What I hoped was a small headache with my ’04 MCS is looking bigger…..
Last week, my wife called to say she couldn’t get the car in gear. She was able to push the car off the road into a parking lot. I was able to get it in gear, but with a horrible squealing noise and scent of burning clutch, and the clutch pedal wasn’t coming back up when depressed. Since we were only a couple of miles from the house we towed it home., where I found the clutch slave cylinder was clearly shot (leaking fluid from around boot).



I replaced and bled the new one this AM, but when remounting it I noticed that it only needed to be compressed a small portion of its full travel to fit between the bracket and the clutch arm (maybe one-third of its full travel). The clutch arm is lined up more-or-less vertically, where in the few photos I can find it’s tilted a little towards the drivers side. I tried moving the arm by hand, and with a long wrench, and couldn’t move it in either direction (don’t know if I should have been able to or not). With everything reassembled, I can get the car into gear with the engine running, but the clutch pedal is much softer than before, and I’ve still got the squealing (louder with the clutch pedal depressed).



So, I’m figuring something got munged in the clutch assembly when the slave cylinder blew, possibly from our putting it in gear, trying to put it in gear, etc. But if anybody can think of anything I might have missed or fumbled while replacing the slave that might be causing the problem (like, as far as I know I don’t need to bleed the master since I didn’t touch it, but maybe I’m wrong), I’d love to hear it. Also any other ideas that might point to something less serious than a full clutch job.

 

How did you bleed the slave cylinder?

Squealing might be a bad throwout bearing...

 

I bled it just like this guy does: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoiXWFdSuDM&t=601s
except I used a bar clamp to compress the cylinder (with a few wraps of tape to hold it straight after it was compressed), and I had a clear tube on the bleeder valve so I could see any bubbles. Bled it twice - between the two I tilted the cylinder and tapped it a few times, and topped off the reservoir. Got a couple of extra tiny bubbles out of it on the second bleed.

I'm guessing a shot throwout bearing might also prevent the clutch from returning all the way after being disengaged? Clutch has about 70k miles on it, so I figure if it has to be opened up I might as well do the full kit...not the end of the world, but not something I really want on my plate right now either.

 

If you can now get it into gear with the car running the clutch is doing it's job. Sounds like the throwout bearing or something else is broken.

Whatever broke probably took out the slave cylinder and not the other way around. The slave just pushes the arm in and out it can't break anything by exploding, it just stops pushing the arm. Trying to jam it into gear wouldn't affect any of the clutch parts, just the parts inside and those don't squeal.

I definitely get not wanting to pull the transmission out though, it's not a fun job. I drove mine too long with a slipping clutch waiting until I could take a whole week off of work to do it.

 

Thanks for the input. Looks like things are about what I figured - gotta open it up to see what's broke, and once I'm in there I might as well replace everything that wears. Now I have to decide whether I'd rather spend a lot of time or a lot of money...leaning towards DIY, although this will be a bigger job than I've tackled before. But I've got youtube and pelican parts to guide me; what could go wrong?

Now I'm going to check the forum for threads on flywheels - how to tell if they need replacement, dual-mass vs. single, etc. (If anybody wants to point me to good threads or just clue me in, thanks in advance.)

 

It's not that bad of a job..I did mine lot to long ago.

Here is a post I put on some tips & tricks that might help you out with a clutch swap.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ur-clutch.html

 

Excellent info; thanks! Pretty sure I'm going to DIY this one. Will almost certainly bump this thread with followup questions, wry observations, any photos worth posting, and agonized cries for advice.

 

Okay, got all the parts, everything has gone smoothly up to now, when I'm trying to pull the upper bell-housing bolts before I suspend the engine, and am having a REAL hard time just getting to the upper rear bolt (tucked just underneath the wiring octopus; it's the one at 22 minutes in the first ModMini video). I can barely get to it now that I've disconnected the other end of the octopus bracket at the throttle body, but I'm honestly wondering if I've got the right bolt - it's 15mm, not 16, and it holds the other end of the octopus bracket to the engine. If that's not the one, then where the hell is it?

 

I remember that bolt being a royal pain in the a$$ when I did my clutch. I'm pretty sure I ended up getting it out with either a swivel on the end of a big socket extension, or maybe I was able to get an box end wrench in there. Either way....it was a real knuckle buster that took me way too long to get out. Have you tried a 12 point metric box end wrench?

 

I didn't have much trouble getting that bolt out because I happened to have the perfect length wobble extension, but if I remember correctly all the bell housing bolts were one size so I think you may have the wrong one. Good luck getting the transmission back on for me that was by far the hardest part. PS don't pull too hard on the wire harness trying get underneath it because I did and I snapped my coolant temp sensor

 

The 12pt box was how I established that it's 15mm (got the 16 on and it just kept slipping). There's barely enough room to give it a twelfth of a turn....for some reason my regular 15mm socket is missing, so the only one I have at hand is a 6-point impact, which is pretty tall and takes a half-inch drive, but the only wobble I have is 3/8", and there's not enough room for the socket, adapter and wobble. I have no problem running to the store for a shorter socket and/or 1/2" wobble, but would like to confirm that I have the right bolt....did yours also hold the metal bracket for the octopus?

Side note - the engine was replaced under warranty several years ago, and I'm getting the impression that the dealer did a pretty sloppy job, since both 10mm crush tube bolts and a handful of other not-exactly-essential bolts are missing, and I doubt that they all worked their way out and disappeared. So it wouldn't surprise me if this bolt has the correct diameter and pitch, but an odd-sized head. Again, the test is, does the bolt also hold the octopus bracket?

 

I honestly don't remember it was almost right underneath the wiring harness I remember trying to pull the wiring harness to try and get clearance. Feel around for another bolt its in a space that had like just enough room for me to get like a 1" wobble extension but it was 3/8 I just used a cheater bar to break it. Feel around for another bolt I wasn't able to see it I could only feel it

 

That bolt sucks!!
Sorry I'm not much help either on the perfect socket to get it out. I just pulled on the wires as much as possible and kept trying every combination to get it off.

I highly recommend not putting that bracket back on when you put the bolt back in. Those wires are going nowhere!

Dealers suck too. I've worked on quite a few cars after the dealer hacked them up. Stuff like stripped bolts to missing bolts.

 

Good call. TOB is definitely showing signs of wear....



In other news, turns out all my bell-housing bolts are 15mm (Pelican says they're 16). So that's a mystery solved....