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1979-1993 & 94 Conv [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
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I did a clutch job on my 87 turbo three years ago. New clutch, plate, slave and throwout bearing. Within twelve months, I noticed brake fluid spots forming beneath the engine area after overnight parking. But the leak was intermittent (months at first) and I couldn't believe the slave would be leaking (it's new!).
So I started stocking up parts for other areas of the system. I bought a new clutch line, thinking the rubber was starting to seep/rot on the bend up to the slave. And I bought a new clutch master, thinking "just in case," while keeping my eyes on the fluid leak.
The fluid leaks were occasionally big but still too intermittent to motivate me into a system teardown. There might be week of spotting followed by a month or two of dryness. Only after some research here on the board did I realized that my (almost) new slave probably was failing and that it wasn't terribly unique.
The dry spells were starting to decrease in time over this past year. The stain sizes were growing. I felt the clock ticking.
Earlier this year I had purchased a new slave and was waiting for an appropriate weekend at the end of the summer to swap in the new part.
Yesterday morning the car made my scheduling decision for me for it had leaked the reservoir dry overnight, leaving me a big stain on the driveway. The clutch was entirely inoperative.
I had not noticed anything indicating the master was bad, at least in terms of driving. Never had to pump the pedal, never had leaks from that point of connection. But after swapping in the new slave along with a new clutch disc and a recycled throwout bearing, my clutch bleeding effort was producing no results.
I usually just connect a combo clear vinyl and rubber hose from the loosened bleed nipple all the way up to the reservoir and pump the pedal with a pole using my arm for a couple of minutes, monitoring the bubbles inside the clear hose to see when they stop moving up to the reservoir. This has worked for me in my previous life with 99s as well as a couple of 900s.
But this method was producing no results yesterday. I switched to method number two, reverse bleeding. I rigged something up using a turkey baster, it wasn't elegant but I did push 200ml up through the system to the reservoir.
But still no clutch action down where it counts.
My pulse was building. I turned to the remaining component of the system, the master. Pulled my new backup unit off the shelf and installed it, did a reverse bleed first, then a regular direction bleed second, and behold! I had an operational clutch.
I'd been driving around with a master on the verge of failing for more than a year. Only when draining dry did its problems truly surface. I'm glad I had the backup unit on hand, a sense of dread was forming yesterday as my only car sat immobile in my driveway and I was running out of ideas.
I wanted to take a picture of the failed slave. Upon removal, I pulled the piston out and was able to see its O-ring suffering a gentle twist around its perimeter axis, allowing fluid to leak past and out. I guess the twist was intermittent, in fact the twist settled out by itself when I went back to examine the piston later in the evening.
So thanks to this board for serving as a solid source of reference yesterday. Concern/panic/bewilderment was building yesterday and the info here helped calm me down and conclude the job by sundown.
Something else: I also dropped in a new radiator yesterday, a Valeo unit from Eeuroparts. The old radiator was displaying classic signs of age/wear: coolant temperature increased with highway speeds. After a big drive this morning, I can confirm the new radiator is producing lower temps with both city and highway driving. AND, the AC system seems to be pumping out cooler air as well.
posted by 75.50.14...
, Mon, 11 Aug 2008 11:07:11
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