Hi all,
My Fiesta has developed a problem and I could do with some help identifying the problem.
Sometimes the pedel doesn't spring back up correctly. It only springs back half way, and when you press it again, it doesn't want to go into gear. If you stay off the pedel for a second and try again, it works OK.
It's a V reg 1.25 Zetec with a hydraulic clutch.
It's happened 3 times now, but with ~50 OK clutchings between each occurance.
Where do I start looking?
Cheers in advance Steve
Seal on master cylinder piston has swollen, so fluid not returning to reservoir. Unless it's similar in the slave cylinder. Or the diaphragm spring sticking. DaveK.
check the master cylinder(the one near the pedals), sounds like its losing pressure somwhere .also look inbetween eng and g/box for any gold coloured fliuld(looking from underneath) if no leaks are visable then i would suspect the master cyinder
as I recall there is a commonly occurring fault with the slave cylinder, nip into a ford parts place and ask. IIRC it is a hundred quids worth of bits plus fitting, which is 3.2 hours, put a clutch kit in while you are there, total is worth more than the car.
mrcheerful
there is paperwork on the master cylinder, no problems on slave cylinders (only if leaking...) but if your car was this bad than it would'nt drive at any attempt i would suspect master cylinder , i work in a main dealer and change a few
OK ta for that.
I'll check if I can see any leaks anywhere (there's certainly non obvious but I'll get it on the ramps at the weekend when it's hopefully above -20'C outside!)
The fluid reservoir is half full, but I don't know how full it was before the problem surfaced.
If I can't find a leak is it a case of changing the master cylinder and hoping it's that, or is there any way of confirming? Haynes has it as a 3 spanner job so I should be OK there. How much is a new one? Do they all wear out eventually? Is one from a scrap yard false economy?
(Or of couse I could just 'leave it and see what happens'...?)
Ta Steve
Reservoir should remain as full as when new (not like brakes which cause the level to fall as the pads wear). Don't know if it's still possible to buy rubber seal kits for master and slave cylinders. That was the cheapest way, but not always successful as the cylinder bore might be worn which meant it was a waste of cash and you then had to replace the cylinders anyway. Not possible to confirm which bit is faulty from the symptoms you describe. Change the slave cylinder. If that don't work-then the master. If no luck,-out with the clutch. DaveK.
Cheers Dave,
Isn't changing the slave a nightmare (Haynes = 5 spanners!)? Surely chnaging the master cyl comes before the slave?
Are you sure? Would it not be the case that as the friction plate wears, the slave cylinder has to extend further? If it didn't, the clutch would not free completely. As the slave cylinder moves out, the master cylinder level would drop.
Impending failure of the pressure plate, although unlikely, might also cause this effect.
If you think of it as a mechanical system, it would equate with having to reduce the amount of excess slack in the cable.
I'm not sure that the master cylinder level would drop to half full as this happened however...
Chris
If anything the master cylinder level would increase with wear on the clutch plate, the same way that a cable clutch pedal gets higher. The reason for this is that the springy fingers in the clutch cover stick out further as the plate wears, not less, thereby pushing the slave cylinder further in and pushing the fluid back to the master.
mrcheerful
Right, I see. I was trying to equate it with a mechanical system where the clearance always seems to increase, at least in my experience.
Chris
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