Hey peeps of S2KI!

Normally I can feel the resistance of my clutch engaging via foot pedal. On the way home tonight everything was fine and dandy. I was on the highway cruising 70 mph for 5-10 minutes and when I got off the highway, my clutch pedal was super duper smooth. I couldn't feel the clutch engaging at all, though it WAS engaging. For the rest of my 10 minute drive home, the clutch pedal remained super smooth and easy to press in. The clutch and throwout bearing are only 4-5 months old and the clutch has been running fine since. Only thing I've noticed in the past is that the clutch, on longer drives, seemed to be harder to press down after extended driving periods. This is my first manual car so I'm not sure whats normal and whats not.

Any idea what could suddenly be causing my clutch pedal to be super smooth? It could be because i'm sick, but I smelled a feint bad smell as well, more on the inside of the car than out.

 

Check the level of the fluid in your master cylinder I'm gonna bet that it's empty.

 

This is embarassing. But I dont know what that means. . How would I go about doing that?

 

There is a reservoir under the hood near the power brake booster.The one right against the driver inner fender.Remove the cap and check the fluid level.
By your smell description you likely have a leak that is weeping on the driver floor mat under the clutch pedal.

 

Open the hood. On the driver's side near the firewall (the wall between the engine compartment and passenger compartment), there should be two fluid reservoirs, a bigger one and a smaller one. The big one is for the brakes, and the small one is for the clutch. Open up the small one and see if you have any fluid in there.

 

Safe to do that now? Even though I just drove 20 minutes ago?

 

Yep.No pressure or significant heat in area.Plus temp has no bearing on fluid level.

 

Thanks. I'm going to go see if I can find it.

 

Check under the clutch pedal with a flashlight while your at it.

 

So I looked into the fluid thing. It was light brown to medium brown and was about a half inch under the top of the tube. I looked under the dash at the pedals but I didn't really know what I was looking for. The little cylinder looking thing that the pedal pushed a small rod into looked a little dirty. There was a little bit of grey goo on it. I didn't notice any fluid anywhere, may have dried or something. Smelled feint still.