Car is a 1990 Nissan Stanza 5MT

When I bought the car 4 years ago I replaced the clutch after about a month because it was the original and worn out (236K!). Since then I've had no problems with the clutch system, till about 2 weeks ago.

Went to drive and noticed my pedal wouldn't come back off the floor, had to pull it up manually with my foot. About 15 min later I pulled into a parking lot only to find out my clutch fluid reservoir was empty. Ran inside Orileys and grabbed a bottle to top it off then pumped the clutch pedal a few times. Drove off and it seemed to be back to normal.

Now the damn reservoir is going empty after about a day and a half just sitting parked. I can't seem to find a definite leak. In the pic here (2) I noticed there was some fluid leaking down the firewall, I wiped that up with a rag and tightened up the two master cylinder bolts... not seeing any more fluid leaking there now. Also tightened up the clamp on (1) because it was a bit loose. Not seeing any leaks there now either.



Slave cylinder seems to be dry as a bone and I'm not seeing any fluid leaking onto the ground even while parking in the same spot. Pretty much at a loss here, only thing I can think of is to replace the slave & hydraulic line (and bleed the system) and hope for the best.

Time for ss line?

Any thoughts would be great, just sick of it now and want to get it fixed lol.

 

Master cylinder probably needs to be rebuilt. Or just replaced with a remanufactured unit.

 

Hmm you might be right. I'm just confused where all the fluid is going.

I'm not seeing leaks down the firewall anymore. Maybe leaking on the other side?

 

Ok after further inspection just now you are correct jdblock.

Looked under my dash up where the clutch pedal connects to the mc and the back boot on it is torn and leaking out fluid

Agh, was hoping that wasn't it too lol. Looks like I'll have a little project this weekend now.

 

Yeah and the thing is, usually this fluid ends up running down the inside of the firewall and/or down the back of the pedal and soaking into the filler padding under the carpet in the low spots which eats the paint and leads to rusting out the floors. This is your beater so it's not a huge deal it sounds like, but it might be a good idea - while you are there - to take a look at all the padding.

Also, I strongly recommend to replace both the master and the slave at the same time. Especially with that many miles on it - you could end up blowing out the slave in a week or so with a new master cylinder. The most annoying part is having to go and re-bleed everything all over again..

 

I gotcha, yea not too worried about the padding/carpet with this car lol.

On Friday I got the new mc installed and bled the system, clutch feels wayy better now. Might go pick up a slave cylinder just so I'll have it if this old one gives out. From your experience, what have you seen happen when a slave cylinder "blows out"? I haven't encountered that before just wondering what I could expect.

 

As far as the carpet I just mean that brake fluid eats the paint which leads to rust/holes - over years.

For the slave cylinder, the way it was explained to me is that the hydraulic parts should be replaced together because they wear over time and use. So, if the master is suddenly putting out "brand new" levels of pressure, it can accelerate the wear of the slave.

In my experience, I changed a clutch master on my Z31-T and very shortly my clutch started engaging closer to the floor, and I noticed one day at work there was a puddle under the tranny. I think it was around two weeks. Of course it could have been a coincidence.

 

If your slave gives out the clutch won't release. I wouldn't worry about it on a beater car unless it actually fails. No need to spend money if you don't need to.