Hi

over the past months a problem has manifested itself , in that it's really hard to change gear for the first 20 mins or so. It's got so bad now that I have to pump the clutch about 20 times just to get it into gear in the morning. It's fine once it's warm.

The garage reckons both master and slave hydraulic cylinders will need changing (about 400 pounds), but that's just from a telephone coversation, they have not seen it.

I'm wondering if it's worth bleeding the clutch first?

I assume the clutch uses the same hydraulic fluid as the brakes?

So 2 questions:

- What clutch/brake fluid does it take?
- How do I find the clutch bleed
- Does the above approach sound sane, or am I wasting my time because the garage has it spot on?

I know - that's 3!

cheers

C

Hi,

Had the same problem!
Have a look at http://www.multiplaowners.co.uk/ and go to FAQ. There you will be able to see a picture of where to bleed the clutch pipe as well as the master cylinder. To be honest, my problem just got worst after the bleeding. Apparently it is a plastic piston in the master cylinder that gets sticky. (If you have a look underneath the dash where your clutch pedal are, you will be able to see this cylinder that cause the problem)
Every morning I had to disconnect the clutch pedal from this cylinder, then I had to pump the brakefluid from the enjine side back to release this freaking piston before I was able to find any gears.

Yesterday I took my car to a fiat dealer and they are currently busy replacing the master cylinder. Hopefully it will be fine now!

Hope this info helps!
Kobus

Hi ! Claire,I am now driving my third Multipla.(1xJTD ELX; 2xJTD Eleganza). At 23000 mls. the clutch slave cylinder on the ELX failed. The clutch hydraulic system is "closed circuit" and cannot be bled. If either the slave cylinder or the master cylinder fail, then it's best to replace both of them. This is a garage job, but your grease monkeys ought to wear masks. Dick Turpin was decent enough to do so. Shop round for realistic service charges.

The clutch hydraulic system is "closed circuit" and cannot be bled.

I beg to differ.
dot 4 brake fluid to top up fluid.
open the bleed nipple under the battery on top of the slave cylinder,and just let the fluid drip out[do not press clutch pedal down,cos if the spring is broke in the master cylinder,you wont get a pedal,unless you push the slave cylinder back by hand.].........But if you do need to bleed the clutch ,you have a problem that will return in time.possible faults/ spring broke in master cyl/release bearing wearing throu fingers on clutch pressure plate/clutch worn to limit.

i just change my clutch master pump because the stick that push the clutch broken and it cost me only 75 pound

Agnelli said:

Hi ! Claire,I am now driving my third Multipla.(1xJTD ELX; 2xJTD Eleganza). At 23000 mls. the clutch slave cylinder on the ELX failed. The clutch hydraulic system is "closed circuit" and cannot be bled. If either the slave cylinder or the master cylinder fail, then it's best to replace both of them. This is a garage job, but your grease monkeys ought to wear masks. Dick Turpin was decent enough to do so. Shop round for realistic service charges.

Click to expand...

Hi ! again Claire, I should have said that the 'closed circuit' hydraulic system cannot be bled successfully. Have you noticed that no one has suggested a method of topping up the reservoir for this system? Not much point in bleeding the system without replacing the lost fluid.

Agnelli said:

This is a garage job, but your grease monkeys ought to wear masks. Dick Turpin was decent enough to do so.

Click to expand...

Oh the irony


p.s.you can bleed the clutch succesfully.

and when you've bled it,you can even top the fluid resevoir up,modern technology eh!