It's cold, starting havin the problem yesterday (which was weird cause it's been warmer the past two days than it has been the previous 4).

Clutch was sticky, the "catch point" was a lot lower than normal, almost on the floor. The release of the pedal was sluggish. A few times I had trouble shifting into gears from neutral, but after a few seconds of clutch in-clutch out I could do it..

Anyway, so finally, close to my house, it just quits all together. The pedal sticks to the floor, I could lift it up with my foot, but there was zero resistance for pulling it up and it would just fall right back to the ground. I couldn't shift, at all.

I got on my road, forced it into neutral (yay for synch?), and brought it to a stop at my house.

Now, here are the limitations:
It starts up if I leave it in neutral, but I cannot shift gears while it is on. It won't budge anywhere from 1-5, and if I try reverse, it's like trying to shift without hitting the clutch, GRRRIINNNDDD.
If I put it in gear and try to start it, it whines and I just don't do that after the first try..

I'm thinking maybe air is in the lines, since the problem started, if I pumped the clutch a lot, it would kinda come back to normal, veeery slowly.

Fluid level was fine, it was black and needs flushed anyway, but was hoping that was the issue.

Other suggestions?

***Last night I changed out the master cylinder, I haven't taken it for a test drive (there's definitely air in the lines), but the clutch is now movable while on. I think that might have been the issue. Today I am replacing the slave and flushing it.

 

Have you test driven it yet? The clutch on my '99 civic dx hatch has a similar issue: my slave cylinder has a decent leak though and needs to be replaced.. I'm probably going to replace the master as well.

 

Flush/bleed the clutch hydraulic system before replacing the slave cylinder, which is possibly fine. If the pedal is still limp, however, then replace the slave cylinder.

 

That sounds like a bad master cylinder for sure. Check the slave cylinder for leaks by pulling back the rubber boots to see if fluid is coming out around the piston. If it is not leaking you really don't need to replace it. Flush and bleed thoroughly of course.

 

defiantly flush the lines. it could be something as small as some moisture in the line which could be freezing and clogging the lines. flushing the fluid is defiantly the easiest and quickest thing to try at least.

only time my pedal stuck down was when i was flushing my lines i tightened the bleeder valve with the clutch pedal down. i simply loosened the bleeder and bleed it afew more times and make sure the pedal was UP and i havent had any issues since.

 

thanks for all the input, it was actually a mesh of all those issues
Water had somehow gotten into the line, at least it looked like it
As well as air
the master cylinder was bad
And in a 95 civic, you can actually reach the slave cylinder from the top of the car, which was nice. So I replaced both cylinders and bled the system.
Works like a brand new toy, super relieved!

However, I discovered the boot over the slave cylinder had a nice slice on the side of it.
Anyone know how hard it is to replace that, if I need to, and how much the boot will cost?

 

thats good to hear... if the boot is just slightly slit i think it will be just fine.... but if you want to replace it its still very easy, just remove the slave cylinder and pull the boot off and pop the new one inplace and bolt the slave back up. very simple just 2 bolts.

 

yeah I figured you'd have to remove the slave, but I didn't think to check to see how the boot was attached while I was doing stuff the other day
Alright, thanks fellas

 

ya the rubber boot is just pushed in the square opening. it removes very easily.