I was driveing to school today and as I went up the mountain/hill (school is at the top of the mountain/hill) I shifted from 3rd to 4th at about 4k RPM it grinded a bit and the clutch pedal got lighter. After that depressing the clutch had no effect.

I pulled my car over and walked the rest of the way to class... knowing full well I'd have to drive home without a clutch in traffic. But now that my car is home safe I need to figure out what's broken/wrong. Any ideas? What do I look at/for?

thanks,

 

Do you still have normal pedal pressure? If not, sounds like you lost hydraulic pressure. Check the fluid level and go from there. If you are lucky it may be low and you lost pressure that way. Add more and bleed it. Otherwise you may have a bad master or slave. Check to see if there are any leaks and where the fluid is coming from. If you still have normal pedal pressure, then your clutch disk might be worn thin.

 

The peddle feels a little lighter than normal but maybe it's just my imagination. I havn't noticed any leaks but I'm going to take a better look tomorrow in the daylight.

I don't uniderstand why it would have just happened all of a sudden if it's the clutch disk wearing out?

 

Just to mention. The clutch didn't feel like it was slipping at all on the way home. I checked the resevoirs (brake and the smaller one on the drivers side) and both were full. Although the fluid did look quite dark.

I'm not thinking it's the clutch disk its self, and the car made no strange noises on the way home so I'm doubting it's the throw out bearing... that just leaves the master cylinder and the slave, right?

 

T.O = slave
If you can't tell if the pedal is actually lighter or imagined, is there any dead pedal travel?

 

I tried the peddle again today. No dead peddle travel, I'm pretty sure I just imagined the lighter feeling. Feels normal. Just doesn't work.

 

Could something maybe have blocked or pinched any of the lines or something? What's so bad about the 98-00 hydraulics to make most people swap in 01-02 stuff? Could this just be a bad master cylinder?

 

I don't want to be annoying and keep bumping this, but I don't know what other info to give. I'm going to talk to a local shop on the weekend