Does the clutch pedal have the same feel with the car on and off? I'm 99% sure it's supossed to, but lately my clutch feels like brakes with air in the lines with the car off. There's no leaky fluid that I can find (along any of the lines, the slave or master cylinder) and the fluid levels look okay, just if the car sits for any amount of time the clutch pedal feels much softer than it should for the first few minutes.

If I pump the pedal with the car off, it builds pressure, but even with the sloppy pedal feel it shifts and goes into gears fine. After a few minutes of driving, the pedal is back to it's normal feel.

Any advice/suggestions/etc?

Cliffs: Clutch pedal feels like crap, but the car still drives/runs fine.

 

have you tried bleeding it?

 

Why would I need to bleed it if it wasn't leaking? How in the hell does air get into a closed system without losing fluid?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Ricey McRicerton &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Why would I need to bleed it if it wasn't leaking? How in the hell does air get into a closed system without losing fluid?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Very good question and only thing i could think of the closest answer to is the fluid heating up causing the air bubbles (kind of like brakes). If you drive through traffic enough and always pressing on the clutch the movement could possibly heat it up. Try bleeding the clutch, its a free (possible) fix.

 

When is the last time you changed the fluid? I'd probably do that first, and in the process you'd eliminate the possibility that it's an issue with contamination or air in the system.

 

Cool, thanks everybody. Looks like it's time to bleed it all out tonight. Woohoo.