Yesterday morning I went for a round of golf with the dad, on my way to his house, after about..3 mins of driving, the clutch biting point went extremely low, to the point where it was biting at about 3-5mm from the floor. At the lights, it just wouldn't work,I couldn't get in to gear, and the car stalled. I turned off the engine and had to rag it out of gear. The clutch decided it wanted to work for a couple of mins so I was able to move it about.. 30 meters to the next set of lights, where it did exactly the same again. I turned off the car, and let the people behind me know I had broken down, I pressed the clutcha couple of times, and then it came back to how it always was

Any ideas what this might be?

Check the fluid level.

Could be a leak.

Cheers

SPD

If it's not a hydraulic problem it could be that the relase bearing is chewing it's way through the clutch cover. Then the hydraulics readjust to the longer push and it works till it chews a bit more. You'll soon know!

Could you pump the pedal up? sounds like it may have air in system, look at Fluid resovoir 1st is it low,it is a duel resovoir so if it is does not mean clutch it leaking could be wheel cylinders as well but with the clutch having the higher pipe position it shows 1st, however seems more likely to be clutch [usual problem with em] have a look at the slave cylinder on top of the gearbox, pull the rubber dust cover off and have a good look, mine leaked there but did not show till I removed the dust cover all the fluid was in there, my realease bearing eventually wire away on the presure plate, never gave intermitent warnings though, just got lower and release bearing made noise eventually grinding in reverse all the time and tight going down into 2nd, so if you fluid is not low and no sign of leak at Slave then it looks like quite major surgery for your clutch.

Had a good friend of mine have a very quick look yesterday, looks like some fluid/oil on the slave cylinder, hopefully it is just a new slave cylinder jobby. Does the clutch have it's own fluid resevoir? The brake fluid is beyond max, I nipped to a garage a few month ago and asked how much to top up my fluid, and he didn't charge me.

I couldn't pump the pedal up no, it came to the top on its own. Yesterday and today it has been perfectly fine, the clutch did this (got very low, biting point wise) last year in the summer a few times, but I had absolutely no money at all, so couldn't fix anything, although after a while, it all went fine. It was making like.. a creaking noise when I dipped it and brought it back up..and this stopped to. Then just last week it came back again, noticed the clutch squeeking.

If it's the slave cylinder, can anyone reccomend a good place to buy one?

Cheers for the help ladies and gents

Double post

Just bin reading about some problems people have had here, my handbrake light doesn't come on, that only comes on when the fluid is low, which it was doing, un till it got topped up. Does this mean something more serious than the S.C ? Apologies for me, I'm not very fluent with cars.

I think you have a seperate reservoir for clutch fluid. This does not have the sender on it for the light.

However, a slave cylinder can fail if fluid gets past the seals. It could also be a fault with the flexi pipe that connects the cylinders. If this is breaking down internally you can get some right wierd things happening.

Cheers

SPD

1 resovoir feeds both.

The brake fluid and clutch fluid share the same reservoir, check the level on this. A leaking clutch cslave cylinder usually indicated itself first with a red "brake" light on the dash starting to flash as the fluid level becomes low.

Any garage should be able to swap the slave cylinder very easily and cheaply, or you and your mate can do it if you buy the right new part from a motor factors. You just need a couple of spanners, some plastic tube, a jam jar and some brake/clutch fluid.

Thrisey said:

1 resovoir feeds both.

Click to expand...

In that case, and no light on the dash suggesting low fluid, its either the cylinder or the realease bearing.

A simple look at how far the cylinder rod is extended should tell all.

Cheers

SPD

Thanks for the replies fellas, really appreciate it. My good man is gunna check it out on Thursday. The wierd thing is, the clutch is working perfectly fine, feels exactly as it has done for the last year (ish) not had the car a year yet. Feels just fine, and since the clutch did this some time early last summer, why hasn't it failed/broken before? It has no signs of slipping in any gear. The one thing that has been bugging me for a while is that it's a little hard to get in to 1st and second, needs a good push sometimes to get in to 1st, and second..well it's rare that it is hard to get it in to 2nd.

Summet about Fiats that bloody confuses me, my HT leads are not very healthy at all, but the engine is firing on all 4 :s certainly is an odd car, seems to fix its self haha.. I can live with that. Reckon it might just need some more synchro or something to make the gear stick smother?

It is begining to sound like like release bearing then if it has been doing this for nearly a year mine lasted about 1.5 years in this state before the reverse crunch began, stiff to get in 1st on 1st start up in morning, it got harder and harder to get it into 2nd coming down the box, going up fine until the last 2/3 months before it gave up on me.
Incidentally mine never showed a light on the dash either when slave went, because it was not low on fluid, nor did it show any fluid on the gearbox until I moved the rubber dust seal, then it was every where after! leaking like mad, but if it has shown problems over a year then is sounds like it is slowly getting worse which really points towards the bearing/presure plate thing more than a weaping slave, Be well worth it when it is done, mine drove so differant after, no more fights to get it in 2nd!!!

When my mate looked today, said there was some pressure being lost, according to him a newslave cylinder should be fine, this isn't a fix to the smoothness of the gear stick however, just to the clutch re-adjusting its self alot. Pressure plate etc.. is a much bigger job, unfortunatly I'm just gunna have to wait for this to go.

How much did it cost you to have fixe mate, when you had the release bearing done?

Clutch kit was about £80, fitting cost £100 inc VAT car off road 1 day.

Update

Cylinder has completely gone now, when my clutch is practically welded to the floor, the car is trying to set off haha. FIAT wanted to charge me near as damn it 90 quid for a new cylinder (I assume Bosch) I got one from eurocar parts for 35, picking it up this Wednesday/Thursday. Metalli I think it is, really can't afford to replace the Bosch one that has just broke, will be fixing Saturday. On the plus side, the newly full tank of petrol will go un-touched for a week saves me money.

Once again, euro car parts have a clutch on there for 46 quid, and another for 50something, depending on how much it costs to fit, perhaps I'll get a new clutch.

Your clutch is probally fine, when I replaced my slave cylinder I didn't need a new clutch for another 4 years, and only then because of the release bearing, the plate itself still had some meat on it possibly another 2 years or so the tec reckoned!