High clutch pedal

Hello everyone.

 

I recently purchased my 3rd Subaru last month; a 1999 30th Anniversary wagon which had the clutch recently replaced by the previous owner. This is the 2nd 5mt anniversary wagon that I've owned and never had this issue with my other one when I replaced the clutch

 

Basically engagement happens when the clutch pedal is almost fully released which is making taking off from hills difficult for me. I know the hill holder is setup properly, the car will start rolling backwards on a hill when i lift the clutch pedal halfway up from the floor.

 

The clutch is grabbing perfect and is not slipping unless i take off from a steep hill which is due to my discomfort with the pedal engagement being so high off of the floor.

 

Is this a symptom of a stretched clutch cable?

 

Thank you

 

Update 6/15/2016: The original clutch cable was stretched. I first ordered a clutch cable from Rockauto.com which did not work, stay away from these! I ordered a new OEM cable from Subaru for $30 more than the aftermarket one and i installed it without any issues (took only 30 minutes). I adjusted the cable at the transmission end and it's been butter ever since.

i just replaced the cable in mine and its too close to the floor...

i just replaced the cable in mine and its too close to the floor...

 

Did you buy a genuine Subaru cable or aftermarket?

straight from the dealer. i have a bit of messed up parts in there, im sure the fork got bent a bit as well as bracketing with the same issue. it was a violent break.

 

and honestly, ive had fairly good luck with aftermarket items over the years, i would have used one if the price had been cheaper than my shop discount a subaru superstore.

I recently bought a 1996 Legacy Wagon, and the guy I bought it from claimed he replaced the clutch. I was able to figure out that he had not adjusted the clutch properly as, when on a hill, the hill holder would not release when letting out the clutch causing a very hazardous situation for me.

 

I found a couple of videos on youtube that deal with the clutch pedal adjustment; so, after watching one that showed me where it was to begin with, I got under the hood with my wrenches and proceeded to make the adjustment. One thing I did was take a video of the linkage under the hood while pressing the pedal. Mine was set too low to the floor so I would press the pedal until I could feel the throw-out bearing touching the pressure plate, then press all the way down. From that I could see just how out of adjustment it was. Being of an engineering mind, I was also able to determine that the clutch and the hill holder should work in tandem. As the clutch is being engaged, the hill holder should be releasing. If one is happening before the other (as in your case, drimmie, where you start to roll backwards before the clutch engages), then we can say that the clutch is out of adjustment.

 

Mine was too low to the floor, so I had to adjust the nuts down toward the cable to remove some of the slack that was in the cable. To do this, I pushed on the clutch lever, which the cable is connected to, to get an idea of how much slack there was. As I adjusted the nuts (one is the adjustment nut, the other is a lock nut), I would push on the the lever to check the amount of slack remaining. I didn't take out all of the slack only leaving about a 1/4" of play in the lever so as to not leave the throw-out bearing engaging with the pressure plate. When I completed this, I took it for a test drive and voila! the clutch and the hill holder worked together perfectly.

 

In your case, drimmie, you would need to back off the nuts until you start to feel some slack between the pedal being all the way up and just as the throw-out bearing touches the pressure plate. It's pretty easy to gauge this by hand. You should be able to do this under the hood without having to press the pedal with your foot.

 

I hope this helps. I still have an issue with my clutch, which is, the thing smokes like crazy sometimes making me wonder just exactly how much of a replacement job this guy did. You should never replace a clutch plate without replacing the pressure plate and the throw-out bearing. I expect all that got replaced was the clutch plate. Anyone else having an issue like this?

bump, updated the first post.