2002 2.7 Boxstr Clutch Pedal Issues

[germaneighter]

Recently noticed the clutch seemed to engage immediately as the pedal started to come up. Soon after I noticed it getting progressively harder to put the car in gear at a dead stop. Then it was getting a little stiff going into 2nd. Clutch pedal also seemed like it did not travel down as far as it normally did. I bled the slave cylinder (manually - do not have a power bleeder). (The bleeder was only finger tight....) Got quite a bit of air bubbles so I was hopeful the problem was fixed. Test drive - the pedal did not feel any different and the clutch engagement felt the same. Then the pedal kind of popped and dropped further down as I depressed it. It would come up slightly and engage but I had to pull it all the way up with the top of my foot. Got home and noticed clutch fluid running out of the flywheel inspection hole. I assume the slave cylinder blew out but would like to know if anyone else has had this experience. 140K Miles on the original clutch so I can't complain.

[germaneighter]

Just bumping this for the day crew to see....

[JFP in PA]

Originally Posted by germaneighter

Recently noticed the clutch seemed to engage immediately as the pedal started to come up. Soon after I noticed it getting progressively harder to put the car in gear at a dead stop. Then it was getting a little stiff going into 2nd. Clutch pedal also seemed like it did not travel down as far as it normally did. I bled the slave cylinder (manually - do not have a power bleeder). (The bleeder was only finger tight....) Got quite a bit of air bubbles so I was hopeful the problem was fixed. Test drive - the pedal did not feel any different and the clutch engagement felt the same. Then the pedal kind of popped and dropped further down as I depressed it. It would come up slightly and engage but I had to pull it all the way up with the top of my foot. Got home and noticed clutch fluid running out of the flywheel inspection hole. I assume the slave cylinder blew out but would like to know if anyone else has had this experience. 140K Miles on the original clutch so I can't complain.

From you description, the slave has failed and needs to be replaced.

[epapp]

Slave blowing out AND the pedal not going all the way to the floor plus hard to get into gear sounds like a much more ugly beast to me unfortunately. Just a slave being bad wouldn't cause the pedal to hit a hard stop before contacting the floor.

Same symptoms, I tried to force the pedal down more after massaging it and the slave blew out. Turns out the slave was fine; it only blew out as a result of the clutch fork being cracked and jamming itself at the end of the pedal travel.

Clutch was dead, flywheel scorched, clutch fork cracked, slave popped. At the end of the day, it was a clutch job (plus the minimal cost of a new clutch fork and slave cylinder) that solved the issue - and oh my how smooth the clutch is normally supposed to feel compared to the leg training day of a pedal I had before the clutch fork crack. I'm just lucky I got it to the shop before the slave blew.

[germaneighter]

That's is the same diagnosis I have come to.

Any recommendations on clutch & pressure plate for this year and model used mostly for a daily commuter and 1-2 driver eds a year?