I'm at my wits end with this bleeding job and I think my next action item will be to set the car on fire and perform a ritual chant-dance to summon a spooky demon to take me to another place.

I have a 05 G35 coupe with a CD009. I recently reinstalled the engine after rebuilding it and installed a slew of new parts listed below. The fork and pivot ball looked good during install and still feel good.

New parts:
- Z1 clutch
- Z1 light flywheel
- OEM clutch bearing
- Rebuilt master cylinder
- Rebuilt slave cylinder
- Wilwood master reservoir to accept a Motive pressure bleeder
- Z1 stainless line replacing the original rubber. hard line is still in place
- Teflon tape for extra spice

The problem is I can get the pedal to the point where it's almost at full travel but the master will not push the rod all the way to the end. The pedal rod is properly adjusted, there's a correct dead zone for the retaining pin. There are no leaks. After rebuilding the master, I bench bled it and it looked cash money. I unmounted the slave while it was still hooked up to the hydraulics to get the bleed port at the top most level and pushed the rod all the way in to squeeze out any trapped air from that. The power bleeder seems to work well, nothing notable about it other than it moves a lot of fluid fast. It pushes out a ton of fluid and its continuously crystal clear. I pumped the master, bled the slave, waited 5 seconds, did the whole FSM procedure about a hundred times. I cannot get the pedal to travel the last inch to the top.

I'd take it to the dealer service but I've only ever had one good experience from a non-German dealer. They've always broken more than they fix and point blame on aftermarket parts or just run up the bill. I'll probably call Z1 too since they're quite helpful.

I promise when if I fix this, I'll try to articulate the solution. I'm a long-time lurker so I hold huge value in threads that don't just end unsolved.

Love,
Bears

 

Bumping thread. I'm installing a brand spanking new OEM master cylinder today so we'll see if this fixes it.

 

The clutch bleeding is definitely a finicky procedure and gives a lot of people headaches. It seems like you've replaced just about everything so you should be fine unless either the master or slave is faulty. When I changed the stock clutch and DMF to the JWT and lightweight flywheel, I basically replaced everything you did but I got a new slave and I went with the upgraded Wilwood master cylinder from Zspeed. It did require adjusting the push rod, but bleeding went smooth with the Motive power bleeder and I haven't had any issues since.

I hope the new master works for you! If you can find an RJM clutch pedal, it's supposed to be amazing at getting the pedal feel dialed in just how you want it.

 

Make sure you bench bleed the master cylinder before you install it.

 

Keep in mind that the bleeder has to be level or higher than the slave body or it will trap air at the high spot, meaning if you have the front of the car jacked up but not the back that may be your issue.
I personally haven’t done one on a G yet, but what I’ve done in the past that works very well is applied the clutch fork with a prybar while bleeding, yes it’s hard to do, but you’re taking the high pressure load off the slave cylinder so it can actually perform a full sweep and bleed the air out.

 

Installed the new master yesterday. Same issue, comes up almost all the way but the rod still doesn't full retract from the master body. Pedal is still in a good spot from what I can tell.

Z1 said a brand new slave would be the next step. I think I might just keep trying the good ol FSM procedure before chucking more money. I've also heard the RJM piece is sick!

Solid advice, I bench bled the new master so at least I can feel good about not having to do that part again. Getting that hard line to thread in and out is like pulling teeth.

Yep, I bleed on a level lift. I actually saw a ton of bubbles come out when I depressed the slave rod all the way in. You have to be kind of creative with it since the fork won't go all the way but a pry bar or socket extension seems to do it nicely.

 

So is this solved then?

 

Not yet. I gotta find time to work on it so I'll update when progress is made.

 

So I fixed it it seems. Or at least as much as I could. I installed a brand new slave cylinder and it was still not fully returning the pedal. I then adjusted the pedal back pretty far so I could rely on the pedal spring to fully reset the pedal and not rely purely on the hydraulics. It's not in a bad position or anything but my pedal doesn't seem to allow the same kind of low height from the floor as others' have shown theirs to be. Maybe my spring is messed up? Either way, it seems totally reliable now and engagement feels good.

Hope this helps others!