2LT-Z51

first of all thank you to all who have posted information regarding the clutch fluid change.... good info out there
last week it felt weird a few times so i decide to open the hood this weekend and check it out..... i am glad i did!!!!

notes listed at the top of the pictures.......

bag of rags, big eye dropper, ready to go.... notice how dark the fluid is......


what a mess.... wiped all that junk off with a clean rag.....


dirty oil....


the cleaning begins.... (make sure your cap looks like this when you put it back)



putting in the new oil... (i ended up using almost the whole bottle before it got clean - see note below)



now this is what it is supposed to look like....


notes:
1)fill with new fluid
2)put cover on
3)pump pedal 10-20 times (have no idea the correct amount - this is just what i did)
4)remove oil - put oil in bag if rags
5)go to step #1 - repeat until fluid is clean

gota07

Let us know how long it stays that clean.

C6FirstVette

I'll give it a week before it starts looking 'dirty' again....
M

Zig

it's kinda low in the first pic. was that the pre-work level? at that level i could understand it acting kinda weird.

C8-Vette

It takes about 4 cans to get it clean. I've done mine and it has stayed clear for the past 7 weeks. From time to I will flush it again, if and when necessary.

Miaugi

Good write up and pics!

iridelow

I did mine as well, only took one can to get it to look clear. BIG difference! The car drives much better and shifts much eaisier. I did this about 300 miles ago and just looked at the fluid again. Yep, it's looks brown again, but not as bad, and still looks clean, just not clear. But before it looked rusty, now just a little brown.

VET4LES

Good job and write up. I've been through several can's in two years and it just keep turning black.

johnodrake

Cool. After reading Ranger's clutch write-up, I began changing mine. I finally came to the conclusion that I could do virtually the same thing by removing the reservoir fluid and replacing it every time I cleaned under the hood. Takes about 2 minutes and the fluid stays pretty clear. I no longer go through the drill with the pump and replace several times - but then it never gets gunky either.

su8pack1

Good write up, Thanks.

Vet

Thanks! Nice pics and write up! Thanks to Ranger too!

Pumping the clutch pedal 10 or more times between flushes is of course key to distributing the fluid around and getting more "old" fluid into the reservior to be removed.

The more you pump, the more old fluid you will remove... but it's impractical to sit there and pump the pedal more than 10 times between refills.

What I like to do... flush the reservior say 5 times or so in one sitting, pumping the pedal 10 times between each refill. Then wait a week or so after the car has been driven several hundred miles (which would mean several hundred clutch pedal pumps), then repeat the above, flushing another 5 times. Then put your clutch flush tools away for the season.

Not sure how many pumps it truly takes to get new fluid to migrate down into the slave (and old fluid to migrate from the slave up into the reservior)... but the more pumps the better. And you don't want to just sit there in your garage with the engine off pumping the heck out of your clutch... just wearing the slave for nothing really... may as well DRIVE the car.

I suppose in a perfect world you'd flush regularly every two weeks but it can be a bit impractical to do so. (If I wanted to spend most of my time tinkering I would have kept my old early `70's 455 Trans-Am .)

I plan to perform the above clutch flush maybe 2 or 3 times a year. I think for the average road driver (no heavy drag racing), this is probably enough to keep the clutch hydraulics reasonably healthy.

If the fluid gets a bit "dark" in appearance again after a few weeks, I wouldn't worry... it's always going to get dark after a while, normal really. As long as you know you added some fresh fluid and removed some old fluid / moisture, it should be about as good as you can get it within practical limits... which means you're ahead of the game.

I still think it's absurd that the clutch bleeder screw is essentially not accessible... if the C6 has any major "stupid" design flaw, THAT is it!

Les-10

I thought they should have fixed that after the C5!

Wayne O

Also in the last picture you can't even see the fluid level...it looks empty or over-filled.

I'm also surprised with the amount of gunk on the inside of the cap. Mine was not even close to being that dirty even after 2.5 years. I'm now flushing the clutch fluid somewhat regularly but the fluid appears dirty even after a week or less of driving.

Nice post and nice images. Thanks for sharing your experience.

2LT-Z51

it was about 1/2 - 3/4 way or so... the dirty cap picture was exactly how it was in the bowl....

Blue Demon

It took me two cans of Prestone Dot4 to finally get the fluid to stay clear.

2LT-Z51

AORoads

good write up! thx!

Ranger

2LT-Z51, Great pics. Nice addition to the knowledge base.

Good approach. Takes persistence to get the fluid back to clear (zero cloudiness) and to near nominal boiling point. But once it's there, keeping it there is pretty simple.

Ranger

Vet

What size cans.... in ounces? Thanks.

Ranger

Prestone DOT4 comes in 12 ounce cans.

The C6 spec fluid GM-Brand Super DOT4 comes in 8 ounce cans.

Size varies by brand.

Ranger