Hello..I made the mistake of loaning my everloved 88 Maxima to a nearby family member and the car sat in the cold for about a week. Well today I went to start it up and noticed that the clutch petal was all the way down to the floor. I popped the hood and checked the clutch master cylinder and it was BONE DRY. I added some brake fluid but I don't know what to do now...the petal is still on the floor. The car is not drivable. I have a Haynes manual and am going to attempt to bleed the system - but are there any hints or pointers anybody can provide? Is this more of a repair than I think it is? Is there more to fixing this than bleeding the lines? I don't do work like this, so it's unchartered territory. My first and foremost concern is getting the petal back up off the floor on its own effort.

Thanks for any help anyone can give me.

Dan
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88 Maxima SE
03 Sentra GXE

 

Dan,

You'll need to bleed the air out of the lines. Since it was dry most
likely you have some air in the lines. Add brake fluid to the master
cylinder and bleed it through the masterslave cylinder until you get
nothing but clear brake fluid. You'll need an assistant to help you
on this. One person depresses and pulled the clutch out and the other
person add fluid and check to make sure fluid is bleeding out the
slave cylinder. You should be fine after that. Make sure the bleeder
cap is tight and you should be on your way,

Mike

 

yes it was bled last night and for the most part, it works fine now. One problem I kept encountering was when my assistant pressed the clutch to the floor and I bled the fluid, then capped the bleeder screw, the petal would not spring back up immediately, it had to be pulled back up and pumped a few times. It's working now, however I may bleed it again just to be sure. It doesn't grab right like it used to. I'm still curious why it just ran dry.

Thanks for the help
Dan
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Dan, a couple things you may want to check, first, the spring that connected to the clutch petal, you want to make sure that is in decent shape. Have you check over all of the clutch system. I would check all the lines, both the cylinders, and your linkage. If you lost that much clutch fluid in a week, something is leaking for sure. If it got low you would really notice it. Also, some of the leaks may not look apparent, just look for the tell tail signs, like a certain area that looks like it has fresh clutch fluid.
-S