Clutch not releasing!!

[Stoned]

Took the R out last night over to a mates, normal run clutch bite up nice and high like it's always been.

This morning start the car and almost put my foot on the floor before the clutch lifts up, no resistance hardly at all.

eh :?:

How has that happened. The clutch does still work but the pedal goes almost all the way to the ground before it lifts the clutch. What could have happened between turning it off last night and and this morning?

 

[stevepudney]

Sounds like the seals in the Master Cylinder have gone, run your fingers down the back of the clutch pedal, is there any fluid?? or perhaps on the carpet?? If so get a new complete Master Cylinder fitted not just a replacment seals kit.

 

[Stoned]

There was a new one fitted only a few months back as part of the engine rebuild/new clutch change

Any other ideas?

 

[J-GTi-R]

the slave cylinder, or the flexi hose that goes to it could be leaking as well.

 

[Stoned]

2 Questions

1) Is the clutch hydrualic on the R's or is it cable driven
2) What fluid should be used to top them up if needbe?

 

[J-GTi-R]

Hydraulic, just use any old hydraulic clutch fluid you can get from any garage.

 

[Stoned]

Cheers man

I grabbed some 5.1 stuff from Halfords and put that in there and now the clutch is working again

Furthermore the level isnt visably dropping after a drive, and there is no liquid leaking down the pedal

It's all very strange, but clearly there is a leak somewhere so I'm taking it down to a local garage at 3pm for them to give it a quick visual inspection and see if they can spot the fault.

 

[Sunny Nutter]

if you had to top up the reservoir,
try bleeding the system again,
there may have been a bit of air in there from the master cylinder being replaced!

 

[Stoned]

Could be, the res didnt appear to have any liquid in at all this lunch when I went to look. It only took about 3/4 a cup full of fluid to put it back to the top.

 

[J-GTi-R]

With mine, I had the smallest of leaks in the flexi hose at first, so it just looked like road grime. As a result, the level would drop by a tiny amount each time I used the car, but eventually over about 6 months it dropped enough to start letting air into the system and I got your problem.

I topped it up, thought nothing of it and carried on driving. However, when Mike did my clutch change, he spotted the flexi hose was starting to leak quite badly, so I got him to change it as well.

 

[Stoned]

Spot on J-GTi-R!

It is indeed the flexihose running over the gearbox. It's only leaking a tiny amount but they say to get a replacement anyhow

Since it's a Nissan part do you know how much they cost?

Cheers mate

 

[J-GTi-R]

About £35 from memory. You could get a braided hose, but the Nissan one does the job fine.