Won't get into gear

[RyDeFly]

I have an 88 turbo, and I have some problems:
1. The clutch pedal, when depressed, sinks all the way to the floor, and gets "stuck", and I have to stick my foot unerneath it and pop it back out.

2. When the clutch pedal is all the way to the floor, none of the gears will engage, as if the clutch wasn't in at all.

This isn't a sudden problem, as the car has been hard to shift for 2 weeks now. (But its secondary car, and I was just worried about getting it to pass smog, which is why i didn't look at this problem sooner.)

My friend said its probably the hydraulics in the clutch, the "Slave cylinder" and that its leaking, etc. Can I add more fluid? Am I going to have to jack up the car to get to it? (groan)

Thanks again guys.

[ddmcse]

check the master cylinder under the hood drivers side on the firewall

[j3pz]

the same thing happened to me almost a year ago. the clutch master cylinder (white/clear container against firewall, outermost) was low on fluid so i put more in. than a month later or so it did it again. so i refilled again. then the clutch pedal started getting oil running down it and the cylinder went dry again.

the problem was the cylinder itself was bad and leaking fluid through the fire wall down the pedal, making it slippery and ruining the carpet, not to mention making the car undriveable.

the solution was to replace the clutch master cylinder ($10-20 over ebay). id advise to refill the cylinder and just was for this again. it may just need to be refilled. if it happens again you might wanna replace it.

[rnoswal]

Check the slave cylinder too. They go bad with the same symptons too. As soon as you replace the master cylinder it seems that the slave goes out pretty quick.


Russ