WTF happened to my clutch?
 

If you don't want to read this, read the question at the end.

GRRRRR...... Today sucked a lot. To start off, I was driving along and, as I came to a red light, I downshifted. I missed the shift, but didn't think anything of it, until I came to put the clutch in, and the pedal was FUGGIN STIFF!! http://images.zeroforum.com/smile/mad.gif So, I pulled off onto a side street.

I couldn't get it into gear from a dead stop, and when I pushed the clutch in as far as I could and tried to get it into 1st gear, it wouldn't go, so I pushed it into the gate and the rpm's went down. This lead me to believe that the clutch wasn't fully disengaging, so I shut the car down, and about to call AAA then my friend told me that the tranny would go into first gear. So, I tried to start the car and the starter got the car moving until the engine started and the car started to move ^_^

I was happy to have the car moving again, but the clutch wouldn't let me shift, but I remembered that clutchless shifting is easy to do, so I was able to get home.

So, my question is, why did the clutch pedal get so hard and why won't the clutch disengage? Thanks.

Re: WTF happened to my clutch? (garados)
 

When was the last time you replaced your clutch?

Re: WTF happened to my clutch? (Vap133)
 

I don't know, I got the car 12000 miles ago, now it has 98000. It felt fine, until about 30 minutes ago http://images.zeroforum.com/smile/emcrook.gif

Re: WTF happened to my clutch? (garados)
 

most likely your clutch is worn...time to upgrade http://images.zeroforum.com/smile/emwink.gif

Kinda of OT: clutchless shifting...what RPM were you shifting at?

Re: WTF happened to my clutch? (garados)
 

Maybe it's time to replace the clutch? Let the car cool down and see if it engages then.....

Re: WTF happened to my clutch? (SamC)
 

shift between 2000-6000 rpm in first, 3000-4000 in 2nd and just went through the gears after that. I've got clutchless up and down shifting down to an art http://images.zeroforum.com/smile/emsmilep.gif

Re: WTF happened to my clutch? (Vap133)
 

It's been a few hours and the pedal still does the same thing. I think it could be one of a few things. 1) throw-out bearing, 2) something lodged between the disk and the pressure plate, not allowing the clutch to disengage, or 3) something is stuck in one of the hydraulic lines, so I'm going to check the cylenders (master and slave) and make sure they're in working order. Anybody else have any guesses what the problem could be? Thansk

Re: WTF happened to my clutch? (garados)
 

check the slave cylender take it off then make sure the arm moves freely if not that will explain why your not moving I think if something was in the way you would have felt it and heard it. don't worry new trannys art a lot of $$$ and they are easy to work on if you want to get your hands dirty. good luck

Re: WTF happened to my clutch? (joncivLS)
 

sounds like you grenaded a spring. check the simple things first before you get a new clutch, master/slave cyl etc

Re: WTF happened to my clutch? (tilt)
 

I just replaced my clutch on Wednesday. I had the same problems as you, ie. couldn't get it into gear w/o fighting with it, very stiff pedal, shitloads of chatter upon engagement, etc. Turns out that all 4 springs on the clutch disk had either become very loose or had fallen out. One of them got stuck between the PP and the disk, and ended up shaving quite a bit of metal off the PP. I had shrapnel everywhere, LOL. Anyway, problem fixed, 300 big ones later... http://images.zeroforum.com/smile/emthup.gif