Hard to shift, and sticky clutch?

rock5

Registered User
My '95 5 speed has always been a bit difficult to shift, which isn't really all that uncommon from what I've read. It's always been harder in the cold, and tough to get into 1st from a dead stop. Bleeding the clutch a couple years ago helped some.

But now things are much worse. Here are some symptoms I've noticed over the last few trips:

- Running 1st gear to about 3500 rpm and pushing in the clutch doesn't really do anything. As I take my foot of the gas, the engine drags the car slower just like it's still in gear. I have to yank the shifter out of gear to shift into second. It's like the clutch keeps hanging on.

- Shifting into any gear is quite difficult at very low rpms (e.g., idle) or at high rpms.

- Shifting in and out is easier in the 2000 to 2500 rpm range. This is really how I've been driving around town today (very boring!!)

- The ease of getting in and out of gear gets better for higher gears. It's easier to get in and out of 4th at a wider rpm range than 2nd.

All of these kind of indicate what I'm calling a 'sticky' clutch as opposed to a 'slipping' clutch.

I'm open to any hints since I'm not that knowledgable about trannies beyond having to repeatedly bleed my old RX7 (it needed a new slave cylinder, but wasn't getting one). I'd like to stop short of a full rebuild since I'll probably only have this car another year, and $1000 is tough to spend at this point.
 
one of the fun jobs.

It sounds like your clutch is not disengaging
I'd say you have a bad slave or a bad master cylinder, but the fingers on your pressure plate could be worn/week too. You can be sure by checking to see if the slave is moving when you depress the clutch. It's a two person job, one to press the clutch and you to look and see. Jack up the car on the driver side and pop the rubber inspection cover off the tranny, about the size of a deck of cards. When the clutch is depressed you should see the slave moving in there. You should see about .75 inches of travel. If not then you need to figure out which (slave or master) is toast. Take a look at your clutch pedal, which depresses the master cylinder, and the various linkages down there and pray you find something obvious to fix (I don't personally know much about the master, except it's easier to get to than the slave).
If the slave cylinder appears to be moving as expected (which indicates the slave and master are both working) then you should plan on replacing the clutch and all the other related components down there; slave, pilot, clutch and pressure plate.
Driving the car in its current state will cause more permanent harm to your tranny, which costs even more money. You can do the job yourself for about 350 in parts, the stock replacement luk clutch is a fine clutch and not too pricey. The labor can be tedious but it's a good opportunity to learn more about your bird, and all the other things that are about to break on her.

good luck

MB
 
Sounds stupid....

Check the bolts that attach the pressure plate to the flywheel. Mine on my 95, three were almost out!!!!

Tightened the bolts and no more issue. How many miles on this car???? Maybe time for a clutch...

Don
 
Thanks for the info guys, I'll hopefully have a chance to get under there this weekend.

There's about 142k on the car (but only 37k on the engine). I don't know if it has ever had the clutch replaced.

I only drive about 5k per year, and most of that back and forth to the airport.
 
I finally got some time under the car and there was fluid all throughout the casing, so I'm assuming the slave cylinder is gone.

I couldn't get it into 2nd now either, nor reverse w/o grinding, so I babied it over the to mechanic. It may need a new clutch too, so I'm looking at up to $1000 worst-case, but just a few hundred if it's just the slave.
 
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