Yesterday morning my clutch started feeling different. I drove it to school and the clutch was grabbing very low...it felt like I had to push it into the floor to disengage the clutch. Last night before my night class, I decided to check the clutch fluid level. To my surprise, the cylinder was completely dry. I immediately went inside, checked the owner's manual for the clutch fluid specifications, and went to Adv. Auto to get some DOT3 brake fluid. I filled it up, which didn't take much, and pushed the clutch in and out a few dozen times before checking it again. I checked the level again and it had not gone down at all so I drove to class. Since then, the fluid level has remained the same, but the clutch has only improved slightly. It is still far from the way it felt a few days ago.
Would the low fluid level cause any damage to anything?
What would cause the clutch to keep engaging/disengaging so close to the floor?

 

From my limited understanding of automotive repair:

Sounds like you have a clutch leak somewhere (or someone siphoned some fluid out as a joke )...

The fact that it did not go back to the way it was could be that there is air in the system, or your pushing the fluid out little by little each time you depress the pedal.

Check around for leaks...from the master cylinder all the way down to the slave cylinder. Once you find the leak, fix it and bleed the system.

 

this happened to me a couple days ago also, how do i check the fluid level ? and where is it ?


thanks!!

"To my surprise, the cylinder was completely dry. I immediately went inside, checked the owner's manual for the clutch fluid specifications, and went to Adv. Auto to get some DOT3 brake fluid."

 

u will probably have to bleed the system, the best way to take out all of the air out is to take off the slave cylinder and blead it at a higher point than the clutch cylinder, and u will get all the air out with in a couple of trys........i just got done bleading a clutch on mine and it took me 5 minutes if that the way that i just explained. make sure u have 2 extra people helping you, 1 to engauge and disengauge the clutch, the one to hold the slave cylinder agains a hard surface so there is pressure and so the slave cylinder piston don't fly out, and one to open and close the bleeder valve.

 

anyone ????

""" this happened to me a couple days ago also, how do i check the fluid level ? and where is it ? ? """

 

I have the the same thing happen to me i went to my mechanic to get it check the total me my clutch was bad. I check my Fluid resevior, it happen to be empty so i filled it up it has improved slight. I have been driving the car like that for two weeks now. Please keep me inform when.

Thanks
Mo

 

96White-
Open the hood and look near the brake master cylinder (directly in front of the driver seat on the firewall) there is a small reservoir, you should see if the clutch fluid is low by comparing the fluid level to the marks on the plastic. There are 2 reservoirs in this location, one on the brake master cylinder and one next to it, you want the smaller one NEXT to the master cylinder. If it is low, fill it to the FULL mark with DOT3 brake fluid. DO NOT let any dirt get in there! Wipe everything down before you take off the cap and close it up immediately after filling.

 

I hope its the one on the firewall. I have only 1 on the firewall, and amazing enough it was right below min, so i filled it up to just a tad above max, hoping this fixes it (and it the right one). The other resisvor is bigger and away from the firewall yet on the drivers side that was low about a month ago which caused my brake light to stay on.. I filled it and it went away. Thank you for the help ! also, i just had the top off long enough to fill it and put it back on right way, and wiped it off before opening.

How long should it take to get back to normal?

 

If air is in there, it all depends on how long it takes you to bleed it

Once air gets in, the only solution is bleeding.

 

Is there a write up in "laymans" terms just like above? or are there some pix I can see , I bleieve this might be my problem.

thank you

 

I bled my clutch over the weekend. It was very easy. There is a writeup on Motorvate.ca
In the instructions he says to use a 10mm box-end wrench, but on my car, the correct size was 12mm. You MUST have 2 people to do this job.
That completely fixed my problem too. The clutch feels stronger than ever, and grabs much higher.
One warning: Make sure you keep an eye on the clutch slave cylinder reservoir. I accidentally took my eyes off of it for a minute and we ended up sucking a huge bubble into the system when we were almost finished. At this point the clutch completely fell to the floor with no pressure at all. Don't make this mistake.

 

Good to see you got it fixed...did you have a leak?

 

I had the same thing happen to me. There was a leak somewhere. All of a sudden, I could hardly get it into gear. Right now, it's in the shop waiting for the master cylinder to fix it.