I let a freind and his son try out the S this past week, and on the way to work yesterday the clutch felt terrible. Spongy, very late disengagement. I checked the reservoir, and it was low. I thought "Oh, ok" and decided to go to the store to get a pint. Having topped it off, I go to check clutch action again, and there was no change. For about a second I had decided to bleed it, thinking there could be air becuase of how low the fluid level had gotten. For no particular reason at all, I decided to check the adjustment of the CMC connecting rod. DAMMIT!!! The CMC was peeing on my carpet! MY02 with 49,055 miles on the clock.

So, after reading posts on S2KCA about what stealerships were charging for the repair, I went ahead and bought a CMC from the stealer and replaced it today on my lunch break. All jobs should be so easy. Even bleeding was terribly quick with a one-man bleeder. The first pump or two of bled fluid was only partially mucked up, probably because I have purged the system twice annually since I bought the car. Since I had it up on stands I went ahead and changed the diff and transmisison lubricants early (I have been in the habit of doing that in December) . At any rate, my baby is back on the road and running like a champ.

Anyways, the clutch action is good now, it just seems to me that engagement is a bit late (as in the pedal comes way up before complete clutch engagement, perhaps an inch and a half before the pedal is all the way up). This is kind of perplexing, because the connecting rod on the new unit came adjusted about one full turn shorter than on the old unit I removed. Now I'm thinking maybe I should shorten it another half-turn or two. What say ye?

 

If the new CMC rod is further in than the old CMC rod, then yes the pedal has to come up the floor further before the piston is all the way out of the CMC. So crawl under there and extend it out a little bit, and your engagement point should be back where you're used to.

 

yeah just adjust it to where you like it. Easy enough to do. Good work on the clutch swap. I felt one drop of fluid on the clutch rod when I first got the car , but never got any more leakage since.

 

Crawl under the dashboard, look at the rod that attaches the clutch pedal to the "CMC" and adjust it to your preference.

 

Adjust the nut on the CMC rod, remenber its going to be on there really good(mine needed some persuasion to lossen for adjustment).

 

12mm wrench

 

Thanks for your suggestions. I think I will drive it for a few more days and then decide whether or not to adjust it. The way it is, the clutch disengages kind of early, and engages kind of late. The way I see it, it can't hurt, as it ensures the clutch is fully disengaged. I'll wait on it, I guess...