# Clutch pedal went to the floor... AGAIN



## rcruze (Mar 22, 2018)

Lol... mine went around 100k miles if I remember correctly.....I am coming up on 175k and I am waiting for it to go again. I even thought about swapping it out as regular maintenance...


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

rcruze said:


> I even thought about swapping it out as regular maintenance...


That's the thing that cheeses me off so much over this. We have like 75 years of common knowledge that "manual transmissions are more reliable" because the technology is so simple, it's been perfected for decades, yada yada. We buy the manual transmission option because it's $1,600 cheaper than the automatic. Then, mine breaks TWICE within 16 months.

I know it's a matter of defective parts (defective slave cylinders).

We shouldn't live in a world where the more reliable, more robust transmission option in your car is something that you have to think about prematurely servicing as a regular maintenance item.


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## MP81 (Jul 20, 2015)

Barry Allen said:


> We shouldn't live in a world where the more reliable, more robust transmission option in your car is something that you have to think about prematurely servicing as a regular maintenance item.


I wouldn't necessarily say manuals are more robust - historically they haven't been. And then add in hydraulics as another item that can potentially fail (vs mechanical clutch actuation)...TOBs do fail on occasion (my brother's TOB in his '01 Mustang last year was..."crunchy"...when we removed it), but it seems to be far less prevalent than a hydraulic slave or master.

But yes, in general, manuals are much more simple and should be more reliable. I think in the Cruze's case it seems mostly related to the DMF.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

MP81 said:


> But yes, in general, manuals are much more simple and should be more reliable.


In the recent past it was very simple designs of transmissions where the slave cylinder was an external part. The slave cylinder on my Hyundai Accent was right on the front of the transmission case and could be changed with a socket wrench.

I don't know who invented the concentric slave cylinder that's internal to the transmission, but it seems like a terrible idea. Mine's failed twice and been replaced twice, and it's not an easy or inexpensive job.

It just seems that in the past you'd have manual transmissions fail when you wore out the clutch, and that's the job that you had to take it apart to repair. Anything else was maybe something you could service without splitting the transmission from the engine. If you drove well enough you could easily get 200,000 miles out of a clutch without problems.


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## meatheadgn (Mar 29, 2018)

Mine went to floor today after seeing a movie. I nursed it home. I work on cars myself. How big of a job is this and does anyone have any pointers on doing the job?


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

meatheadgn said:


> Mine went to floor today after seeing a movie. I nursed it home. I work on cars myself. How big of a job is this and does anyone have any pointers on doing the job?


STEP 1: REMOVE TRANSMISSION

It's a big job. Dropping suspension components, removing the transmission, reassembling, and then doing a 4-wheel alignment to make sure everything is back together. Replacing all the torque-to-yield bolts with new stuff.


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## meatheadgn (Mar 29, 2018)

Thanks. I am thinking it may be the clutch master cylinder as I did not see any fluid leaking from the transaxle or engine to transaxle joint. How tough is it to replace the clutch master cylinder as I would like to start there before I pull the trans.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

The symptoms you describe do not point to the master cylinder. The defect and failure in all these transmissions is the slave cylinder.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

Although honestly, the recall on these cars in Europe includes replacing the master cylinder and brake booster, because those parts are affected by the slave cylinder shedding debris into the hydraulic fluid.


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## chadtn (Feb 27, 2018)

wow....Sounds like lots of us are starting to see failures.

I think my slave cylinder died Memorial Day weekend with 77k miles on the car. I've got a replacement slave cylinder, hydraulic line, and elbow here. Still trying to get part numbers for all of the TTY bolts. At the very least the slave cylinder, motor mounts, transmission mount, and flywheel bolts are TTY. Probably some more. I'll try to make a post about it when I have all of the parts rounded up.

Thanks!

Chad


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## chadtn (Feb 27, 2018)

meatheadgn said:


> Thanks. I am thinking it may be the clutch master cylinder as I did not see any fluid leaking from the transaxle or engine to transaxle joint. How tough is it to replace the clutch master cylinder as I would like to start there before I pull the trans.


I read over the instructions a little and it looks like removing the master cylinder itself isn't too awful, but you have to remove the power brake booster, the steering column, and the entire pedal assembly. I've attached some of the instructions below. The very end seems to indicate there is a procedure to "learn" the clutch and brake sensor positions. Not sure if some type of scan tool is required. When I tried to pull that section up it went into a lot of diagnostic scenarios using a scan tool to troubleshoot. I didn't see the actual "learn" procedure.

Thanks!

Chad


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## 4burning (Jun 3, 2018)

We had ours sink to the floor today too, 2018 77K miles. I have removed the accumulator and drilled out the CDV valve and flushed a lot of new fluid in. It is solid again… we will see how long this lasts or if we have to take it in for the slave replacement. I could do the slave myself but it looks like a lot of work and I am busy with other home projects.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

4burning said:


> We had ours sink to the floor today too, 2018 77K miles. I have removed the accumulator and drilled out the CDV valve and flushed a lot of new fluid in. It is solid again… we will see how long this lasts or if we have to take it in for the slave replacement. I could do the slave myself but it looks like a lot of work and I am busy with other home projects.


"May the Odds be Ever in Your Favor."


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