clutch not holding fluid

hey guys my 94 SL doenst hold any brake fluid (in the clutch reservoir) for longer than 5 minutes. I was on my way to school in Norfolk, VA .. coming from home in Maine, and about 550 miles into the trip I had to ditch the car a dealership becasue the clutch just kept losing pressure. It happend two times before this, where I would press the clutch down normally and it wouldn't come back up. After the first time I added some fluid (luckily I had som in the car) to teh master cylinder , it was at teh min. level, but not dry .. so i just poured to the max level line. That lasted maybe 2 hours before the clutch wouldn't come back up again. After the second time, I topped the master cylinder off again however this time it was dry, almost. Then I drove about 1/4 of a mile or so before I started noticing decreasing pressue in the clutch and I pulled over at the next gas station, within 2 miles of filling up the master cylinder. It was bone dry again, within 5 minutes.
I figured its a messed up slave or line, possibly the master cylinder. However, at 830 at night, no tools, car packed full for college, in a town ive never been in, I couldnt tell much. I had it towed to a Mitsubishi dealership down teh road.
Any ideas on what it might be? Just so you all know, I did had a similar experience about 6 months ago, (the clutch just lost pressure once) and I bled the clutch lilne and cleaned it out. There hasn't been any trouble or anything all summer though. Thanks .

Any ideas on what it might be?

about $1000??? lol sorry man...dealership = stealership. Obviously its a leak somewhere...slave sounds like a likely culprit...hopefully one of the pros will put in their :2cents: though.

Not a pro but almost 100% that it's your hydraulic system. Either your master or slave cylinder is leaking. I had it happen to me too where I would depress the clutch and it'll just stick to the floor. I later found out that my slave was leaking but I just changed both my master and slave in one sitting so that I wouldn't have to worry about either anymore. Some say that if you just change one and not the other, the other one will start leaking shortly afterwards. Some have just done one and have had no problems with it. To save myself the hassle of getting stuck again, I just changed both to be safe.

So yeah, that sucks man to get stuck when you're travelling like that...let us know how it turns out. Good luck!

^ what sLADe said. its either the master or slave. your car is 12 years old, and most likely those are the original master and slave cylinders. they go out over time. hopefully the dealership won't charge you an arm and a leg to change one of the two.

but if you know how to bleed the system, then i'm sure you can replace the problematic clutch cylinder. so if the dealership is gonna charge you something outrageous, then you could do it yourself, but you might have to have it towed somewhere else...so you might as well let the dealership do it...unless you think you can save money if you DIY.

good luck, let us know how it turns out.

hey guys, thanks for the diagnostics... or however you spell it..you all were right. the mechanic called the other day and it is the slave cylinder.. theyre charging an 80 dollar "look over fee" and then 80 dollars for the part and probly like 2-3 hours of labor makes it a 389 dollar expense. Better than a grand is how i should look at it i guess. But thanks guys.. hopefully ill have it back on the road this week.

hey guys, thanks for the diagnostics... or however you spell it..you all were right. the mechanic called the other day and it is the slave cylinder.. theyre charging an 80 dollar "look over fee" and then 80 dollars for the part and probly like 2-3 hours of labor makes it a 389 dollar expense. Better than a grand is how i should look at it i guess. But thanks guys.. hopefully ill have it back on the road this week.

ripoff! don't do it. if you have just a few tools (metric wrenches and some metric sockets) you should be able to do this on your own and save the OUTRAGEOUS labor expense of 2-3 HOURS! sorry, that's just an absurdly ridiculous amount of time to install a slave cylinder. i could do it in less than 1 hr, probably 30-45 minutes.

here's ALL that is involved: remove battery, remove battery tray, remove wash reservoir, now slave cylinder is exposed. drain slave cylinder, remove slave cylinder and intall new slave. add clutch fluid (really just brake fluid) to system, bleed system. reinstall washer reservoid, battery tray, battery. voila, ur done.

so if you know somebody who has some basic tools, borrow their tools, pay the 160 bucks (look over fee and part fee), do it urself in an hour and feel good about urself, then secretly give the mechanics the finger for trying to rip you off and take advantage of you.

ripoff! don't do it. if you have just a few tools (metric wrenches and some metric sockets) you should be able to do this on your own and save the OUTRAGEOUS labor expense of 2-3 HOURS! sorry, that's just an absurdly ridiculous amount of time to install a slave cylinder. i could do it in less than 1 hr, probably 30-45 minutes.

here's ALL that is involved: remove battery, remove battery tray, remove wash reservoir, now slave cylinder is exposed. drain slave cylinder, remove slave cylinder and intall new slave. add clutch fluid (really just brake fluid) to system, bleed system. reinstall washer reservoid, battery tray, battery. voila, ur done.

so if you know somebody who has some basic tools, borrow their tools, pay the 160 bucks (look over fee and part fee), do it urself in an hour and feel good about urself, then secretly give the mechanics the finger for trying to rip you off and take advantage of you.

Agreed with almost everything that's been said... Only problem I see here is that if you can, you should give him the finger flat out. LOL Kidding...

But seriously, you could do it yourself. The only thing besides the basics that you need is a crowfoot wrench. I picked up a set at Sears for about $50 but if you're on a budget, you could get a set at AutoZone for about $15 (yeah, I checked both places). Quality will be a lot lower but it'll get the job done. Here's a link with pictures: http://www.penguinhosting.net/~bigmac/homepage/cars/faqs/slavecylinder/slavecylinder.html
I know you have a '94 SL (me too....YAY!!!) but it's pretty much the same process.
Here's my thread when I ran into the same problem so it may help: http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=518730&highlight=slave+cylinder

Good luck buddy....let us know when she's up and running again.... Oh, and I recommend gravity bleeding after she's done. I bled the system 3 times beforehand but couldn't get all the air out until I gravity bled it....

Agreed with almost everything that's been said... Only problem I see here is that if you can, you should give him the finger flat out. LOL Kidding...

The only thing besides the basics that you need is a crowfoot wrench. I picked up a set at Sears for about $50 but if you're on a budget, you could get a set at AutoZone for about $15 (yeah, I checked both places). Quality will be a lot lower but it'll get the job done. Here's a link with pictures: http://www.penguinhosting.net/~bigmac/homepage/cars/faqs/slavecylinder/slavecylinder.html


i have to disagree. you DON'T need a crowfoot wrench. in the link you provided, that guy does it the hard way. EASY way is to first remove the two 12mm bolts holding the slave cylinder to the block. there are also 2 more 12mm bolts nearby which secures a bracket holding the rest of the hard lines. if you remove these two bolts, then the slave cylinder and hard lines will all move freely. now you can pick up the slave, and easily remove the hard line to the slave with just a 12mm regular wrench.

like always, there's more than one way to skin a cat. i choose the easier, simpler way ;)