Clutch problem

[JeenyusVR4]

Hey, so i went on vacation for 6 days and my 92 VR-4 sat in the driveway and didn't move. so when i got home i went to take it for a spin and the first thing I noticed was the clutch pedal felt VERY soft until just before it hit the floor wall then it felt somewhat more firm, but nowhere near how it felt before I left. The next thing i noticed was when i tried to put it into first or any gear at that it was really really hard to get into and never really felt like it was engaged all the way. I have a feeling its time for a new clutch but i just wanted to ask to see if anyone had any other ideas forwhat it could be. One more question was do you think that i should continue driving it, or would it be unsafe??

[AutostradaVR4]

any fluid on the driveway?

[JeenyusVR4]

No there was no fluid on the driveway

[X2Xtreme360]

I dealt with a problem like this for a while. First, check the fluid if you haven't already. If it's low, go in your car and look under the dash where the carpet stops, just behind the clutch pedal. Check to see if it's wet back there on the firewall, if it is, then your master cylinder is leaking from the plunger (very common) and you have a bad master cylinder. This would cause the soft pedal and also why you can't get into gear.

If there is no leakage there, go to the transmission, and looks at the slave cylinder. It might be hard to see since you have a VR4 and all the piping will be in your way, so you may want to remove that. On the slave cylinder, there's a rubber boot, pull that back so you can see the pushrod underneath and check to see if that's soaked with fluid. If it is, then you have a bad slave cylinder.

If you can still see no leaks, there's a possibility that the rubber clutch hose has started leaking. And that would be the hose that connects close to the slave and makes its way up to the firewall. I would hope it's that because it's simple to replace. I even upgraded to a steel braided hose from 3SX so I know it will never fail... only $30.00.

Is it safe to drive? Well from personal experience... I made a mistake and tried to force it into 2nd gear when my master went bad, and ended up with a busted 2nd gear syncro... I wouldn't drive it, expecially if you can barely get it into gear... the problem WILL get worse, I can promise you that. Hope this helps.

[sLADe781]

Yeah, definitely sounds like either a master, slave, or clutch line somewhere. X2Xtreme360 gave very good directions on where to start looking. Hopefully it's not your clutch...

X2Xtreme360, when you busted your synchros, how much did it cost for you to repair everything? Did you just get a new tranny or did you just rebuild the tranny?

[JeenyusVR4]

Thanks for all of the info i checked my fluid level and it was about empty so i refilled it and the clutch feels great now. I didn't check the floor by the clutch yet but i will definately do that just to make sure everything is ok

[X2Xtreme360]

Yea if the level was low, there still may be a leak somewhere. fluid doesn't usually get that low for no reason.

As for my syncros, I only busted the 2nd gear syncro, and it's still not fixed. I double clutch to shift into second and for downshifting I have to match RPMs. Not a big deal for me, I've actually become quite used to it.