Hello,
I'm a n00b on this form so I thank everyone in advance.
If my signature isn't working, I have a 1996 Honda Accord LX 2.2L v-tec 5 speed with lots of miles (196xxx)

I woke up one lovely early morning to drive to work, no problems. As I walked outside and passed my car later in the day I noticed that there was a colorful puddle under my car. Cursing at my car that she wet herself, I told myself that I will come back and deal with it after work.

I just wanted to see if the car turned over. The peddle went right to the floor; although the car did turn over, in vein, the clutch wouldn't disengage. I could not get it into gear, any of them.

I tried pumping the clutch hoping I could build up some pressure so that I could get it to my garage for some investigation, no luck. I checked the clutch reservoir and lo and behold not enough to even sip from.

I went to the gas station hoping that I could dump some DOT-3 in and be able to limp home, I did it and it got me home. Although the clutch would disengage very well, it did get me home. In fact the next day I went to see how well it held, to my disbelief, I only had a couple speckles. I was able to get enough pressure to even drive it like nothing had happened the day before.

Problems
1 day, I lose all fluid in a very short period of time
Over night and ever since then which has been 2 days or so, even being driven, all I will get it a speckle on the ground...

I've hunted on this forums and others. All I hear which somewhat resembles my problem is the slave cylinder went kaput. Anybody have something I can work with?

 

That would be my first guess. Where exactly under the car was the puddle?

Look at the slave cylinder and see if there is any clutch fluid inside of the boot or still remaining on the slave cylinder. If it has remnants of fluid, I would replace, because its only a matter of time before it leaks again.

 

Watch the slave cylinder while someone pumps the clutch pedal. The cylinder (& throw-out lever) should move back & forth about 12mm.

Pouring fluid back into the reservoir doesn't really bleed all the air out of the hydraulic system, so unless you bleed the system it can still act flaky. Still, you need to figure out where it leaked out, & fix that.

 

I do get a decent amount a play, definatly ~12mm.

The puddle was definately not on the drivers side so it would be more in the direction of the slave. It was a bit wet outside so there was one watered down puddle by the drivers side but there was an obvious *splash* spot on the side nearer to the passenger's side.
This morning when I went to go put gas in my car I noticed a couple of drops on the floor as I drove away. When I got to work, I put a newspaper under the car, perferably where the slave would be. I went to check in an hour or so later, there was a spot of fluid, but it was clear....? It wasn't a/c water (I didn't need to use it) nor was there enough moisture in the air for condensation. I did my best to look where it came from. Definately under the slave but the slave is covered underneath by the plastic protectent. humph.

There looked like there was some sort of dried liquid on the, well, I don't know what the metal structural part that is, right underneath it....
There wasn't any liquid laying on or around the boot. Some lovely sludge that reminded my of old oil on an engine. Does DOT-3 dry like that? Maybe that helped to stop the bleeding as much.

 

Two excellent replies from a couple of our best people..Thank Guys

 

Yeah, leaking brake fluid can attract dirt & turn into that same kind of sludge.

The pivot ball for the throw-out lever is supposed to have some grease, so maybe someone went nuts with a grease gun? Hard to say what else might cause that sludge, but I'm sure there's other possibilities.

Probably your best thing is to clean it up real good & watch for NEW leakage.

 

Good idea,
I'll try cleaning up there on the lever and see what comes up.

 

When you clean it up, smear new grease on the ball/socket where the slave piston rod pushes against the throw-out lever. The other ball/socket where the lever pivots, is inside the tranny housing so you'll have a difficult time reaching in there to clean it. Don't go nuts spraying cleaner in there, so you don't mess up the actual clutch.

 

Well, I only got a brief amount to look at the Accord last night, very short.
Something I noticed was that the boot on the slave cylinder was no longer in one piece but had ripped into two. I looked inside and noticed a nice coating of red fluid (which I believe is the color of break fluid?) on the rod.
I don't know why I would want to re-lube the rod where we thought it might be leaking from, I thought we would want to leave that somewhat dry so we might be able to see if there is more dripping or not. Why clean the other other one that connect to the actual clutch?

-Daniel

 

Clutch/brake fluid isn't red. It's rather clear like water, but it gets grey or maybe a little amber as it picks up dirt & moisture over time.

Here's a picture. The throw-out lever is #6 & you only see the outer end. The slave cylinder pushes on the end with a ball on the end of it's piston shaft. If you put a little grease there, so it doesn't grind. It'll take some time before it gets cruddy.

You shouldn't spray cleaner into the tranny housing, because that throw-out lever pivots on the ball #7. That's far enough inside that it's difficult to properly re-lubricate it.

The goal is still to find the leak. It should be easy to tell the difference between new leakage vs. new grease.