My Prelude VTEC has given me a hard time shifting gears this week all of a sudden. It is not chrunchin them in, its just more difficult to pull out and push in the gears.

My mates in the Honda club say Prelude's have a weakness in the clutch master cylinder and they do "go", and when I checked mine at the top of the pedal, sure enough, it is drippin and there is a mark down the firewall. So I have bought a new master cylinder made by NISSIN(is this HONDA's OEM manufacturer?) thinking this would cure my problem.

The Honda mechanic I use to service my car, says unless the clutch is draggin or is biting right at the bottom of the stroke, the clutch master cylinder is not the problem!!

Is he right? Or am I experiencing the early signs of the leaking. He also says he has never changed a Prelude clutch master cylinder!

Anyone had the same?

What else could it be?

Tim (UK)

 

hrmmm... it it is leaking, you most likely are going to want to replace it, but you need to check the slave cylinder as well (the one on the tranny itself) to be sure there is no problem. when i had to replace mine on my Prelude, i had to do both at the same time, go fig right.

NISSIN is the OEM Honda part on their hydraulics, if you look at the brakes, they are NISSIN too.

 

hey thats the same thing that happening to me right now with my car..
so i just depress the clutch longer so that i can shift..

mechanic told me that its not an immediate problem


[Modified by 4glude, 12:34 PM 10/18/2002]

 

that's just a band-aid to the problem, if it's leaking, 95% chance it needs to be replaced, but try bleeding the system first to see if that helps

 

Dude, I have the SAME problem with my car. I have a 92 Si with 156K miles on it. My clutch pedal is pretty stiff, stiff enough to make my ankle sore. Then recently, I would get stuck in gears, or I wouldn't be able to get it out of gear when pressing down the clutch pedal.
A few times my car got stuck in 1st gear and it wouldn't come out. I had to pull over...turn the car off.... and slowly push and pull on the shifter o get it out of gear. It is weird...you can actually feel it losing pressure as you pull and push on it until it frees itself.
Also, if I would start the car with the gear in first...with the clutch pushed in...the car would move forward a little. After it started...the car would drive like an automatic. Wit it in gear...the car would move forward...and if I pushed in the brake it would stop and NOT stall out. If I tried to let out the clutch..it would grab where it normally engages.
I bought the clutch master and slave cylinder for $90 total shipped to me. I will change them and let you know if this cures the problem.
Good luck dude.
Andy

oh yeah, my clutch cylinder is leaking in the same place...INSIDE the firewall.


[Modified by AndyD, 3:24 AM 10/19/2002]