Hey guys,

History:

So my car is an '02 with 60k miles. I bought it a few years ago with 35k. I had the OEM clutch replaced shortly after getting the car, maybe around 42k? Got an ACT HD PP+full face clutch disc.

Problem:

Fast forward to last weekend, went to a reputable shop (not going to name it) here in So Cal to get my alignment done. When the dude drives my car up, I hear him say "man this clutch is f'ed!" All the while I hear him grinding my clutch to hell. Painful (not to mention it took him quite some time to do the alignment and heard him say multiple times, "what the? why isn't it working?" (I know you're asking what does an alignment have to do with my clutch. I don't know. All I can say is that I had no problems like this before visiting this shop and having my clutch ground to sh*t)

Anyways, after all of that, maybe a day or two later, my clutch pedal play started getting lower and lower. Now it's pretty much damn near fully compressed before it engages. I checked the fluids and they were very low. I refilled it, and it helped fix a little bit, but the engagement point is still very low compared to where it was.

Is this clutch f'ed? Only 18K miles on it. I don't drive hard/track/canyons or anything. It does kinda grind (clutch, not the reverse gear) when I'm reversing when the car's warm.

 

What does "grinding my clutch to hell" sound like?

 

sounds like air in the clutch line. did you try bleeding it after you added the fluid?

 

Sorry to hear this man...the pedal play drop happened to me about a month ago. When this happened, my master cylinder was bad (leaked out the cylinder and dripped down the pedal into the car - you might want to check for brake fluid/clutch fluid stains in your driver area near the clutch pedal); I didn't want to take any chances, so I had the dealer change both the clutch master and slave cylinders. This was Diamond Honda (puente hills area) and it cost me $580 out the door. Problem was fixed. Good luck. Hope it works out well.

-Dave

 

It's possible he burned the crap out of the disc and glazed the surface trying to get it up on the lift to do the alignment. The excessive wear on the disc would cause a difference in pedal height and clutch engagement as well.

 

i suggest you start with simple shit... like sucking old dirty fluid out and bleeding fresh clean fluid...

because... 18k miles or not, your master cylinder is 9 years old.

 

Sounds like a master or slave cylinder failure.

Check the carpet by the clutch pedal for leaking fluid. Also check for any fluid stains where the slave cylinder goes into the transmission.

 

checked for leaks inside my cabin this morning. there is no leak.

 

If the clutch pedal falls to the floor and has to be pumped to activate the clutch, the Master cylinder is bad. Easily replaced and then bleed the Slave.

 

This just happened to me, and mine only has 25k on the car. Was the master clutch cylinder. ~$85 part, and about 2 hours worth of careful wrench turning solved it (not difficult other than getting to the bolts, and keeping the fluid off the paint). Can you see any fluid coming from the piston part that the pedal moves? If yes, that is your issue, and it is easily fixed. The other place to look is on the firewall side, there can be fluid there. I know what you mean by grinding the gears, I had to rev match the car for about a 15 mile trip....pm me if you want some advice on the Clutch MC replacement.