So I have a 2000 Ek Hatchback with a LS motor and Gsr tramsmission with a stage 3 clutch. the other day I noticed the clutch fluid was slightly lower then normal, and theres about an inch of play on the very top of the clutch pedal. The clutch engages normally almost at the bottom of the clutch pedal almost touching the car mat. When i was leaving work i turned the car on and it wasnt going into any gear not even reverse. It started working once I pulled all the way up on the clutch pedal where the play usually is. I also noticed the clutch engagement point was then higher then before after i did that. My friend said its the clutch itself, another friend said its my synchros, a mechanic told me its a pressure plate another mechanic told me its a bad hydraulic system. The person i bought it from said the clutch is about 2 months old. Its kind of annoying when your clutch engagement point is either at the bottom or the top of the pedal. Also if it helps, sometimes when i switch to second at very high rpms it grinds but it doesnt always do that, out of 10 times maybe 1-2 times it does it. But 98% of the time switching through gears gives me no trouble. I do not know if that happens because of the same problem i am having with my clutch the transmission itself feels healthy when i drive. any help is appreciated.

 

It's hard to diagnose this and that's why there are so many different suggestions, another one could be your clutch slave going out, i had issues like that, replaced the slave and it worked just fine after that. Did the guy you bought it from do the clutch himself? Air in the line could make things iffy if he didn't quite know what he was doing.

 

Didnt ask, car didnt have this problem when i bought it. It ran fine. How would you go about disgnosing a bad clutch slave cylinder?

 

I don't think it's possible that it could be your synchros if it's not going into any gear at all.

My guess is that it's most likely either the clutch hydraulics or the clutch itself. First things first I would get the system bled.

If the problem continues to happen, then it's most likely not air in the system. In that case, see if you can reproduce it, and when it happens, have someone press the clutch pedal in and out for you while you inspect the slave cylinder piston under the hood to see what it's doing.

If the slave cylinder piston looks like it's not moving in and out when the pedal is pressed, then it's either the slave or master cylinder. At that point I would check to see if either of them are leaking.

If the slave cylinder looks like it's working and the problem doesn't go away by pumping the clutch pedal, then my guess would be that it's most likely the clutch itself. Sometimes one of the damper spring retainers on the clutch disc will break if the clutch is old or just defective and then you will get intermittent shifting problems because the spring or loose metal will rub up against stuff. That's what happened with my Integra. Hopefully it's just the hydraulics though!