Was on a run today and when we came out of the restaurant, I thought I would fire up the Vette and let the aid conditioner cool it off before the wife came out. Pushed in the clutch to start it and it stayed flat on the floor. pulled it up with my toe and stepped on it and it went to the floor. Had it hauled to the Chevy dealer and they said the clutch reservoir had gone out...????What I could see that it had fluid up to the almost top. They said they would have to order a part from back east and it would be here Tues or Wed, . Any ideas what might have caused it? I only have 9K miles on it.

 

Clutch master cylinder, and best guess, the center end cap of the master cylinder push rod cam loose, and the end plunger is no longer connected to the push rod.

The clutch pedal has a assist spring on it, and once you have the pedal past center point down, the spring is actually pulling the pedal to the floor (why the pedal sticks to the floor).

As for why it happened (master cylinder went out), GM went the land of plastic parts for producing costs cuttings, and it is, what it is. If they are picking up the tag for this repair, factory mastery cylinder is fine.

Down the road and you have to pick up the tab instead, go to the Tick metal master clutch cylinder instead.

 

Dano523 Thanks. That is about the same thing they told me at the dealership. I will at least be able to know what they are telling me. Thank you for getting right back to me. It was really embarrassing,
Having them put it on a flatbed along the road where 20 K cars are going by.
Oh well, Crap happens. The worst part was that one of the guys I was with owns a Chevy dealership and not the one they towed it to. He even helped puch it ont he flatbed wrecker. Good man.

 

is this somewhat common?? When I looked up the VIN number from the car I bought, There is a service order for towing around the same mileage as the OP. It doenst have any more info on it. and I doubt I can figure out what happened during that time. Im guessing if the car was serviced under warranty, the dealer can look up the VIN and what work was done?

 

My clutch master replaced recently at 7K miles under warranty. Hope this one lasts longer.

 

Yes, no, maybe.

the end plunger on the push rod has a cap that snaps on to hold it in place. So on low mileage cars, its just the cap that was not snapped on correctly when it was assembled the reason for it to fail so quickly.

On higher mileage cars, the problem comes from the clutch fluid black and thick as mud instead. There are three orifice restrictions in the clutch line to prevent you from abusing the drive line (slow down the engagement of the clutch), and since the thicker the contaminated fluid, the slower it going to return back to the master cylinder from the slave cylinder. So again, clutch pedal has a assist spring, and as the clutch pedal comes back up past the half way point, the pedal is going to be pulling back hard on the plunger rod, which can cause the end cap to pop off instead.

Worst yet, since the walls of the master cylinder are plastic, the more contaminated the fluid is with clutch dust (get in from the slave cylinder), the faster its will wear out the plunger and walls as well (pushing the pedal in does nothing instead).

Bluntly, you should doing the ranger method to keep the clutch fluid clean to begin with (fluid should be a light amber color at most, with no solids either floating on top, or in the bottom of the tank).

 

That was VERY informative. I will do that and will pass it along to others in the club that have manual trans.Thank you.
Jerry

 

Well this for sure wasn't done by Tue previous owner who stacked about 13k miles on the car in 4 yrs.

When I got it, I had the hardest time figuring out why my second gear was hard to engage. I had a few threads back in Dec. Lots of suggestions. One of those was to check the clutch fluid. When I did, it had black gunk swimming in it and it was just as dark as oil used. Started doing the ranger method and I think its all clear now. However this was not my tranny issue. I tried swapping the tranny fluid and diff fluid. Well that didn't help much. At the end, I install a CAGS bypass and that took care of the problem.

On a side note, the service manager said we shouldnt be changing the clutch fluid as often. Maybe twice a yrs or less because every time you open the reservoir, it catches humidity. True?

 

Answer: yes. I would hope that the OP knows to ck the condition of the fluid as well as level. And that the CAGS causes "difficulty" in going from first to second gear at low speed/low rpm.

 

Happened to me and how I fixed it with minimal tools and cost a bottle of brake fluid.

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...-pressure.html

 

Fantastic write-up -- thanks!

 

I had the same problem. Master cylinder went out at 6K miles. Flat bed to the dealer and they replaced master and slave cylinder under warranty. At 19K now and all ok. I do use the Ranger method as well. I just keep an eye on it and if it seems to be getting darker at all I swap it out. Maybe two months between changes but I do drive fairly aggressive.

 

I asked you guys for some help with my clutch pedal when it stuck to the floor. you folks did a fantastic job . One of ytou sent some pictures and aslo what you would need to replace the fluid. I cannot find them. if some hase the pictures, could they resend. I need them for a friend that does NOT have a computor, so the video is no good.
Thanks in advance
Riverrat68

 

I do not drive my car hard. I had the master cylinder on clutch replaced about a month ago. looked at the reservoir today after a trip, and it is already black. I will replace fluid tomorrow. Could there be another problem causing the brake fluid to get black so fast??