I have a 97 EK hatch with a stock motor and manual transmission. I noticed it was hard to get into gear when I wasn't moving and even sometimes when I was moving (I noticed also if it wouldn't go into first at a light for example it would normally go right into fourth and after I did that if I kept the clutch in it would go into any other gear after that. idk why but it always seemed to work) I was trying to find out what was causing this and in the process I replaced the slave cylinder which didn't seem terrible but the new one seemed to have helped and I also replaced the master cylinder which seemed shot. there was a lot of sludge in that and seemed like it needed to be replaced badly. Whenever I bled the clutch lines it seemed to help but only for about one trip. so I would do it and it would be fine going to work then coming home it was the same as before. Lastly, after replacing the master and slave it definitely seems better however I'm noticing my fluid gets pitch black almost immediately. I use DOT 3 and no matter how many times I bleed it it goes right back to being pitch black. Could my clutch just be going and causing this? I thought it was just the master cylinder based on how bad it was but it still does it. It shifts fine for the most part but I do notice it shifts better after a fresh bleed. Any ideas on how to permanently fix this?

 

Just keep bleeding it, get one of those big *** Prestone bottles and go nuts. It's likely the sludge was just the seals disentegrating. Eventually it'll clean itself out. There's really nothing else in the system that would cause the black sludge except MC seals.

 

Disconnect line from slave and line from clutch master master blow compressed air from slave line watch **** fly out of line. Fixed my eg hatch back. Sounds like a blockage