Clutch Pedal Sticks, but unusual circumstances...

[dynatos]

I've done some searching, but haven't found this exact problem.

My 2g is experiencing 'ghost pedal'. I push it a little and it just sinks down because of no resistance.

I've been having a problem with loosing clutch fluid and having to refill the reservoir. Also, there is fluid under the passenger side of the car that smells like brake fluid. I am now at the point where if i fill the fuid reservoir, it is empty in about 3 pushes.

My problem is i recently (1500 miles) rebuilt the slave cylinder. There was no noticeable scoring of the chamber and it worked great up until about 300 miles ago.

The ghost pedal problem points to a master cylinder problem, yet my fluid loss looks to be because of the slave (which was recently rebuilt). Could a problem in the master cylinder cause leakage by the slave cylinder?

For some more info:

The car has 125k miles on it, and i rebuilt the slave when i installed a new rebuilt tranny with new clutch and stepped flywheel. Things worked great for the first 1k miles. The rod of the master cylinder is kind of oily, but no noticeable leak inside the car (no drops underneath, no smell in the car, etc). I would just replace the master, slave and install a SSline, but i'm on quite a low budget

 

[dynatos]

I just pulled the boot away from the slave push rod and fluid poored out. I'm assuming that this is a slave problem, but if someone can confirm that, (possibly loss of fluid resulting in the 'ghost pedal') it would be greatly apreciated.

 

[swordfish]

Slave is toast. The fluid pouring out is a dead give away. RRE recommends that you replace both the master and slave when this happens.

jeff

 

[dynatos]

and just to confirm, a slave failure would cause the pedal going to the floor by itself because of loss of pressure? That makes sense, because if it's gushing fluid, there is no pressure in the system what-so-ever.

I definately will replace the master soon as well, I just need to get it back on the road asap..

Since i rebuilt the slave prior to this, could a defect in the cylinder wall cause this? And would it explain why it got worse and worse until it wouldn't hold any pressure?