Weird clutch issue on 1998 Boxster

[kvanals]

Hey guys, new here and trying to help my father-in-law with an issue on his 1998 Porsche Boxster (Not S). After going a long while being neglected for maintenance, he replaced at 120k miles the IMS bearing and while he was at it replaced the clutch plate, flywheel, pressure plate, throw-out bearing, clutch slave cylinder, and clutch master cylinder. Everything fires back up fine and the car is drive-able, however the clutch pedal seems EXTREMELY light and soft and even with the clutch fully disengaged you can smell clutch burning and can feel "chattering".

At first glance to me it sounded like an improperly bled clutch system, but would this cause the clutch to barely make contact even without touching the clutch pedal, leading to the burning smell and odd drive feeling? He's pretty confident that the system is bled, but I'm not as sure.

Sorry ahead of time if this is something very obvious.

Thanks,
Kenny

[particlewave]

This definitely sounds like a hydraulic issue.

The clutch/brakes system should be flushed if maintenance has been neglected (it’s super easy, just did mine last night in under an hour). A power bleeder makes all the difference. Motive is the popular brand and they run between $50-$70. I built my own for ~$20 with a $5 hand sprayer from Harbor Freight.

Be sure to follow the correct procedure for both the clutch and brakes (clutch pedal needs to be fully depressed when bleeding).

[rexcramer]

+1 for the power bleeder. I have a Motive. I can't ever imagine doing a brake job again without one.

[paulofto]

+2 . . . . power bleeder is simple, clean and can be done alone.

[kvanals]

Originally Posted by paulofto

+2 . . . . power bleeder is simple, clean and can be done alone.

Thanks all. I'll order a power bleeder this evening and will give it a shot!

- Kenny

[kvanals]

Originally Posted by kvanals

Thanks all. I'll order a power bleeder this evening and will give it a shot!

- Kenny

So we ran through the shop procedure to properly bleed the clutch hydraulic system (fill power bleeder, attach to reservoir, pump to ~20 psi, hold clutch pedal to the floor, and bleed for 20 seconds) and didn't see any difference. We repeated the procedure another three times and we did get a SMALL amount of air out, but the symptoms are overall unchanged, to include:
- Clutch feels very, very soft but DOES return by itself to its natural position
- When you press the pedal, it's very squeaky, similar to this video I found: https://www.dropbox.com/s/f4sd1ger3jo0j1k/20170419_195542.mp4?dl=0
- At idle, everything appears to be fine, but when in gear and the clutch is completely released it still slips and chatters. After a few moments in gear, you can smell burning clutch. No bueno.

Any ideas? I'm thinking it's possible one of the parts replaced may be bad, but I'm not even sure where to begin as I'm certainly not an expert by any means.

Thanks,
Kenny