First post here and I'm not really a car guy so I really need help here. I have a manual 2006 honda civic ex that has a new clutch installed a few months ago and one morning I tried to take it out for a drive but I couldn't get it into gear without ease. I was told to replace my master cylinder and slave cylinder, bleed the system until I saw no air bubbles being pumped out of the system which I did. It did relieve some tension when shifting but it's still not as easy to shift into gear when the engine is on. It's relatively easy and fluid when the engine is off and another thing I found out today is that if I stab the clutch pedal in, it's easier to get into gear than if I were to simply depress the clutch pedal. Do I need to get my clutch replaced?

 

Did you have your clutch replaced with the OEM clutch or did you "upgrade" to a stage 2 clutch?

 

I bought the car with the clutch replaced, I forgot to ask if it's OEM or aftermarket.

 

If it was a competition clutch stage 2 you'd know just by how stiff it is pushing in the clutch. OEM pressure plates are softer to push in. Stage 2 and 3 pressure plates are a lot stiffer and harder to push in.

That being said, if you have a stage 2 or stage 3 on the 8th gen civics, the master cylinder is under powered to operate the clutch efficiently. Also the added pressure is hard on the clutch pedal assembly being it only has 2 tack welds holding it together.

Hybrid Racing offers an upgraded master cylinder but it puts extreme amount of pressure on the clutch pedal assembly of which a weld job is the fix before it breaks.

The other upgrade is to get an EM1 (SiR) master cylinder, then swap the push rod from your master cylinder onto the EM1 master cylinder (different lengths).

I say SiR because I live in Canada, would be Si in USDM 99-00

 

Ah I see. I don't think it's a stage 2 or 3 then since the clutch seems fairly soft.

 

Could be you need a new MC. It's not unheard of in this generation civic. It's one of the more common complaints (grinding 2nd or 3rd) but most of my research was Si. And most Si owners definitely push the car and speed shift as it's an Si.....

The other thing to think about, do a fluid change. Old fluid will work against the synchro's. New fluid and see how it goes, still have problems, then look into the MC.

Torco MTF and half a tube of Molyslip Manual Transmission Additive.