Ok so I go to start my car this morning and my foot just sinks effortlessly to the floor.

Pop the hood check the fluid level...fine
check the cylinder....fine(no leaks aparent)

shut the hood and decide for ***** and giggles to try and start the car with seemingly no pedal preassure at all. to my shock it starts fine but the pedal stays about 1/2" off the floor then about 5 seconds later pops up and smacks the bottom of my shoe. puzzled I press the pedal down again....same thing, stayed near the floor then randomly came back up to normal height. however upon doing this a third time the pedal did not return for almost a minute. Several hours later I went back to the car and everything seemed fine. drove all the way to san diego and back without a single problem(close to 400 miles round trip). got back to my parents place and had dinner and hung out for awhile after the trip to SD and back

upon leaving my parents place to go back to my apt. the gremlins came back with a vengence pedal sank to the floor and the clutch wasn't registering at all(couldn't start the car). gave it a 2nd attempt same as earlier that day started but pedal won't come back up and has little resistance to being pushed all the way to the floor. and on 2 instances on the way home the clutch didn't register as engaged and I couldn't shift from neutral to the 1st(at a stoplight) and from 4th to 5th(on the freeway)


going through my helms and hondaautomotiveparts.com I noticed there is a spring up underneath the dash but looking up at it as best as I could it seems to be in place and doesn't appear damaged....could it have some how just lost almost all tension to be nearly useless? or is there a problem I'm not seing/thinking of.

In case it matters the car is a 1993 honda Del Sol si (D16Z6),

Everything for the clutch system(including the clutch as far as I know) is the original parts from '93 and are have 133K miles worth of wear and tear on them(already have exedy clutch and flywheel on order before this)

the car until now has had no issues or hints that the clutch system might be out/going out


any help is greatly appreciated

postwhores and other useless reponses GTFO

 

could be your clutch master or slave cylinder.

 

There is a spring but it mostly helps to bring the pedal to you on the second half of its travel (not from the floor), if you have just set in your car and played with the pedal you know what im saying. I think your slave cylinder is bad as mentioned above because well it just wont come back and you have no leaks. The pressure in the slave is what pops the clutch pedal back off the floor then the spring brings it the rest of the way back to your feet.

 

ok cool doesn't sound too bad, thanks for the input.

any idea if bleeding the system might help or is it just FUBARd and needs to be replaced?

I was thinking because it is all the original stuff replacing EVERYTHING (MC, SC, going with an SS braided line, and of course the clutch and flywheel that's already on order)

 

A bad slave cylinder will do this.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by broketuner-Sol_Si &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
any idea if bleeding the system might help or is it just FUBARd and needs to be </TD></TR></TABLE>

I would start with bleeding the system, then look for leaks, then replace whats bad.

 

yeah that was kind of my thought process, but rather than just replacing whats bad(if anything) I'm thinking of just replaceing everything, I mean the stuff is 15 years old with 133K miles on it


you got a PM btw

 

Update: it was totally normal when I started it then after 5 minutes of driving was back to the barely off the floor status.

If it is the SC going out/dead, would it continue to fade between normal and shitty or would it stay bad?

 

Im staying with you need to bleed the clutch fluid. I PM'd you back.

 

ok, will try that later tonight. PM returned


so latest update:

-checked fluid for the first time since yesterday morning.....ALMOST EMPTY
-when I put the clutch in to start the car it starts fine
-put the clutch down again to shift into any gear....NOTHING

 

it could be as simple as your throw out bearing being excessively dirty or damaged. your clutch shouldnt need bled for no reason. had the car been apart latley? is it leaking clutch fluid? and can you pick the pedal up with your hand or is it stuck down? i had this happen to me once while i was on vacation in niagra falls. i had all the tool and jack stands with me to take out my transmission (lol i dont trust my car sometimes) but i turned the car off and picked the pedal up. i didnt have any problems for like 3 months then i started grinding gears when i shifted. it ended up being a broken throw out bearing. it was only broken on one side and was still releasing the clutch, just not all the way.

 

yes if the pedal doesn't return to normal by itself I can just tap the bottom of it with my foot and it's comes up.


Car has never been taken apart since I've owned it(going on 2 years)

 

*possibly* there is air in the line. slow leak, top of trans line? same ish just happened to me with my swap back to D16. bleed hole is very front of transmission, almost pointing out at the radiator fan.

yes yes?




Modified by cracker1252 at 2:42 PM 6/24/2008

 

sometimes the stopper inside the clutch master is just worn 2 not many thins to check though leaks are obvious if i were you id look inside again with a white paper towel wipe the back of the clutch mater if you see any hint of fluid at all theres your problem.

 

good point. i checked mine as you said that, and changed my response. there is always another issue it seems.

 

I just had the same problem 4 months ago, checked my slave cylinder and it was worn. I went to the auto part store, the slave cylinder was like $17 and change. It took less then 20 min. to change and bleed the lines.

 

I would say its the slave cylinder as well. Sounds like the seal inside might be bad. Did you fill the "ALMOST EMPTY" fluid back up?