Well, DAMMIT !!!!!!!
It has just happened again !!!!

So, last May 26 (2017) I go my GM dealer to replace clutch assembly, flywheel, master
cylinder, slave cylinder, and install a Tick remote bleeder. This was because my pedal was stuck on the floor.
So I figured, let's do EVERYTHING. So $3500 CDN later it is all done.

We did 4 autocross events in June, and 3 in July.
At the July events, we noticed that the clutch pedal would not always come back up fully.
But we could just put our foot behind it, and pull up... up it came.
This went on for the last 2 events in July.

2 weeks ago, I decided to replace the clutch fluid.
Open the master cylinder reservoir, and it is empty.
What ????? (the car is up on a hoist) Look all over, under, around, etc., etc.,
no sign of fluid leaking anywhere. Nothing on my garage floor,
nothing on the bell housing, nothing on the driver carpet... where is it going ?

So we replaced the fluid (power bleeder), and made sure it was full.
I drove it home from the shop. Pedal usually comes up fully, but not always.
Sat in the garage until today for our latest autocross.
I checked the fluid level last night, and it was down a bit, so I topped it up.

Drove to the race site this morning (25 miles highway and city driving). Pedal worked OK.
We started our runs (2nd group) at 10:50. I went first, pedal worked OK
until run was over, then went back into only partially up. Bring it back up.
My wife was next... get up to start line, pedal was fully down, and wouldn't
come up at all. I manipulated it for her.... up/down a few times, and it seemed to be OK.
She made her run, and then the same thing happened as for me... pedal would only come up partially.
So we played with this back and forth for the next 2 runs each... intermittent pedal.
It would engage the clutch OK if it had enough travel.
Now I am ready for my 4th run. Clutch pedal is now only working on bottom 10% of stroke. So it is really hard to shift with hardly any travel. And after my first shift to 2nd,
that's it... fully on the floor. So I limp back to the pit area in 1st gear.
I can't shift in or out of gear because it just wont engage now.
Guys push me into our pit spot.

I check the clutch reservoir... EMPTY !!!!
Again, where is the fluid going ???????

I got a ride to a parts place and bought some Dot4 fluid.
Another guy loaned me a couple of wrenches, and we did a slow bleed and fill
(manually pressing and releasing the pedal). I aimed the remote bleeder back into the
reservoir to catch any fluid that did come out.
So we were able to get the clutch to work again, after we bled and filled the reservoir.

We did not want to take another chance on losing fluid so quickly, and being stranded
on the highway, so we decided to NOT drive it home.

So, again, flat deck it to dealer to check things out.

Dealer can't look at it until Tuesday... I'll keep you posted.

 

Can the clutch reservoir loose its fluid over time? Normal? or is there always a defined problem here?

 

I've never heard of this happening before... with anyone.

 

There are threads with other ppl this has happened too as well.... He's not the first

 

Perhaps my searching skills suck but can you point me to some threads about this?

 

Anything else you need me to search for you??

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...-it-empty.html

 

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...uid-empty.html

 

Yes, other people have had their fluid "disappear"... usually over time.

But mine happened in 1 hour of driving..... 45 minutes drive to the site,
and then 6 - 1 minute runs on the course.

And I can't see any fluid anywhere... not on my garage floor,
not on any parts under the car (looked while up on hoist),
not on carpet in drivers footwell.

Possibly it is sloshing around in the bottom of the clutch housing,
but I couldn't see anything.

Oh well, I expect the GM dealer will find out what it is.

 

I am interested in the outcome.

 

No it is not normal. And it'd not the type of fluid that evaporates so finding the leak shouldn't be too hard. It's best to start by thinking of all the places where wrenches were turned. If I were to guess, they messed up and fluiding is leaking inside the transmission; which could explain where the missing fluid is. You've already looked at the pedal in the car to make sure it wasn't leaking into the carpet/firewall area right? Since you had all the work professionally done, I would take the car back to them and get my free warranty work.

 

Dropped it off Saturday afternoon at the GM dealer.
Tech (Mechanic) could not get to it until today.
He had to remove the exhaust pipes (4 hours for re and re).
The Tick remote bleeder we had him install when he did everything 2 months ago
was loose where it connects to the slave (it replaces the stock bleeder).
He swears it was tight when he installed it.
So obviously it slowly continued to come loose.
At first, the leak was small, but then over time, it became bigger and bigger,
so that last Saturday, all the fluid was gone in 1 hour.

Why did it come loose ???? Who knows... but he is going to try to come up with
some approach to try to make sure it doesn't happen again. He is reluctant to
use some compound like Lok-tite.

All the fluid I lost was just sitting in the bottom of the housing... actually it wasn't
very much... maybe 3 or 4 ounces he said.
So he cleaned that all out too.

I will continue to check this regularly (every time I drive the car).
If it happens again, I'll get my regular mechanic to work on it
(He is a racer, and knows all sorts of little "tricks"...
like maybe even using crazy-glue).

I am also going to call Tick and see if they have any thoughts on this.

 

What a bummer. At least it wasn't more money down the drain in parts for a clutch.

Who eats the labor? Obviously it wasn't correctly tightened. I have run that style bleeder on everything but my Z which I run a Katech bleeder in and none of them ever came loose.

 

Another reason to stick with katech bleeder. Much much nicer than tick. Had issues like this with tick. Zero with the katech.

 

I had this happen. Put it back to stock bleeder. I see no reason for a remote bleeder, I can reach right up and bleed the stock one no problem.

 

Really? You can bleed using the stock clutch slave bleeder with no problem? I'll admit I haven't tried it yet myself, but everyone else who has written about it has said it's a pain... Are you doing something unusual to make it easier? Or do you have Trump-sized hands?

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I remember that some years ago a frequent Forum user (who I can't remember now) reported his remote bleeder leaked.

 

I am running the Katech bleeder on 2 clutches now with no leaks. I bring a bottle along to the track. Simply crack my speed bleeder, shove it in the bottle and pump a few times. I add fluid until Im confident that the fluid has all passed. Takes 10 mins max. I cannot imagine trying to get to that bleeder.

 

I had a speed bleeder line leak on me. Mine failed out of the box upon install, the fluid pressure would just leak though the line and into the clear protective sleeve over the braided line. Appeared to be a bad clamping on the fitting to the hose. Removed and installed the stock bleeder. Next car got a different line and no issues. It happens.

Sounds like your fitting into the slave just wasn’t tight enough. And why would the tech be aprihensive about a thread locking compound? You obviously use your vehicle in higher aggressiveness that most and there fore the car will experience higher thermal loads than most. Thread locking compounds are made for situations like this. He should use some blue compound during reinstall.

 

Sounds about right