I found the clutch fluid resevoir empty today. Obviously the car would not go into gear anymore. That is how how I found the fluid empty. I could not find a leak anywhere visible, so where did the fluid go?

 

well it doesnt just disappear lol or get used up so you have a leak. you check eveerything? master cylinder? slave cylinder? all lines?

 

The piston that comes out of the master cylinder inside the car is greasy, but it doesn't look like fluid. Otherwise I checked everywhere.

 

hmm that sounds like a bad cmc, it should be completly dry there, looks like you need to change that out not hard though

 

does the pedal just drop to the floor with no resistance? fill it up and bleed it than see if it has any resistance

 

Not to expensive either. Found one at a parts store for $25. Just hard to get to the lines on the master cylinder, just from looking at it anyway.

 

yeah but i always like to make sure its that so whats the resistance like? on the pedal

 

No it has resistance when you press down on the pedal. I did bleed the system and I got a lot of air. Now it is back the way it was, but I am afraid to dive it in case in leaks again.
Now the other thing when I did bleed the system the engine was off. My son pressed down on the pedal I opened the bleeder then closed it and he released the pedal. It did not come back up on it's own when we were doing the bleeding process. He had to pull it back up off the floor.
Once we got the air out and started the car it worked fine. It had resistance and it came back up off the floor on it's own.

 

hmm well then maybe its ur reservoir, hole in it possibly

 

The resistance seems typical for a japeneese car. I have many 5 speeds, so the resistance to me doesn't feel really hard or soft.

 

There is a lot of free play though and the clutch engages like a couple of inches from the floor, which seems odd.

 

The free play isn't really free play though I checked under the dash and when you press the pedal the piston is really easy to push in for the first several inches then the resistance gets harder.

 

well free play means time to adjust the clutch pedal!

but for the leak id go from most obvious to least obvious because there has to be a leak somewhere for your whole res to empty.

 

like I said just that greasy stuff coming out of the cmc where the piston goed in. ASgain the free play is not the pedal just moving the piston is actually pushing into the cmc for several inches with little or no effort. So maybe it is the cmc.

 

ohh okay then yes i had that too, should replace the cmc

 

Thanks for the help. I was kinda hoping it wasn't something serious like the clutch itself.