Ok so i'm driving yesterday and i pull up to a light and put my car in neutral (its a 5-speed obviously) and when i go to put it back into gear it won't go. I press the clutch down and it won't go into ANY gear... so i'm like wtf... i get out and see if i'm leakin any fluid and i'm not. So i try again and nothing. So i turn the car off, and then try to put it in gear with the car off, and it goes into every gear with no problem.... So i turn it back on, same problem, can't get it into any gear. The clutch pedal doesn't just fall to the floor or anything, it feels completely normal, but it just won't go into gear. So to get it home i turn off the car, put it in gear, and start it, and immediately get clutch drag as the car is turning over, its trying to roll forward. So i get it started and i just start driving and i try to shift to second and its really hard but i can get it to mesh and same with third, but everytime i get to a stoplight i can't get it into any gear without first turning the car off. Half way home i remember that i learned how to rev match, and clutchless shift (learned on my bike, and then got it to work on the max which wasn't easy) so i keep rev matching to upshift and downshift and i get home, but now i'm like WTF is wrong. I was thinkin that my clutch fluid might be low so i'm gonna check that later, but if that was the case wouldn't the pedal just go to the floor? I had my master and slave cylinders replaced less than a year ago so i highly doubt (and hope its not them) but if it was, why does my cluch pedal feel normal? I know last time my cylinders went out the clutch just dropped to the floor and gave no feedback at all when pressed, this just feels normal. I'm stumped...anyone have any idea WTF is going on....?

 

Either slave cylinder or master cylinder has gone bad, or maybe a split hydraulic hose.

I once drove my van from Raton, NM to Austin without a clutch. The hydraulic hose had split in Raton, so I was rev-matching all the way home.

 

sounds like fun......

 

Same thing happened to me, Except my clutch pedal stopped comming out all the way and it wouldn't dissengage completely when pushed in. After sitting over night the problem went away but everyone keeps telling me it's probably the Throwout Bearing gone bad and the heat made it expand and get stuck or cracked, preventing the clutch from separating fully and preventing the pedal from coming back out all the way. Once it cooled down it went back into place. But I am going to be replacing the clutch soon.

 

I drove an entire day without using the clutch once too just because I knew it could be done but I'd never done it, also I was bored on the way to work so I decided I'd try it.

 

same thing happened to me a couple of weeks ago as i was getting off the freeway. only the pedal went straight to the floor. ended up being the clutch line where it connects to the banjo bolt on the slave cylinder. ended up replacing them with derrick's ss clutch line and it feels really good.

 

How does one do that, out of curiosity (obviously of no use to my automatic, but interesting nonetheless).

 

you just need the clutch for 1st gear after that it's all rev match with speed and you can just shift without using the clutch.

 

The same problem happened to me last night. I just replaced my Input shaft bearing this week (tuesday) and checked my clutch and through out bearing. They both looked good. Changed my oil last night, checked tranny bolts and used some seafoam. Also cleaned out my egr system this week so the car is running allsome shifting great. Went on to the highway, everthing is fine until I get to the off ramp. I take the car out of gear (5th) and I can not down shift. So I finally rev match it into second. Rev matched all the way home and ran a few stop signs in 2nd. I had not clutch what so ever.

I bled the clutch again today and found not leaks or pockets of air in the line. Still does not work .

My question is how do you know which Cylinder has gone bad (Slave or master Cylinder) ? I know if that is my problem I should replace both anyway.

 

check behind clutch pedal for any leaks from master cylinder

 

behind the clutch pedal? you mean in the car? cause that doesn't make much sense lol, i want to figure out which cylinder is bad also but i don't know how to tell the difference between the two, or at least which one is bad. All i know is my tranny has black gunk all over it (but no definite leak) which makes it seem as if its been leaking for some time now really slowly (shrug).... I'll look at it closer tomorrow and try to figure something out.

 

The clutch pedal connects to the master cylinder in the car. You'll see what we mean.

 

Well thats good to know, i had no idea, i thought it was a mechanical line all the way through the firewall (shrug) never worked on a manual before i guess i'm in to learn a bunch

 

Regarding the question you sent me via PM. Yes, a broken pressure plate would give symptoms like that.