clutch problem

jknikos

Member
Last Friday I saw some fluid (probably brake fluid) covering the front of my gearbox all over my clutch housing. I always had some grinding noise when I pressed my clutch but I think during the weekend it got worse. I did no more than 60 miles during the weekend all on road. Finally this morning when I got into my jeep to go to work, I pushed the clutch in order to turn my jeep on and it was extremely light! I tried to drive the jeep and the pedal was still very light for the fist 3/4 of its total travel and it gets hard close to full travel. it engages just fine after you lift the pedal without slippage but this happens after even slightly depressing the pedal, not in the point that it used to till yesterday.:doh: Any ideas? I did not drive the jeep to work as I had an alternative. Any help would be appreciated! My jeep is a 09 jk 2dr with 125000miles.
 

QuicksilverJK

Caught the Bug
Sounds like your slave cylinder is leaking. Do not drive it. If you check your master cylinder level you will see it is very low if not empty. If I'm not mistaken it shares the same reservoir with your brakes, so not only are you introducing air into clutch hydraulic , but into your brakes as well.


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Clowe

New member
^^^This. The clutch does share the fluid with the master cylinder. Check the fluid level before you drive it again. The slave cylinder is a pretty easy install even when you bleed it. Roughly $126 from a dealer plus brake fluid.

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jknikos

Member
Ok I have an update. A finally had some time to inspect the jeep and there are two issues.

1) What I saw seems to be oil and NOT brake fluid. It comes out from the clutch housing and it speels one or two little drops after I park the jeep(I remind that this sterted at Friday and I drove the jeep since)

2) I inspected the hydaylic system and seems that the slave cylinder has some moisture but definitely doesn spill fluid. I checked the brake reservoir it doesn't seem to miss fluid!

Clutch still very soft till the and of his travel!

it starts to get confusing!!! :doh:

Thanks for all the answers so far!
 

QuicksilverJK

Caught the Bug
The likely reason for soft pedal is air in the lines. Either slave or master can cause this. If you are definitely seeing engine oil, then your rear main seal is bad. Not surprising, it is a fairly common problem.
If it is your slave leaking then it might not have leaked long enough to drain master cylinder, but if it fails completely your foot will go to the floor and you will not be able to disengage the clutch. So coming to a stop without killing the engine will be impossible, as well as shifting gears unless you are good at matching RPM and speed shifting.


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JKU Arizona

Member
Ok I have an update. A finally had some time to inspect the jeep and there are two issues.

1) What I saw seems to be oil and NOT brake fluid. It comes out from the clutch housing and it speels one or two little drops after I park the jeep(I remind that this sterted at Friday and I drove the jeep since)

2) I inspected the hydaylic system and seems that the slave cylinder has some moisture but definitely doesn spill fluid. I checked the brake reservoir it doesn't seem to miss fluid!

Clutch still very soft till the and of his travel!

it starts to get confusing!!! :doh:

Thanks for all the answers so far!
The oil might be a bad oil pan gasket. I had the same leak in mine and that's what it ended up being. Take the bottom over off and you should be able to inspect where the leak is coming from.

My clutch went bad at 120k miles. It wasn't hard to change out. I ended up going with a OEM clutch (didn't want to spend extra on an aftermarket one) and I also replaced the flywheel (I read that your not supposed to resurface them) and I didn't know how to tell if it's good so I just bought a new one and while I had everything removed I also did the rear main seal (it wasn't leaking).

You should try to bleed your system. very easy to do, you just need to be patient and helps if you have someone inside the Jeep pumping and holding the pedal down while you open and close the valve. If that works you should consider replacing your clutch as a preventative measure. Mine went out the second time i drove it when we got back from a trail. Would have sucked if it went bad on the trail.

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madstiles

New member
Slave cylinder just went through this. You can pull out without disconnecting the line to make sure. Mine was doing the same then when I was an hour from home it exploded..

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jknikos

Member
Thanks everybody for your replies! I think the slave cylinder is definitely out and probably have spilled some brake fluid in the clutch housing then it spills out of the housing. What I see is brake fluid and probably not oil as I stated before. I got confused. I will definitely change the slave cylinder but could brake fluid in my clutch have ruined the clutch assembly? I think my clutch is at the end of its life so I probably change it too. And with 125000 miles do I need to change my flywheel too?
 

jknikos

Member
issue update

The problem was that the slave cylinder was gone. I replaced the SC, and the clutch/pressure plate/throw out bearing just for the piece of mind. My clutch now feels brand new. One think that I saw was that my used TOB was shot!!!! I heard it while my mechanic spinned it by hand and my god what a noisy piece of s****. The only reason I can justify a so worn out bearing is the amount of dust/gravel that was in the clutch assembly.

Thanks everyone who chimed in to help! :beer:
 

madstiles

New member
The problem was that the slave cylinder was gone. I replaced the SC, and the clutch/pressure plate/throw out bearing just for the piece of mind. My clutch now feels brand new. One think that I saw was that my used TOB was shot!!!! I heard it while my mechanic spinned it by hand and my god what a noisy piece of s****. The only reason I can justify a so worn out bearing is the amount of dust/gravel that was in the clutch assembly.

Thanks everyone who chimed in to help! [emoji481]
Factory throw out bearings are junk get a National or Timken

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jknikos

Member
Was the tb part plastic? I've heard good about Sachs but don't know what tb they use. If it's part plastic it's factory style and crap.. might pick up a good one for when the time comes. Good luck!

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I did have time to see the new bearing as i was at work. I will ask my mechanic. But in the end time will tell if the TOB comes back. So far so good!

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MattAlpha

Caught the Bug
That stinks. At least you know it’s the plastic that is making the noise and most likely not because the TOB has failed. As long as you don’t feel any binding when you press in the clutch the TOB should be functioning properly.


'07 JKUR
 
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