Ekona Posted June 17, 2010 Share Posted June 17, 2010 I'll try to keep this as simple as I can... In short, when the car has been sitting in stop/start traffic OR if the car is warm and you sit there pumping the clutch pedal in idle, the pedal will go from having resistance from pretty much the top to having no resistance whatsoever until half way down when you start to hit the biting point of the clutch itself. The car has been into Nissan today who have changed the clutch fluid (their suggestion as it was a very dark colour) and also the slave cylinder (my suggestion, after reading on here). On the 45 min drive home just now and deliberately putting the car into queuing stop/start traffic the problem remains. It first started doing this a couple of months ago, and now I can replicate it every time. If I let everything cool down (i.e. 20 min motorway run) it goes back to being what I would consider normal again, but if I work the pedal some more the problem returns. Approximately 3000 miles/4 months ago I had an Exedy clutch and Fidanza flywheel fitted, should this be relevant. The car has now done 28K miles in just under 4 years, including some fairly heavy track work (4 or 5 days in the last couple of years). My gut feeling is that one of the seals on the master cylinder has gone/is going, which would mean that it will seal when cold/warm but when hot or under a lot of work the primary seal is allowing fluid past it, but the secondary seal is still holding and allowing me to give the required pressure to the rod to disengage the clutch and change gear. That said, at this point I'm willing to listen to any ideas before I take the car back to Nissan and get them to change the master cylinder as well. The car is booked in with Abbey end of next week to have them listen to the chatter from the gearbox and flywheel which may or may not be connected to this issue (I'm aware that some extra noise is expected with a lightened flywheel, I just don't know if my noise is normal and have no frame of reference hence the trip to Abbey!). I have an upcoming trip to the 'Ring next month so you can see why I'd like to get this sorted before then...! As always, any ideas or comments are more than welcome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M13KYF Posted June 17, 2010 Share Posted June 17, 2010 I would of thought ZMANALEX would be the best one to respond on thus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rtbiscuit Posted June 17, 2010 Share Posted June 17, 2010 i'm down at my parents this weekend i might be able to come round and have a listen, i heard chris I's before he sold his. to be honest i think you might be right with the master cyclinder diagnosis. i doubt its due to misalignment of clutch, and if the fluid and slave have been done it doesnt leave alot left to check for this kind of problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZMANALEX Posted June 17, 2010 Share Posted June 17, 2010 I would of thought ZMANALEX would be the best one to respond on thus I have already given the OP my thoughts on this by PM, but I obviously have not convinced him of the simple fix. Alex. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted June 17, 2010 Author Share Posted June 17, 2010 Oh you definitely convinced me, hence I got Nissan to change the slave cylinder today as you suggested but there's no change in the issue at all, so I thought I'd open it up to the masses as it were. I didn't want to keep running back to you via PM taking up your time if the answer was out there and I'd missed the obvious. Sorry if it came across as me ignoring you, I really didn't mean it to look like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZMANALEX Posted June 17, 2010 Share Posted June 17, 2010 Oh you definitely convinced me, hence I got Nissan to change the slave cylinder today as you suggested but there's no change in the issue at all, so I thought I'd open it up to the masses as it were. I didn't want to keep running back to you via PM taking up your time if the answer was out there and I'd missed the obvious. Sorry if it came across as me ignoring you, I really didn't mean it to look like that. No worries Dan. I should have been a bit more clearer with my advice: Replace clutch slave and fluid change followed by master cyl. if problem still exists. There is a technique in getting all the air out the system though. Good luck when you return to Nissan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted June 17, 2010 Author Share Posted June 17, 2010 Ah, I'm glad you said that about bleeding the air, they took a good couple of hours extra than they said they were going to getting the air out! Any tips I can give them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GT4 Zed Posted June 17, 2010 Share Posted June 17, 2010 Sorry to hear you have this to sort out before you big trip I would revert to Alex knowledge in these matters and troubleshoot as suggested. My clutch when from full slip to now just sticking down occasionally and its seems to slip less I really don't know what this means but since am replacing the whole clutch and flywheel at some poit i just don't care anymore and i will drive it to the ground . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted June 17, 2010 Author Share Posted June 17, 2010 That's the spirit! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted June 22, 2010 Author Share Posted June 22, 2010 Update time! Car was back with Nissan today who changed the master cylinder, and whilst the pedal feel is certainly better I'm still not 100% happy with it. I'm starting to wonder of the existing clutch line has started to degrade, so I'm going to order a replacement stainless steel one with Adam @Z1 and see how I get on once that's been changed. At this point I'm not sure if the soft pedal is now partly in my head because I'm looking for it, however I'm so far down the line now that I'm going to carry on until I'm 100% happy with the car again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted June 26, 2010 Author Share Posted June 26, 2010 More updates! I've been down to Abbey this morning and they've confirmed what I suspected all along: It's all in my head and I'm a bit of a nutter A thorough test drive proved that there's no issue and I'm just looking for faults now. That said, the uprated clutch line from Adam arrived yesterday (very quick delivery!) so I'm going to fit that as well next week now it's here, if nothing else pedal feel should be improved. Big thanks to the guys at Abbey for this morning, once again 1st class service and it was great to meet you as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andlid Posted June 26, 2010 Share Posted June 26, 2010 More updates! I've been down to Abbey this morning and they've confirmed what I suspected all along: It's all in my head and I'm a bit of a nutter A thorough test drive proved that there's no issue and I'm just looking for faults now. That said, the uprated clutch line from Adam arrived yesterday (very quick delivery!) so I'm going to fit that as well next week now it's here, if nothing else pedal feel should be improved. Big thanks to the guys at Abbey for this morning, once again 1st class service and it was great to meet you as well. I'd be the same... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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