[b]cluth issues![/b]

Post Mon May 08, 2006 6:06 pm

am new to the forum and enjoy reading the words of wisdom.

i attended the last e30 meet in durham-unfortunately in my mates subaru legacy turbo as my e30 had what i thought was a slave cylinder problem.

my clutch started going wrong when out on a GOOD drive.
the clutch pedal felt soft (occasionally) and (occasionally) released slowly.
had no problem engaging gears after a quick pump of the pedal.

after retuning home and letting the car cool down i took it for a quick test to see if temp had something to with it? but with clutch down,first gear engaged it started to stall-with clutch still pressed.

so checked slave cylinder and there seemed to be a leek. so bought a replacement from good old euro parts and changed it over.
bleed it for sometime and thought the job was done.felt good.

but its just not right? still goes soft. no-where near as bad but i am confused. any help?

do i just need to bleed it more??? how much fluid does the system hold?
what other problems could this be???

any help welcome.

cheers,ric

Post Mon May 08, 2006 6:26 pm

[/img]http://img315.imageshack.us/img315/3664/viewcopy5ri.jpg

Post Mon May 08, 2006 6:37 pm

Master cylinder?

Had these go before so worth a thought!

Post Mon May 08, 2006 7:47 pm

Its often the case that if you replace one of the clutch cylinders, the other will give up soon after.

The master cylinder on my 325i lasted a week after having a new slave cylinder fitted.

Post Mon May 08, 2006 8:00 pm

same here, replaced the slave cylinder a few weeks back (at a cost of Ã‚£95

), about 10 days later the master cylinder went! strange quirk no?

this time I sourced my own part and just asked them to fit it while they were doing MOT on it.

Post Mon May 08, 2006 9:26 pm

cheers guys.

the master cylinder is the one located behind the clutch pedal isnt it.
great fun to fix.....im sure.

and i can see it being a nice messy job inside the car great!

so i guess thats the next job, tis a strange coincidence.

may try to bleed it more just to check in a vain attempt to save myself changing the master cylinder.?.

oh and if anyone knows how to condense video files that would be great cause i could post some small videos of small slides in kielder forest.

great fun!

cheers for the help.

Post Mon May 08, 2006 9:37 pm

dobbie82 wrote:about 10 days later the master cylinder went! strange quirk no?

The BMW technician who used to maintain my Sport for the previous owner, recommended that if one of the clutch cylinders goes you may as well replace both whilst youre at it, unless you know that the remaining 'good' cylinder is a fairly new item - otherwise you will be back pretty soon anyway.

He only replaced my slave cylinder as he couldnt get a M/cylinder in time (I needed the car in a rush) and said I would be back within a month - a week later there I was

Its got something to do with older cylinder of the two having weaker seals - the hydraulic pressure will try to move through the easiest route, which would nomally be operating the clutch but if you have a set of good seals at one end and weak seals at the other, the easiest route will be through the weak seals and not operating the clutch properely.