Where did my fluid go?

dmaxcamss · 11-07-2009, 01:33 PM

I know the stock clutches are worthless when it comes to force induction, but there are some out there who have had good luck with them. I'd imagine if you're not beating on the car regularly, it should be fine for a while.

Well the other night I was playing around with another car and dropped it down to 2nd and nailed it. The rpms shot up like crazy, almost as if I was in neutral. I got up to more speed to do the same in 3rd gear and it did the same thing. I was giving myself the benefit of the doubt thinking I just got it hot.

So I took it out again yesterday and noticed a little slippage yet again. I didn't hammer on it, but with a fair amount of throttle, I could tell it was doing the same thing. So once I reached my destination, I popped open the hood and to my surprise, there was no fluid in the reservoir. I couldn't believe it. I would think with no fluid, the clutch wouldn't disengage, making it difficult or impossible to put it in gear, but that wasn't the case. So really, it made no sense to me.

Then I was thinking that slave cylinder had a leak and was leaking onto the clutch, causing it to slip. Where would the fluid go if there wasn't a leak?

I also noticed that the bottom of the reservoir looked like black coffee. I ended up going to the parts store and buying synthetic DOT 4 brake fluid and filling it up to the max. I drove it around and took another look at the fluid and it pretty much turned it the same color as the bottom of the reservoir, chocolate/coffee color.

Anyhow, I have yet to take it out for some spirited runs today, but I sure hope my clutch isn't fried. The car only has 13k miles on it with only a couple of them with the supercharger on. I did notice when the clutch was slipping the other night, that the pedal wasn't all the way back up. I pretty much had to pull it back with my foot. Regardless, when I did pull it back up, it would still slip.

Any ideas? Suggestions? Please help.

setxws6 · 11-07-2009, 02:32 PM

You do need a new clutch. My car had less miles on it than yours, and the stock clutch only held on a few thousand miles and it started slipping after supercharging the car. I'm not sure why you're clutch reservoir was low or you couldn't see a level. But I can tell you that I would recommend changing the fluid out every so often.

All you have to do is syphon out some fluid, pour in fresh fluid, pump the clutch pedal 10-15 times, then syphon out some fluid, pour in fresh, and pump the pedal, and so on. Just keep doing this until the fluid is clear in the reservoir. This will also help get any air bubbles out of the system.

dmaxcamss · 11-07-2009, 02:52 PM

No, I'm certain it was empty. The only thing I saw in the reservoir was the sludge at the very bottom. The small opening at the bottom of the reservoir where the fluid travels down was the only other thing that I could see. So literally no fluid was being supplied.

setxws6 · 11-07-2009, 03:19 PM

There may not have been fluid in the resevoir, but there was probably some still in the hydraulic lines leading down to the clutch. This is why you didn't notice any difference in clutch engagment. When you depress the clutch pedal, it does take all the fluid in the resevoir to work the system.

I'm not sure where the fluid went. Either a leak in a line, or maybe the plastic resevoir has a leak at a seem?

dmaxcamss · 11-07-2009, 06:27 PM

I'll have to take a better look. I'm thinking the slippage was due to the brake pedal sticking to the floor and not re-engaging. Meaning, after I shift, the pedal stays to the floor and doesn't engage.

BADZ · 11-07-2009, 07:10 PM

You wil need a clutch soon.. Mine lasted but I did not beat on the car too much because of my stock bottom but now everything is bullet proof...

TRINIC5 · 11-07-2009, 07:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dmaxcamss

I'll have to take a better look. I'm thinking the slippage was due to the brake pedal sticking to the floor and not re-engaging. Meaning, after I shift, the pedal stays to the floor and doesn't engage.

Ranger has a full lesson about your problem somewhere on this forum, the reason the pedal is staying down is because your fuild had passed boiling point and with the excessive heat you will lose all fuild, you did the right thing by changing the fuild to a dot4 but you need to get all the old fuild out by syphoning out the fuild as stated in the earlier post, its a process that takes some time but its worth it.
Anotherthing is you will have to change your clutch eventually because everytime the car hooks properly the cluch will eventually burn out. The excessive heat came from clutch slipage which is very hard to tell at the early stage but the signs are there.

Slvr08Z51 · 11-08-2009, 11:06 AM

The stock clutch in mine is holding fine with 700+rwhp. It is raced twice a week. The key to the clutch surviving is flushing the resovoir. I flush my clutch EVERY time before I run it hard. Before every race night, before going for a Sunday beating. I flush it once or twice a week with absolutely no problems. My car has 22k extremely hard driven miles, it is also on its 5th set of tires to give you an idea of how it's driven. It takes a whole 3 minutes to do, very easy and your clutch will thank you!

dmaxcamss · 11-09-2009, 12:18 PM

Who's Ranger? Where's this lesson? Does the lesson or topic have a title, maybe I could search for it.

So because of the excessive heat, the fluid boils off? I figured I had a leak for sure because I didn't think it could evaporate.

I took it out Saturday again and tried some spirited runs and it seems to be holding just fine. The only time I did notice a little slippage was shifting from 3rd to 4th quickly. I think the pedal may have gotten stuck for a short moment as the slippage was very short as well. It wasn't long enough for me to feel with my foot to see if it was down or not.

TRINIC5 · 11-09-2009, 07:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dmaxcamss

Who's Ranger? Where's this lesson? Does the lesson or topic have a title, maybe I could search for it.

So because of the excessive heat, the fluid boils off? I figured I had a leak for sure because I didn't think it could evaporate.

I took it out Saturday again and tried some spirited runs and it seems to be holding just fine. The only time I did notice a little slippage was shifting from 3rd to 4th quickly. I think the pedal may have gotten stuck for a short moment as the slippage was very short as well. It wasn't long enough for me to feel with my foot to see if it was down or not.

This is a link to Ranger post http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-z...ghlight=Ranger.