My Clutch was acting really weird today

I was just driving around today going pretty slow because the car wasn't even warmed up yet. On just a regular shift from 3rd to 4th, the clutch only came about half way out when I went to release it and stayed there. It felt perfectly normal on the 5 minutes of driving before that. So I pulled over and stopped and the pedal came all the way up, but then it felt really weird when I started driving again. I could push it almost half way down with no resistance and then it got really heavy towards the bottom. It still worked okay and wasn't slipping or anything but it felt really weird. It started to get a little better as I drove it a little more before I got home though.

It is an Exedy Stage 1 clutch that is only about a year old and has maybe 10,000 miles on it. Actually it is probably less than that; I have to look it up, but either way it is still pretty new and I never beat on it and have never raced it.

It was about 25°F outside and it wasn't really warmed up, but it's never done that before in the cold so I doubt that was the problem. Please let me know what you think.

sounds like it may be hydraulic issue. First step would be flush fluid/bleed it... If you still have issues, check slave cylinder for leaks/deterioration and then if that's not it, the master cylinder. Cold may have been a factor on old seals so who knows... what color is the fluid in the system right now, nasty brown?

Originally Posted by sigmafour

sounds like it may be hydraulic issue. First step would be flush fluid/bleed it... If you still have issues, check slave cylinder for leaks/deterioration and then if that's not it, the master cylinder. Cold may have been a factor on old seals so who knows... what color is the fluid in the system right now, nasty brown?

Thanks. I'll let you know tomorrow morning it's cold as shit and dark right now.

Exact same thing happend on my old honda prelude and it was the slave cylinder. If you are low on fluid that would be a quick sign.

Like recommended above, flush the fluid and report back.

The fluid was fine. I drove it back to the place that installed the clutch last year, and on the way there, the clutch slowly seemed to get better and better and was pretty normal by the time I got there. They looked at it and couldn't find anything wrong, so I got it back and there has been no problem since. Hopefully it was just some freak thing (probably not) and will not have a problem again.