January 4, 201313 yr I have a 2000 outback with the 5 speed transmission... last time I drove it I had no problems... it sat for about 2 days without being driven and my wife went out to start it this morning and she pushed in the clutch and it just stayed down... won't go into gear or anything just grinds... the clutch pedal just sticks to the floor and it takes some effort to pull it back up but then it pops right out... sometimes when driving we noticed that the clutch pedal would stick at the end of the friction point and you would have to tap it from underneath to get it to fully extend (I don't know if this is even relevant I just wanted to give as much info as possible...) the clutch was replaced about 2 years ago... I don't know if this would have anything to do with it but it has been in the single digits outside for the last couple days... any help would be appreciated...
January 4, 201313 yr Sounds like 1 of 2 things. A leak in your clutch line or a bad clutch master cylinder. Same principal as brakes. fluid pressure pushed your clutch. Lose the pressure and you lose the clutch. check your clutch master cylinder to see if there is fluid in it. Look for leaks under the car to see where it could be coming from. If the leak is somewhere in the line, you need a new line. If not, you're probably looking at a new clutch cylinder. Either way this is a fairly simple and inexpensive fix. (Sometimes a little messy though)
January 4, 201313 yr Yeah its either the master cylinder or the rubber flexible line. They are both easy to replace.
January 5, 201313 yr Gotta go with clutch slave cylinder on this one. Seals in it are more likely to go bad because of the heat, and any water that gets in the fluid (natural for brake fluid, even in a closed system) will eventually settle in the lowest part of the system which is the slave cylinder. Water causes rust, rust eats the seal on the piston.
January 5, 201313 yr I have a 2000 outback with the 5 speed transmission... last time I drove it I had no problems... it sat for about 2 days without being driven and my wife went out to start it this morning and she pushed in the clutch and it just stayed down... won't go into gear or anything just grinds... the clutch pedal just sticks to the floor and it takes some effort to pull it back up but then it pops right out... sometimes when driving we noticed that the clutch pedal would stick at the end of the friction point and you would have to tap it from underneath to get it to fully extend (I don't know if this is even relevant I just wanted to give as much info as possible...) the clutch was replaced about 2 years ago... I don't know if this would have anything to do with it but it has been in the single digits outside for the last couple days... any help would be appreciated... yes, I it hapen to me under extremely cold temp 2 or 3 times when the car was quite new. Nothing was ever done to solve the problem and I never got it afterwords
January 8, 201313 yr Author I checked the master cylinder and it is empty... no fluid at all any way I can tell whether it is the master or slave?
January 8, 201313 yr I checked the master cylinder and it is empty... no fluid at all any way I can tell whether it is the master or slave? Fill the master cylinder back up with brake fluid. Start pumping on the pedal and try and get some pressure. See if you can find where the fluid is coming from. This is more effective if you have a second person. One pumps the pedal and one looks under the car and under the hood to spot the leak. If it's a small leak, you might have to bleed the line to see exactly where it's coming from. But since this problem showed up on a cold day and out of the blue, i'm guessing it will make itself fairly obvious.
January 8, 201313 yr Author Fill the master cylinder back up with brake fluid. Start pumping on the pedal and try and get some pressure. See if you can find where the fluid is coming from. This is more effective if you have a second person. One pumps the pedal and one looks under the car and under the hood to spot the leak. If it's a small leak, you might have to bleed the line to see exactly where it's coming from. But since this problem showed up on a cold day and out of the blue, i'm guessing it will make itself fairly obvious. I tried that except I can't really pump the pedal... it just flops back and forth so I "pumped" it aboutI 20 timesand and I checked to see if anything was leaking but nothing... still just as full as it was when I filled it... the clutch does not engage at all and the pedal keeps flopping... Edited January 8, 201313 yr by Noclue
January 9, 201313 yr You'll have to bleed the line then. follow the line from the Master cylinder down to the slave cylinder. There will be a bleeder screw on it. Open the bleeder screw until fluid leaks out of it. Tighten it down. Get someone to push down on the clutch pedal and hold it down. Open the bleeder while they are holding it down. Let some fluid/air out. Tighten the bleeder. Have them release the pedal and push down again. let fluid out, tighten, have them release the pedal. repeat this a couple times until you either get pedal pressure back or you see where the fluid is leaking.
January 9, 201313 yr I checked the master cylinder and it is empty... no fluid at all any way I can tell whether it is the master or slave? Which one is puking fluid out of the plunger seal? Slave cylinder you may have to pull the dust boot back to inspect. Master cylinder usually just dumps fluid out on the floor inside the car. If neither appears to be leaking then it's possibly one of the hoses or the dampener. Edited January 9, 201313 yr by Fairtax4me
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