OK, folks, next on the list… Gearbox all looks osrted now, new driveshaft seal in, not pi$$ing oil everywhere yet (just a bit of excess blown out of the breather! D’oh! And got the sump nut off BTW )…
So now, the notchy gears, especially when cold are my next task.
Does this sound like the slave cylinder bracket is bending? Gonna get my mate to push the clutch down later so I can see but are these the symptoms?
When cold 1st is nigh on impossible to engage with the engine running! Not too bad at all with the engine off. Also It sometimes “locks” into 1st or reverse so I have to turn the engine off, clutch up, clutch down and back into netural before restarting the engine.
Also even with plenty of g’box oil (I know there’e enough now ) it’s still very “notchy” and sometime hard to get a gear, nothing too tragic when it’s fully warmed up but a complete PITA when it’s cold…
Sounds like the slave cylinder. I just had the same problem except it didn’t go into gear when it was hot. It eventually got to the point of not going into gear at all.
Easy job to change.
Had a very similar problem with poor clutch activation. Was actually two problems. First the slave cylindermount was cracked and allowed too much flapping about, Also the solid (as opposed to braided) part of the hose had a tiny hairline crack which allowed a small leak. Sitting in traffic the thing just started to creep. Couldn’t get it out of gear so had to turn off engine, pump clutch then restart. Lead to some interesting situations for a while.
OK, checked it and the bracket doesn’t move at all… Still I’ll stick a brace on tomorrow
And had my mate pumping the clutch and couldn’t see any leaks at all, and all felt perfectly dry…
Now the only other thing is that it’s moving quite a way so it could be the clutch is starting to get a little “thin”… New clutch
Now that certainly wont be before xmas! Sincs quoted me in the reigon of �650 which does seem a little steep… May have to get my hands dirty again, can you replace the clutch without dropping the engine out? Do you just have to drop the g’box out?
I’m gonna bleed the system later (may as well do the brakes while I’m at it ) and see if that helps
Bleeding might very well help.
Remember that the clutch circuit uses the same fluid as the brakes. Lat time I did it, the fluid came out all black
Maybe you have some bubbles there.
Clutch can be done without taking the engine off. Mine was done at 2000 miles, since I was slipping the clutch so much and complained. Replaced at that time with the racing one.
I would just be wary of the balancing, as when you put another one on you never know how it affected balance. Not a problam on a 6K rpm street car, but wouldn’t know how to tackle it on an 8K+ revving engine, be it K or Honda.
And on the bracket side, if it’s not wobbly, broken or flexing, then you don’t “need” reinforcing.
All good points! I’ve ordered the “brace” now tho’ But it’s was only �20 so just may put it on just in case, preventative maintainence and all that
I know it’ll add weight but when .2kg (if that!) affect my lap time then I’ll worry, at the mo’ I can still get more out of me, just gotta keep the car running! LOL! Well keep my running as well of course
That’s why I was thinking of doing the brakes at the same time, same circuit and all that, got an eazybleed so no help needed
Replacing the clutch is not that bad , had my mechanic mate come around and we did it all out and back in about 6 hours, clam was already off and we did not put it back on, so add another 2 hours for that.
Had the same problem recently, bleed clutch all fine, get to the track and it dissapears after 2 laps, ended up replacing master cylinder as i imagine it had hairline cracks because no problems since. I would rather replace the master cylinder as it seems the same symptoms i had and if it is bleeding is only a temporary solution, as it only needs to lose a small amount of pressure to start creating big problems for you. If you bleed it and it improves and then gets worse again you know its the master cylinder, if bleeding does no good, it’s time for a new clutch
OK, well bleeding it seemed to help but still can’t be totally sure… Will find out in a the next few weeks I guess… If it is a leak then it is VERY small!
But also got the EliseParts slave cylinder support bracket.
Basically it braces between the two bolts on top of the slave cylinder and the top bolt on the bell housing of the gearbox / clutch…
And it’s �20 + Vat, I think it’s reasonable, it’s a decently made bit of metal and by the time something else has been worked out it’d be just as easy to order one of Geary
It’s also got a rubber strip to stop it from “possibly” rubbing against a heater pipe… But that may be more of an issue on early elises.
I fitted one of those recently. It will fit hard up against the coolant pipe, that’s why the rubber strip is needed.
You actually need to slack off the hose clips and sort of ‘extend’ the hose by reducing the overlap of the pipes. I was not keen on this, so I ground a bit off the edge of the bracket so it doesn’t push quite to hard against the pipe. I can’t say I’m desperately happy about this, but my clutch does feel slightly better with it.