Funky Clutch

[*insertusernamehere*]

Hey guys,

What does it mean if one day you hop into your 2006 Honda Accord and you push the clutch and its perfectly fine. The next day you jump in and its HEAVY AS F*CK. And the next day and the next day.. like a week maybe. Its so heavy after 4 sinks your calf starts to hurt and you contemplate not driving. As if that not confusing enough the next week you go for a spin and its perfectly fine. Then the next time its SUPER DUPER LIGHT. Basically the clutch has a mind of its own right now. Regardless its fully functional no slipping, holds gears, shifts the same as day one, no sounds. So we're sort of dumbfounded :dunno: (dads car).

[Jake]

Well, I don't have a 2006 Honda Accord, but I'll take my best guess.

It's hydraulic, so you've got a few things that could be the culprit... master cylinder, slave cylinder, and fluid. I would put money (a small amount, like dinner at BDubs or something) on the slave cylinder starting to go bad. Does the engagement point change? When I've had 'em go, the engagement would get closer to the floor, until the pedal was on the floor and you couldn't disengage the clutch.

Good news is, slave cylinders are relatively cheap and easy to replace. A new slave and fresh fluid and you'll likely be back in bidniss.

How many miles on the car?

[BLINGMW]

I guess I'd rule out the cheaper stuff first, like debris in the line. Have you done a bleed of the clutch system recently?

[JustinG]

Do the simple, then the complicated, start with the fluid. Check it, bleed it. Then check the slave, get OEM, prob not much more expensive over the Advance Auto stuff. Then go to the Master, same deal, OEM over an Advance Auto part. I have had multiple AA slaves and Masters fail prematurely, never had an OEM slave/master I installed fail. If none of that works, move to the clutch.

After its all said and done, Fluid, new Master and new Slave, you are prob in about $100. Assuming you have to replace both.

Or you pay a shop the $100 diagnostic fee, and then pay for parts and labor for them to fix it.

[*insertusernamehere*]

My apologies guys. Forgot to mention what has been done so far. We haven't bled the line yet i don't think (from what iv been told) but all those things were checked jake. Only what you mentioned though, nothing more. The engagement is the same. When we consulted madame Google she gave us those same results but we seem to be okay with master and slave cylinder.

[JustinG]

Are you saying the Master and Slave were just recently replaced? If thats the case, my bet is you have some air in the lines somewhere.

If not, failed pressure plate, clutch fork, throw out bearing? Any clue when the clutch was replaced or if it ever has been?

[*insertusernamehere*]

Hmm, I was told that the Master and Slave are fine. I don't know what actual steps were taken. And yup, when I spoke to him this morning he said he was going to be moving on to the pressure plate to see whats up there. It seems like we all have the same ideas for the most part. I was just seeing if MM had any experiences in particular or anything similar we could draw ideas from. I guess we'll just have to see what happens from here on out as we keep checking different things, hopefully the clutch doesn't go to crap all together. I'll let you guys know what comes of it!

Same clutch since day one. I wanna say he's at 140-150k now. That's what I remember from the last time I drove it.

Question: Does keeping the clutch down at red lights cause any bad damage in particular?

[JustinG]

Just puts stress on the throw out bearing and pressure plate. I typically take the car out of gear at lights, unless I know its going to change shortly.