[rxter]

Strangest thing I've ever encountered in a car happened yesterday. Was driving along shifting 1 to 2 or 2 to 3 ( don't remember and its not important anyway) . I push the clutch pedal in, move the stick like we have done thousands of times and when I lift the clutch pedal the car is not in gear. So I instinctively push the clutch pedal again, but its not there. Seriously its like the damned thing dissapeared. In my confusion I was able to pull safely off the road. Pedal was on the floor. I can pull it back manually but it doesn't return by itself and the car won't engage a gear. Stuck in neutral. Any ideas?

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[Bulti]

Is there still enough fluid in the reservoir? Or maybe one of the two brake cylinders is leaking (internally)?



Also, I believe that if your friction plate is worn beyond a certain point the clutch could stick.

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[rxter]

Was working perfectly one second and gone the next. Almost like a linkage point or cable broke.

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[ds968]

The OE clutch hose ( common failure point in our cars ) splits open , often at the metal/rubber joint. That could be the culprit. The pedal will go to the floor and stay there. You can bring it up by hand but it's useless since there is no pressure in the line . Much of the fluid will leak out quickly if the gash is large enough but it could also drain out slowly depending on the size of the break, so check that out. No doubt there could be other reasons for this symptom ( master / slave cylinders , clutch plate , even the spring mechanism in the pedal itself , etc ) but sounds similar to what happened to my car without any prior warning signs so I'd check that hose first. You have to get under the car to get a good look.

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[Chris Vais]

Sounds like the clutch hose to me. When mine ruptured I was on the wary home from work. Drove the car to the house without the clutch. It can be done, but I couldn't recommend it for more than just to get the car to a safe location. If it was the clutch line there will be puddles of fluid under the car.

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[rxter]

No oil under the car. Could not get the car into gear although the engine continued to run (and keep me cool inside the car as I awaited AAA). Pushing the stick to a geared position (pick one) did nothing. It was as if the clutch were perpetually depressed. No grinding when pushing the stick as one might expect if you were going from neutral to a geared gate. IT was clearly in neutral as we could wheel it around with or without the engine running. Really odd.

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[Bulti]

How many miles with this clutch?

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[Qfrank]

Just happened to me. Clutchnline burst. Not a hard repair, just a tight spot. If you have access to a lift, it will be easier to repair, rather than being on your back.



FQ

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[94SilverCab]

Not sure of availability, but I replaced the OE with the D1R stainless steel line. Also, while you're in there chaange the master/slave at the same time.



Jay

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[Bulti]

Rxter - there is an inspection hole in the clutch housing, it is normally sealed with a rubber cap. Remove the cap and have a peak inside. Maybe the fork that pulls the clutch assembly apart snapped. Maybe the the ledges the fork grabs onto snapped.



Via this hole you can also measure how much friction material you got left on the plate, how to measure that is described in section "Clutch-03" (with picture) on Clark's Garage. It's easy, it's quick and that way you can rule out a worn clutch.

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[Chris Vais]

I missed the part about being stuck in neutral. If the clutch line fails the clutch will remain engaged and you can't easily get into any gear. So whatever failed is causing the clutch to remain disengaged or if the clutch is released, it isn't connecting with the flywheel. Possibly, the clutch fork, but I would think that would have the same results as the clutch line failure.

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[flash]

you should be able to see what is going on by looking through the inspection port on the side of the bell housing.

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[Bulti]

[quote name='Chris Vais' timestamp='1396286771' post='156449']I missed the part about being stuck in neutral. If the clutch line fails the clutch will remain engaged and you can't easily get into any gear. So whatever failed is causing the clutch to remain disengaged or if the clutch is released, it isn't connecting with the flywheel. Possibly, the clutch fork, but I would think that would have the same results as the cloth line failure.[/quote]



Actually Chris, you are right about the clutch being unengaged. I talked to a friend and he had a car were a few fingers of the pressure plate broke off. Subsequently the center bearing came loose and prevented the clutch from engaging. But this did produce some noises that shouldn't be there.

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[rxter]

Was the line at the metal/rubber joint as ds predicted. Got a better look at it today and saw a little oil here and there. Got lucky - no oil blown all over the place and did not destroy the transmission trying to grind it home.



Thanks for the diagnosis gents. As always your feedback was invaluable and helped me avoid mistakes.

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[flash]

yup - that's the failure spot.



unless they have been changed in the last couple of years, be sure to change the slave, master, and blue line at the same time. failure to do that results in one of the others failing shortly thereafter in about half the cars.

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[Bulti]

And no grinding when selecting a gear with the engine running? Weird..



Anyway, good for you it's not a horrible job to fix.

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[rxter]

Interesting comment regarding the cylinder replacement. Is the line failure an indicator of problems that lead to cylinder failure? I did not plan to change those.



WRT grinding I was pretty gentle when moving the shifter around. It did not slot in as though the clutch was disengaged so I stopped pushing.

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[BeBe]

Flash; any possibility of the D1R stainless steel line becoming available in the future?

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[flash]

hydraulic seals and the other rubber components of the system are all subject to the same source of contamination, which is what leads to failure. if you replace one component, the pressure is then sent to the next weakest link. about 50% of the time we see either a slave or master blow very shortly after a line is changed, but not the rest. the same goes for either of those being changed, but not the others. this is especially true if the pressure plate is other than OEM rating, or the pivot fork bearings are worn, yada yada



the parts are not expensive. and the labor is almost nothing. the entire job took me 2.5 hours the first time i did it. it would take less now.



the best thing anybody can do to help avoid this is to flush the entire hydraulic system every other year. this means brakes too, as they share the same reservoir.

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[flash]

re: stainless line - no. i have to make too many of them in a batch to get a decent price, and there is an SAE to metric adaptor involved that a couple of people complained about. i'm pretty anal about my stuff, and rather than have any complaints, i opted to discontinue the item

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