HELP!!! ***Reaching out to the clutch guru's***
 

Well to give you guys a quick break down and history.

I changed my Clutch and flywheel about a year ago (last week of August) (Exedy Stage 2, Exedy L/W Flywheel) and shortly after that I was in a motorcycle accident (first week of Sept.)so the car wasn't driven for about 3.5/4 months (until February). Once I recovered and was able to drive it I had no issues or problems what-so-ever. Forwarding a few months down the road to about a month ago; I noticed my clutch was a little soft comparing to what it was like a couple months back. I would pretty much have to press it down to the firewall for it to engage. I checked my fluids and noticed that it was low so I refilled it with DOT4 fluid and had no issues after that. On Thursday last week I was driving and it made a POP sound and it started to engage even lower/closer to the firewall. I parked it in the garage and didn't drive it till this Monday. I was able to get to work and that was it. The clutch stopped engaging at all but the car would still start. I decided to bleed the clutch since I figured it had air in the system since the fluid was so low. Once I was down there I noticed that my slave valve seemed a little flimsy so I changed it (Haynes manual is the $**t!!). I proceeded to bleed the system like the manual states to do after anything that has to do with the clutch is replaced/removed. I got a few air bubbles and liquid out (liquid was BLACK) and the clutch still does not engage.


Now the questions begin:

Am I doing something wrong or forgetting to do? I tried the old method of bleeding (engage, open valve, close valve, release), as well as using a pump to bleed the system and I can't get it to engage.

Do I need a power bleeder for the system?

Can something else be the cause of the problem?

Bleeding from the slave will bleed the Master Cylinder?

Anyone who can help or might have an idea of something I'm doing or not doing would be great.

Thanks in advance!

Vehicle:
2003 Nissan 350Z (not sure what model but have Navi, leather/heated/power seats) if that helps.

Any help would be appreciated

Get a pressure bleeder. Do a little searching. There are plenty of threads here about bleeding the clutch cylinders.

The "pop" followed by the clutch not working sounds like something mechanical may have broken. The most likely thing would be the pivot ball for the clutch fork. You can tell if that's happened by trying to move the clutch fork where it goes into the clutch housing.

If the pressure bleeder doesn't fix the problem, you're probably going to have to get the transmission removed to find out what's going on with the clutch.

BTW, the clutch is disengaged when the pedal is to the floor and engaged when it's up. If you use the wrong terminology when talking to mechanics, they may feel like they can take advantage of you.

Thanks for the reply; coincidentally I had a buddy of mine who's a machanic take a look at it and said that most likely that's exactly what it is. I will have him take everything apart to make sure that will solve the problem. Is this repair something that I can do or would you recommend having him doing it? Also what is the cost of this part/labor?

Thanks for your help; seems like you really know your stuff!

The part shouldn't be that expensive, and it's a simple fix once you get the transmission off. You might want to go ahead and change the clutch at the same time, depending on the condition, miles on the vehicle, and how you plan to use it.

Hopefully some of the guys here with more experience will chime in with some recommendations. If it's just a daily driver, I'd stick with the oem stuff.

Thanks for all the help man!

The problem was the Master cylinder. Either way since I had already ordered the Pivot ball, and the clutch line I just decided to swap it out. My clutch was/is relatively new so I just had the flywheel re surfaced, and ended up doing a transmission flush. Everything was rather cheap, Master was $65, Slave was $42, Pivot ball and clutch line $54 shipped, and machine shop fee was $35. I have wholesale accounts because of the company I work for so I can get parts rather cheap. The bearing did seem like it was about to go so good call on that. I would've hated to have done all this and then the bearing going out. Thanks for all the help man!