I jumped in my 97 1.4 Ek civic today to find there was an awful lot of play in the lever, i pumped it a bit and it was ok. Went for a 15 or so mile drive and on long straight roads at constant speed the clutch lost all pressure so i had to pump it quite a lot just to shift gear.

I limped home and tried my car an hour or so later, now the pedal drops straight to the floor and there is no pressure to even build up.

There is no obvious leaks and the resevoir is pretty full?

Any ideas? I really can't afford this at the moment.

 

Internal leak in the clutch master? I know that in the brake system you will have a dropping pedal when the MC has an internal leak. Pretty much you will have ur foot on the brake at a light and the brake will drop. The brake should stay in one spot but since the MC has an internal leak the pressure is dropping in the system. I guess this could be the problem but i'm not sure. I would try and bleed the slave cylinder however i dunno how you would get any air in the system if you hadn't touched the clutch system. If you say any visisible leaks (fluid on the floor) than you would prolly have no pressure and the clutch wouldn't go anywhere. This is what leads me to believe that you do not have a fluid leak (external).

 

Check the fluid levels in the clutch cylinder on the firewall, it takes DOT brake fluid. If the levels are fine, then I would suspect either something in the hydraulic system has failed, or you have air in the system.

 

Had a quick look this morning before i went out, the level in the bigger res is fine. But the smaller one on the left was very very low, i was going to reverse bleed it on wednesday when i have some free time, but my syringe is only 110ml, do u reckon that will be enough?

After that i'll start looking around for leaks if it does not solve the problem.

Thanks, Dom.

 

the "bigger one" aka your brake master cylinder?

 

The big one with the metal cap on it is the brake master cylinder... but if the little plastic canister (the clutch slave) is low, then that's your problem right there.

Pic up some DOT brake fluid and put it in the clutch slave cylinder.

But your real problem is figuring out why the fluid is missing.

 

Yeah.

I've got some brake fluid which i put in just to see if it did anything (it was opened and re sealed about 6 weeks ago, so maybe not that useful) tried pumping the pedal and no pressure built up what so ever.
Do you think this is because there is a problem with the master cylinder? Or it's because there is too much air in the system to make any pressure? Although i'm pretty sure it should pressurise with lots of pumping even if there is air in there, from my experiance with my bikes braking system.

Thanks for the help, Dom.

 

If there was no fluid in the clutch master there is prolly air in the system. Add some more fluid and bleed the clutch master. Watch the level also.

 

Right then, had a proper look tonight and saw a slightly damp patch on my slave cylinder. Pulled the rubber back for fluid to p*ss out everywhere! Doh!

Going to ring around a few places to source a replacement cylinder tomorrow. Will let you know how it goes.

 

i had the same problem when i had my clutch and flywheel put it. the idiots crossthreaded the hydraulic line that goes into the slave cylinder. so i was drivin and went to shift and the pedal pretty much sucked itself to the floor and i almost crashed because it didnt come out of gear. no warning at all. your lucky you caught yours before it was to that point.
-Shane