Right at 50 miles on a complete new clutch, pp, flywheel, slave and slave master cylinder with all new fluid. What is this?

 

What's that mess have to do with the Ranger method?

 

Whoever did your rebuild should be flushing your fluid. Maybe the new parts had residual crap from the forming process on/in them.

 

Yeah I mean I think the Ranger method is good for maintenance, but if you got a complete rebuild there is no excuse for not changing out all the fluids in for this not being crystal clear at this point

 

I'm wondering what type of fluid was used.

 

I would flush it out with a Ranger Method... and see what happens... just a few bucks worth of fluid.... what can it hurt before you try something else.

 

Who did the job, maybe blame them

 

It should be driven back to repair shop! And they have some explaining to do.!!!!!!!!!!!1

 

What did they do? Put the old fluid back in? Wow that is bad.

 

gm dot4

 

I'd go back to whomever did it and do what's written above. Are you sure it's only 50 miles since done? That looks like a lot more miles. I can't imagine any worthy technician reusing old fluid. Truly, if that is old fluid, wherever this was done, I would not use it ever again as a place for any car. jmo.

 

Wow.. usually the Ranger method is done as a DIY.. the shop didnt just automatically flush/replace?

did you inspect when you first got it back?

 

Flush it out??? Hell, NO! Take it back to the shack that did the work, and show them what they did.

 

Hold on everyone. Now I'm not trying to defend the installer here, but look at a few things first before accusing the shop of anything like reusing old fluid.

1) The new OEM master cylinder comes with a black reservoir as pictured by the OP. Chevy mostly did this to discourage owners (and techs) from getting too curious and constantly opening the reservoir because they could see the fluid getting dirty through the old semi-transparent tank. I'm not justifying their logic, just saying that's the story. Unfortunately, the solid black reservoir doesn't allow light through the side walls so clean fluid can still look pretty dark.

If you look at the small amount of fluid in the center of the top, it looks clear brown to me and not like the sludge most think it is. I'm just guessing here, maybe it is that bad, but take a small sample out and put it on white paper to see how dirty it really is.

2) DOT4 is now the OEM fill with the new master cylinder and DOT4 is more hygroscopic than DOT3, meaning it absorbs more water from the air when exposed to it. Chevy now says to not open the top unless you plan on changing it. We all know how nasty the clutch fluid gets and I personally think it's crazy to not inspect it, but that's what GM says.

For anyone doing the Ranger method, swapping the fluid out covers this by swapping fresh DOT4 in the reservoir. If you live in the Southwest with super low humidity, but anywhere on the coasts or MidWest, I'd swap fluid anytime the top is removed. Also used a brand new container because that same bottle you used 3 months ago has now absorbed enough moisture to make "fresh" DOT4 result in a wet boiling point well below old DOT3.

3) I'm not positive on this part, but I think the Ranger method only dilutes the overall nastiness of the fluid in the entire system. Most of the crud occurs at the slave from heat and from the clutch dust that works its way through the seal and into the fluid. There is a very small amount of fluid that cycles when the clutch pedal returns to full height, but it might only be a few cc's at most. The Ranger method at least dilutes the nastiness and through enough cycling the hope is some fresh stuff gets to the slave. A real flush by pushing fluid out the slave is best, but hard to do with OEM parts so the Ranger method is better than nothing.

4) The biggest thing I'd be worried about is all the air in the fluid in the master reservoir. It definitely should not be foamy like that. Air in the brake lines is the same as air in the clutch line. If it gets down past the actual master cylinder, it'll get mushy and stop working. Fluid should be almost to the bottom of the rubber boot thing on the lid, which is basically limiting how much air in the reservoir, but allow for expansion as the system heats up.

I'd recommend checking the color of the fluid against something white and not just looking at it in the reservoir like in the pics. If it's nasty and light doesn't through it, now maybe talk to the installer. Either way, because the top has been opened and due to the excessive air bubbles, I'd do swap of the fluid in the reservoir, e.g. Ranger method.

Just to make sure, carefully siphon out fluid but keep the bottom feed tube submerged so you don't introduce air into the line. Pour fresh DOT4 from a brand new 1 pint container. Put the top back on, and CAREFULLY pump the clutch 20-30 times slowly to help force out and air that may already be in the lines. Unfortunately, to check the results you have to remove the top again, but if enough clutch dust has made it's way to the reservoir (which it does kind of look like) you may need to do this more than once.

Let us know how this goes, and if the fluid really is that bad I won't blame you for dusting off your pitchfork when you head back to the installer.

 

I don't think it's the fluid color he's concerned over. It's all the contaminants.

 

Well heck ya !!!!!.....somebody has to be the blame...LOL....

 

correct, if that's what it is, but I'll pull a small bit out and put on white paper to investigate

 

Sample of the fluid

 

Ah....my bad, kind of went down the wrong rabbit hole. I didn't look hard the first time but there does seem to be extra "stuff" floating around in there.

Fluid check on paper looks good. Have you done any hard shifting or launches since the install? Depending on what clutch you had installed, little bits of clutch dust do work their way into the fluid, but not usually that much at only 50 miles. I've seen little metal bits in my fluid, but that's probably over thousands of miles of easy driving. Can you scrape some off to see whether it's metal or "foam"? Might also help to know what kind of clutch, like full metallic or organic, etc.

 

OEM GM clutch, pressure plate, slave, slave master and flywheel