Clutch problem
 

Hi all,

My boxster s had no sign of any problem what so ever until tonight when i was driving around. I noticed the problem imediatley after shifting from third to fourth gear when i felt like something was holding the clutch pedel down as it is being depresed, not allowing it to be released smoothly.

From that point forward that feeling continued each time i pressed the clutch pedel. In addition to the above, i noticed the following:

1- It became hard to engage gears. Disengaging remained easy.
2- When i put the car in first gear or reverse the car makes an effort to move even before i let go of the clutch pedel (note that i'm referring to very slight movement which i didn't even notice at first).
3-Further to point 2, when the clutch pedel is pressed while the gear is engaged there are sligt mechanical sounds.

The car is a 2003 model and has 50,000km on it.

I would highly appreciate any advice or information on the above to avoide being ripped-off at my local service center.

Thanx.

Your clutch is not fully disengaging. There are numerous scenarios that could be happening here, although almost all of them mean that they're going to have to drop the transmission and inspect the clutch.

If you're extremely lucky, you might just be low on fluid in the clutch hydraulics. You'd still need to find out WHY though. Have you tried pumping the clutch pedal before putting the car in gear?

Try that, put the car in gear, then don't release the clutch pedal immediately. Hold it down and if the car starts moving forward after a while, you might just have a bad clutch master cylinder/slave cylinder. That's not too bad.

Anyhow, I bet the dealer will do some basic diagnostics like that, then tell you, "hey, I have to pull the clutch." At that point, you might as well buy a new one even if they don't find a problem with the clutch--it's the labor that costs you all the money, so if they've already got the tranny down, you might as well replace stuff.