evo8 MR

So my car has been missing the 3rd gear shift everytime since when it had 2000 miles. It was impossible to engage the gear at high rpms, it will grind everytime when going from 2nd to 3rd gear (just like I mentioned in other posts). In the past I took my car to the dealer 4 times and they said they couldn't find anything wrong.

I then saw the Ranger video regarding the clutch fluid replacement but after being hesitant to believe it I decided to give it a try. My clutch fluid was absolutely nasty(after 10200 miles with the original fluid) . I then purge the reservoir severeal times just like the videos says and replaced the fluid, the difference was night to day..

Anyways, after a full unsucessful and frustrating full year on not being able to shift at high rpms from 2nd to 3rd gear my car miracleously started to shift every single time. I started screaming loud inside the car and saying Yeah!! Who -HO!!! Yeah!! and all that but after aproxximately five high rev shifting the car started to misshift again.

My next shifting test were unsucessful and I decided to go home very frustrated. This morning I open the clutch fluid and it was dark again, I meant black.

So for about a good 10 minutes of spirited driving my car worked perfectly and engaged the gears fine but it did not last at all. I was using DOT4 from GM. My question to you is :
what can I put on my clutch reservoir that would last longer or wouldn't get so dark so fast?

Any help would be appreciated. I know believe the clutch fluid does aliviate the specific issue on my car, the proble is that it wouldn't last.

Please help!! Thanks!!

Fast06Z06

Sounds like a couple things might be happening. One that you may not have gotten all the bad fluid through the system, two you may be overheating the clutch when shifting hard and at high rpm. Try shifting quicker and releasing faster. Or a combination of the two. TRy flushing out a few more times again. I switched to Prestone Dot 4 fluid after Ranger recommended that versus the Valvoline Dot 4 I was using didnt seem to be cutting it and he also had noted in his testing he had found Valvoline tended to turn black really quick. The Prestone is crystal clear. Once I found the right syringe it takes all the fluid out in one shot. It took only like 6 or 7 flushes to have the prestone through the whole system. So far so good.on wood

nzk

is there a fix for this? clutch fluid should never get contaminated this quickly regardless of how u drive...is there a dust boot or seal that needs to be beefed up?

Ranger

Clutch dust gets squeegeed past the main seal on the actuator shaft and enters the clutch hydraulic fluid. Suggest you watch my video in the sticky at the top of this board.

Ranger

J HEBERT

Do as the man says and regardless of how often u change the fluid for street driving, do it EVERYTIME u go to the track.

Way2Slow

Thats about all the driving time I would get out of the GM fluid before it would be black. I switched to VW dot4(I get it free) and it works WAY better.

evo8 MR

I took like 20 pictures of my clutch reservoir fluid change that I will post today. I will also post the pictures of how it looks now after driving a mere 35 miles(5 of them in a strecht of road high reving).

I am going to the store right now to pick up some shyntetic fluid then report back to you guys.

I just can't not believe this clutch fluid fixed my issues in the first place, I threw my towel a long time ago, now I see hope. Just even driving around town the clutcvh engagenment is so much smoother than before, problem is that it only last 35 miles...

Ranger

With the first few fluid swaps you did a superficial cleaning of the fluid. The fresh fluid then began to dislodge some of the crud caked in the hydraulics. That in turn recreated the symptoms.

Moral is this. Keep doing the fluid swaps until the clutch fluid remains clear. Given where you began (10K miles on the original fluid), I'd estimate 15-20 changes before you're where you need to be. It's fine to extend that over a few days of driving too. Start to finish, less than 3 minutes a pop.

Once the fluid remains clean for a few days of aggressive driving, your symptoms will either be gone or you will know the issue will require the changing of parts.

I have used both the GM Super DOT4 and Prestone DOT4 in my C6Z through 166 passes. The behave about the same. Prestone DOT4 is cheaper.

evo8 MR, what brand fluid did you use in your clutch???

Ranger

evo8 MR

Is it Shyntetic?

Way2Slow

Yes its Synthetic. It has a higher boiling point then the GM fluid

evo8 MR

Thanks Ranger.. I am considering just buying a large quantity bottle of DOT-4 shyntetic fluid and reflash the system a few times. I was totally hopeless on my car regarding the shifting issues, I was mind set to wait for the oem clutch to go bad or wear out so that I could send the transmission to RPM. Now that I know that the clutch fluid works miracles I will give a try and flash the system more often to keep the fluid cleaner.

Please stand by for my pictures this afternoon. My pictures will tell the whole history..

evo8 MR

I don't mind if the fluid gets dark, I am use to use shyntetic fluid on all my previous cars, as long as they don't loose the properties I am fine with the dark color, the shyntetic fluids are well known to hold their chemical properties intact even with extreme heat..

Way2Slow

Right.....It doesnt matter what color the fluid is when new but if it gets darker when used, its contaminated and should be changed.

Black_Mamba

Mine took a whole bottle of changes until it became real clear. Do it as many time needed to get it where you want it. After all, this is a very inexpensive and easy to do procedure.

ByByBMW

Ranger IS the expert and he knows of what he speaks. I, and a friend of mine, had the same problem with how fast the fluid got dark. Now it takes a WHOLE lot more before the fluid starts looking nasty. Once you get ahead of the issue, it's a whole lot easier and less time consuming and this is SOOOOO easy to do.

evo8 MR

Well, I went and got me some synthetic DOT 4 but while I was purchasing the stuff A friend of mine gave me a suggestion and after that I came up with a good idea. I need you to pay attentio to this please:

1) Think of a clutch fluid reservoir that don't neccesarily have to be the GM oem one
2) Custom built a circular fine mesh with a whole in the middle. This whole in the middle will be later be use for the fluid to flow from the lower tubing and up to the reservoir. The fine filter mesh would have to be positioned/installed inside the reservoir.
3) Incorporate a one way diagram flow valve that will allow the fluid to go though but not flow back.
4) Once the fluid flows to the reservoir it will be filtered with the fine metal mesh and it will deposit the solid particle in the mesh this way it wouldn't be allow to return back to the line. Remember, we don't re4ally have to use the tiny oem clutch fluid reservoir, why not to build/buy something bigger?

It is sort of the same simple principle of the insect water filters on the swimming pools. The flappers opens and allows water in but it filters the solids(insects). In this case the flapper would be the one way valve and the mesh.

Ranger

^^^ You might want to look at the photo of clutch dust in the laboratory report. It was taken by an electron microscope. The dust fragments are very small. Would take some very clever (read: expensive) engineering to trap them without rendering the hydraulics ineffectual. Good luck with that.

In the meantime suggest you follow the protocol that has worked for thousands of Corvette and F-body owners...get the clutch fluid clean and then keep it that way. Even for hardcore racers, that takes less than two hours per year and cost less than $20.

Ranger

J HEBERT

I give you an "E" for effort But the design of the "all-in one" slave/throw-out bearing is such that clutch dust will ALWAYS get in. If they had used mech. bearing and remote-mounted slave we would have no issues w/ dust. Rattles on the other hand, could be a problem.

Fast06Z06

Just fyi ALL clutch/brake fluid by its composition is synthetic. So any good DOT 4 fluid like Prestone Dot 4 not 3 will do you good. Hope it works. good luck

NORTY

Maybe a centrifuge?