S2000 Under The Hood S2000 Technical and Mechanical discussions.

Sudden "Soft" Clutch

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Old Oct 18, 2019 | 03:13 PM
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Default Sudden "Soft" Clutch

My clutch, once the car is warmed up, tends to get momentarily "stuck" to the floor for a 1/2 second every time its pushed down fully. I've been reading these forums for a while and it appears that this issue affects other people too. I've replaced the clutch fluid and the problem never went away, so I just live with it.

Just yesterday something new happened - I was doing some very spirited driving and went to up-shift and suddenly the clutch felt EXTREMELY soft - the clutch pedal went to the floor as easily as a modern 6-speed accord. Every shift continued like this - the clutch being super-soft, for about 15 minutes, and suddenly the clutch went back to normal, semi-firm. I have not been able to reproduce this. It confused and surprised me so much while I was driving, that the Caymen S I was struggling to keep up with got away (darn).

Has anyone else experienced this, does this have a different name maybe? I searched for "soft clutch" and nothing really came up. Thanks!
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Old Oct 18, 2019 | 03:25 PM
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Have you checked your clutch cylinders? Maybe theres a leak somewhere?
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Old Oct 18, 2019 | 04:36 PM
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Sounds like classic air in the system symptoms. Check your clutch fluid level and for leaks. Replace as necessary, bleed and top off.
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Old Oct 18, 2019 | 06:54 PM
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Originally Posted by zze86
Sounds like classic air in the system symptoms. Check your clutch fluid level and for leaks. Replace as necessary, bleed and top off.
I will bleed the system. Last time I just replaced the fluid but didn’t do a full bleed. I should have time this weekend. Will report back
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Old Oct 19, 2019 | 07:57 AM
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Has your clutch been replaced recently?

If so....someone probably used the wrong grease and/or did not replace the release guide sleeve.
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Old Oct 19, 2019 | 06:59 PM
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Bleed the system. Go under your dash and see if there is any fluid leaking out of the master cylinder. My car started doing this and the clutch master cylinder went out 2 days later.
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Old Oct 20, 2019 | 08:55 AM
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Originally Posted by B serious
Has your clutch been replaced recently?

If so....someone probably used the wrong grease and/or did not replace the release guide sleeve.
Not since I owned the car. Currently at 61k miles. Was done at 40k
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Old Oct 20, 2019 | 08:57 AM
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Originally Posted by starrap2
Bleed the system. Go under your dash and see if there is any fluid leaking out of the master cylinder. My car started doing this and the clutch master cylinder went out 2 days later.
Shoot ok thanks. I’ll try to get to this today. If not, next weekend and I’ll update this thread.

Thank you
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Old Oct 20, 2019 | 11:49 AM
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I suppose it could be the master or air in the system, but if not, I had exactly that symptom in my old ap1. I fixed it by doing two things. First, I polished the little nib that forms on the slave cylinder push rod, and re-greased the connection between the ball end of the push rod, and the clutch release fork. Second, with some difficulty, I put dabs of grease on the ends of the clutch release fork where they make contact with the release bearing. This is somewhat difficult, but it can be done. These two things combined cured the problem and the clutch worked very well. But, the problem can be caused by different things - for instance - a worn throw out bearing guide might be the culprit. That means the transmission has to come out, in which event, if it was my car, I would replace the clutch with OEM while I'm at it. Hopefully, you can sort it out without pulling the transmission.

Here are a couple of links that might help, there are other DIYs around if you search:

https://www.s2ki.com/forums/southern.../#post23436974

https://www.s2ki.com/forums/s2000-un...bottom-282810/

Also, some youtubes:




Last edited by rpg51; Oct 20, 2019 at 11:59 AM.
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Old Oct 21, 2019 | 10:23 AM
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I'm betting pretty heavily on the release guide or incorrect grease being the culprit.

What type of clutch is in there?
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