Clutch gone - Fluid Leak :sad: HELP

[K-rado 0]

Man, Been a night-mare-week.

Went to move the C (Vr6) on Sat ant the clutch pedal was all the way to the bottom. I pulled it up by hand......shot down again with the spring return

 

Bummer.... cant move the Corrado. Had a quick look and there... spotted the prob. Breal fluid low, level below the clutch return pipe.

No Bother, got me some fluid. toped it up. pumped the pedal a few times and hey presto she stiffened-up. 1 min later it was gone again..

 

Hmmmmmmmmmm?

 

Toped it up again with some more fluid... same again, one min later, clutch pedel gone fluid low but no sign of any leaks.........

....well not until I got under the car. Fluid pissing out approx directly under the location where the pipe enters at the top.

 

 

Oh SH!*.... Whats the prob now?

Major/Minor

Exp/Cheap?

Clutch shagged? Fluid leaking onto clutch innards?

 

 

HELP!

[Supercharged 2]

Is it leaking under the gearbox or under the reservoir?

 

If it's the gearbox end it's either the flexi pipe or the slave cylinder, if you can't see it leaking it's the slave leaking internally - £40ish from VW

[K-rado 0]

Leaking under the gear box, no other leaks. do you recon the internals of the clutch plate chould be shagged if fluid has been leaking within the housing?

 

Ps tks for the reply

[was8v 0]

the slave is outside the casing - hence no fluid can get into the clutch.

 

Your clutch should be fine, just swap the slave (or the hose if its that thats leaking) for a new one and drive off....

[K-rado 0]

Cheers Blue, Hope its as simple as that. but there is fluid leaking through the housing and comming out at the bottom. :sad:

Has anybody got any diagrames of the assembley that I can have a look at.

Is it something I can do myself?

Anybody know the part number?

 

TKS in advance.

[g60bv 0]

its 2 bolts and the tube thread and the slave cylinder will come off. cheap and easy.

[K-rado 0]

Hey Presto! I have my Car back :D:

Cheap it was not. Robbing VW Ba574rds in the ROI charged me 126 euro, and that was after a discount, and yes that was only for the Part. :shock:

I did the Job myself. Took me 1 hour from start to finish. and now like new. Very happy :D

I have taken some photos and will right up a "how to" a little later.

TKS CF for all the help and advice.

 

Kieran.

[K-rado 0]

fds

[K-rado 0]

How to: Replace slave clutch cylinder.

 

Hello all,

Now before I start, I would like to stress that I am not mechanically minded but needs must as I was unable to get anybody to look at my car to tell me what was wrong, let alone carry out the necessary repair. Solution: Corrado Forum a big thanks to all for your help and DIY.

 

What you need for the Job.

 

1: New Part number 357 721 261 A. ( VR6, Not sure for Valvers Cost me €126)

2: Brake Fluid. DOT 4 ( Halfords €6 )

3: Roll of Kitchen paper towel ( don’t want get that fluid all over the place)

4: Ratchet 1/2 inch, 13mm socket, 13mm Long socket, short extension.

5: 13mm and 11mm cut wrench

6: Long Magnet ( Just encase you drop your bolts, you will thank me for that tip later)

7: Blue Tac. ( When you replace the Bolts, will help keep in place as it is very fiddly)

 

It took me exactly 1 hour to complete the whole operation, Take your time, last thing you want is to cross thread one of the bolts or pipe connections. You will need somebody’s help for 5-6 mins at the final stage and a lot of patients.

 

• Put plenty of paper towel under and around the cylinder to avoid any nasty spills.

• Loosen the curly fluid pipe with 13mm cut wrench, and carefully try to get it out of the way of the slave cylinder. Remember to keep it clean!

• Using short extension and long 13mm socket and ratchet loosen the outermost bolt. This is a bit tricky as you do not have a lot of room to move with brackets, pipes and wires. I managed to fit the socket squarely onto the bolt as not to ring the head.

• Take note on how tight the bolt is as you loosen. It will be firm but not gut-wrenchingly tight. After a few short movements of the ratchet, you will be able to remove the bolt by hand.

• Using the standard size 13mm socket, short extension and ratchet, do same with inner most bolt.

• Remove old Slave cylinder. This will be a bit tricky as there is a bracket connected via the holding bolts to the cylinder that is carrying the cabling for the electric Fan for the radiator.

• Reverse the whole operation to install your new part.

 

Tip: Install the innermost bolt first. Remember to include the bracket that holds the fan cabling. Only hand tighten. Take your time as you don’t want to ring the treads. Use a little bit of blue tac to hold the bolt head onto the socket. Put the outermost bolt on last. This will be very tricky so take your time. A little bit of patients is required. The new part will be difficult to install under such confined space as well of the fact that the rubber/spring is new, therefore stiffer. Do not over tighten the bolts. The new piston will sit into a shallow socket. And not physically connected in any other way.

 

• Loosen off the bleeding nipple of the new slave cylinder.

Tip. Make sure the Clutch pedal is not depressed and pulled-up to the normal position.

• Get somebody to help you at this stage. Pour in the new fluid to the brake reservoir and when the fluid starts to come out from the end of the curley pipe, connect to the newly installed Slave cylinder ( don’t forget the paper towel and again, be careful not to cross tread.

• Fill up the reservoir to the MAX level.

• Get person 2 (the Mrs in my case) to slowly depress the clutch pedal. (Remember there is a spring that will pull the pedal down quickly.)

• Continue to depress and pull-up the pedal slowly a few times for the air to come out of the bleeding nipple.

• When fluid (with no air) comes out of the nipple, insure person 2 depressed the pedal to the down position (and hold it there) immediately tighten the nipple as to avoid drawing air back into the system. Pump pedal 2 or 3 times and normal pressure should be resumed.

• Replace dust cover to nipple.

• Check for leaks.

• Top-up fluid reservoir if necessary.

• Clean-up. The job is complete, feel free to take for a test drive and enjoy your Corrado.

 

A big thanks to all at the CF for continued help and advice and my wife for her helping hand.

 

Kieran.

[StuartFZR400 0]

worth Wiki - ing ?? ;)

[Supercharged 2]

Yep, nice one - I'll Wiki it later tonite...

[Tedb 0]

Just a couple of points to add to k-rado's (Kieran's) good advice about fitting a new slave cylinder...

 

1) When you remove the old slave there should be a sleeve, green in colour on the pushrod (the brass/gold coloured piece external to the piston), this sleeve should be taken off and fitted to the pushrod of the new cylinder, clean it first and note the order in which it is fitted on the old cylinder, the wider end should face the piston housing and the narrower end will rest up against the white 'stopper' and the end of the pushrod. You'll recognide the sleeve easily, it's made of silicone rubber and is moulded in a concertina like manner. I'm not sure it's entirely necessary to do this because replacement cylinders don't come with this sleeve but it's best I think to fit the replacement in the same manner as the old. The one I fitted was an ATE Cylinder and it was not accompanied by any sleeve. Perhaps one of you out there could confirm if it's necessary to fit this or not.

 

2) A Gunson one man brake/clutch bleeding kit is a great investment and really invaluable for these type of jobs, you can pressure test the system before you start bleeding at all and this will highlight problems with leaks.

There not expensive, maybe £25 or so and makes the job so much easier.

 

Cheers

[K-rado 0]

Good point there blue on item 2, but the VAG part that I used came complete, push rod, green boot and all, I didnt feel the need to tinker abt with only bung it in. Mabey some aftermarket alternatives dont come complete :wink: