So after seeing how tight things are around the slave cylinder (there's no way I was accessing that lower bleeder anywhere but from below the car, and my jack is out of commission right now) and verifying that the hose b/t the master and slave cyls was leaking, I took it in to the shop on Wed morning. They diagnosed and came up with the same conclusions I had, replaced the hose, and bleed the system. Voila, right?

My symptoms came right back. After the car warms up, the clutch pedal will quickly stiffen up and the release point raises quite a bit. It keeps raising until it goes past the top of the pedal height, where I am infinitely slipping the clutch because it won't disengage (at this point I can take my foot off the pedal in gear and it won't stall out or even stumble).

The time it takes to get to this point varies, it's rather quick if it's warm outside. If it's cold, it takes longer (15-20 minutes of driving).

I've been confused throughout this whole ordeal because it seems when other people have air in the lines, their clutch won't work at all, period. Mine works but I'm assuming the air moves through the system as it warms up and that's what causes the change in the release point and pedal feel.


My question is, what frickin next? If the shop just bled it from the upper bleeder, could this be why I still have problems? Anything you can think of that I should tell the shop? Because I'm assuming they're going to want to start replacing things (master cylinder probably first). My leak was very slow, which makes me think the only thing leaking was the hose. And I never had any problems before the morning I noticed my master cyl was empty (shows how often I check fluid levels ), so contrary to a lot of people's beliefs, I don't think my clutch itself needs to be replaced yet.

Thanks for any ideas. Really sucks that I haven't been able to drive my car barely anywhere for two frickin months.

 

bro,

The shop should bleed from both the slave and the master cylinder.

Secondly, you don't need a jack to bleed from the slave cylinder, its right on top of the tranny near the engine block...look for the plunger that moves from right to left when the clutch is depressed, it should be right there. it could be that the system is not bled properly.

good luck with it

 

I'm going to ask them if they did, though I doubt I'll actually get a truthful answer.

I've more or less accessed the lower bleeder. I was able to get some hose on it, and set up my bottle, but there's no way any of the tools I have would allow me to open/close the valve. You'd need some funky kind of angled wrench to get to that thing from above - I don't have a digicam but there's something directly above it that would prevent me from getting any leverage or any room to turn a wrench.

Thanks for the advice and any more you can give

 

Access to the lower bleeder valve should not be that difficult. you remove your air box etc above it and use a small wrench to open and close the bleeder. Im not sure why your having so much trouble.

 

my thoughts exactly!! that is there!

 

Let me see if I can drum up a digicam and attempt to show you what's in my path directly above it. I mean, from what I can see, you'd either need an angled/swivel wrench, or a REALLY tiny wrench that will fit under what's right above it that I ran into. (And it's like, a cast aluminum piece off the block too, not something that you can move out of the way at all).

It sounds like I'm a dumbass though (and I'm very open to that conclusion), but I want to snap the pic at least.

 

It is certainly akward, but nothing close to impossible. It has been a long time since I've done it, but the wrench size is only 10 or 12 mm...opening and closing is very quick and short movment when your bleeding.

 

You definitely need to remove the intake snorkel to access the lower bleed nipple. Try this site http://www.motorvate.ca.

BTW I replaced my hose, but have a master cylinder air leak...my release point get's lower and lower if I hold the clutch depressed for a long period...sucks.

 

Yeah, I used Frank's site and diagrams to remove all the intake piping and whatnot. I forgot I could reference his pic for what I'm talking about...

In my attachment, the object in the yellow circled portion is what's blocking me from being able to get at it with any wrench I have. It's directly above the bleeder screw. I'm pondering getting a one-man bleeder-type replacement screw (since I can still access it ok with my hands) so I wouldn't have to manually open and close it.

Funny how the Haynes doesn't mention the lower bleeder at all, as far as I could tell.

The other question looming over the whole sitch is, why is my clutch pedal getting stiff and the release point raising? I've only seen the other way as 95bluse described, or the clutch pedal falling to the floor every time it's pressed.