting worse. anyone else find/do anything that worked?