serious problems ]:

ok, so i have a stock sl. everything was fine until my clutch started sticking. i'm not sure why, i never overrev or burn my clutch. but yesterday i was driving and the clutch was sticking, causing rpms to jump up and down. now, the clutch doesn't even seem to engage. i turn on my car and i can shift into all the gears without even stepping on the clutch pedal. if i'm in gear and start gassing, nothing happens, like my car is in neutral.

i also noticed that there's a nice big hole on the top of my tranny, immediately to the right of my shifter cables. is there supposed to be a plug on there?

my theory is that the hole is supposed to be plugged with one of those little metal caps. since it's not plugged, fluid was able to leak out. my tranny then got really hot and either my clutch is completely burned, or my throwout bearing's gone. or both.

but is there anyone that's run into this before? i'd really appreciate the help. thanks

Same thing happened to me awhile back in an old Precis...the clutch was basically gone lol...I just threw a new one in and it was good as new. As for the hole in you tranny i'd have to go look at my car to tell ya...but it doesnt sound normal...either way good luck

thanks. i took a closer look at it and it seems like i just needa find a plug for it. guess i'll go from there. put in a plug, fill it with fluid and see if it'll work. i just don't want my frist step to be tearing a tranny out of the car. lol.

thanks, though.

Yes, there is a fill plug and a drain plug. However, loss of transmission fluid wouldn't effect your clutch. It could be a worn out clutch, but it could also be the master cylinder for your clutch. I would check that for leaks.

Sounds like your clutch is gone, if it was a worn out master or slave cylinder you wouldn't be able to shift gears well or at all, but you would be able to make it move if you started the car in a gear. If your fluid had leaked out it wouldn't burn up your clutch, it would seize your trans and break something.

the you are talking about is probably a breather hole, or a hole so you can look into the bell housing.

ok. so my car's still in my garage. i'm going to be honest & say that i'm not working on it very hard. lol i havn't actually touched it for about a week. but when i did work on it, i noticed these things:

-slave cylinder was shot. the boot was torn, almost off. don't know if it was like that when i bought it, but i'm replacing it.
-the lines to the slave were good! really good. clean too, looked like they've been replaced.
-the hole in the top of the tranny was a place for a freeze plug. i didn't know the term before, but now i know. lol i've seen a freeze plug or two fall off a head on a few bmws [where i used to work]
-the clutch was, literally, melted to the flywheel. when i took off the pressure plate, the clutch plate was still on there, and peeled off like an egg off a frying pan with no oil.
-i had very good gear shifts, shifting with the tranny off the car using where the linkage connects.

so...

-i threw in an act clutch.
-replacing a few old parts in the car.
-i found an interesting plug at autozone. instead of a regular freeze plug, it does the same thing, but it has two washers with a peice of rubber in the middle. a screw goes from end to end and u feed the rubber part in the hole. as the screw tightens, the rubber will expand and fill the whole. i was told u use a litll 40/40 on it just to make sure it'll stick and everything. i pour half a bottle of water just to check seapage, and NOTHING came out. i was quite surprised.

tranny's still outta the car. i'm waiting for some stuff from 3sx, which is a great site to say the least, but otehr than that, everything should be back in.

THANKS FOR EVERYONE'S HELP