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Clutch pedal will not bleed.


Olly350z

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Posting this here in the hope someone can show where im going wrong before I finally snap and set fire to my Z happily singing

 

So this evening we decided to install my new Hel Braided clutch line which ive had sat in the spare room for the last 6 month's. No real reason other than the OEM flexi line was leaking at the Banjo end. Clutch appeared to work fine, semi high biting point with the common Z dead zone

 

Everything went fine, line on and locked in place with new banjo bolt. Topped the reservior up, pumped pedal 15 times and cracked open bleed nipple on the slave cylinder, fluid coming out and reservior slowly emptying with the smallest amount of pressure in the pedal. Nothing. Pedal limp as a fella in a nun house, normal we thought. Repeated this process 5 times increasing pumps to 25. Nothing

 

At this point we suspect blockage, undo banjo bolt and leave to gravity bleed. Fluid pours nicely out so doubt that. Connect everything back up and we try pressure bleeding back through the system as air will always find the highest point. Nothing.

 

Every bout of pumping the pedal builds the slightest amount of pressure, once bleed nipple released that pressure drops (obviously) and the pedal shoots to the floor and WILL NOT return. I mustve pumped close 400 times tonight. Had to limp the car home with just enough pressure that it does engage and disengage the clutch but driving is difficult as the pedal will not return to its natural position

 

One thing to note is that we tried this clutch adjustment rod behind the pedal, didnt seem to make any difference apart from the fsct my biting point is now right at the bottom.

 

Help please

Edited by Olly350z
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Notoriously tricky to bleed by all accounts, the master cylinder is often the culprit, there is a thread somewhere on how to properly bleed the master cylinder. You could try wedging a piece of wood to engage the clutch, leave it overnight, hopefully forcing the air through. Zmanalex is pretty helpful with this sort of thing should you need to contact him.

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Useless garage who replaced mine decided to ignore the files I sent them & spent a day just pressing the pedal. In the end they depressed the slave rod & clamped it in place, then bled it, let it push out & close the nipple & repeat & they did it pretty quickly. Glad it wasn't me doing it.

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My tech initially had the same symptoms, until we religiously stuck to the workshop manual process

 

We followed that religiously guys. Even down to setting up a timer to count the 5 seconds accurately. Had no luck and if anything made things worse

 

Any update on this Olly? Was considering changing my clutch line to braided, but having second thoughts now after reading your thread lol

 

Id definitely recommend changing it Pal, had them on my last cars and they give a much nicer feel, same for brakes, but would I recommend that you do it? No chance. It seems that bleeding these is an absolute ballache, save yourself the hassle like I should've done and just get a garage to do it :surrender: Mine will be going down tomorrow at the expense of a trailer too :rant:

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  • 3 weeks later...

So the update to this is that the clutch slave cylinder had completely shat its pants :| For whatever reason it went in semi working and came put with a new one. Thats why it wouldn't bleed.

 

Interestingly enough though, it does feel much much better. No where near as jerky with this deadzone alot of Z owners report. Always found the clutch was either on or off and this has cured it, I'd imagine the braided line helps too

 

Rather then start another topic, how have people adjusted there clutch pedals though? The biting point is very high causing some over revving on my part. Which way do I turn the rod to lower it slightly?

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So the update to this is that the clutch slave cylinder had completely shat its pants :| For whatever reason it went in semi working and came put with a new one. Thats why it wouldn't bleed.

 

Interestingly enough though, it does feel much much better. No where near as jerky with this deadzone alot of Z owners report. Always found the clutch was either on or off and this has cured it, I'd imagine the braided line helps too

 

Rather then start another topic, how have people adjusted there clutch pedals though? The biting point is very high causing some over revving on my part. Which way do I turn the rod to lower it slightly?

 

Glad to hear you got to the bottom of the problem mate! Unfortunately on mine, the CSC is within the gearbox so I wont be attempting that until changing the clutch altogether. I may just do the braided clutch line though...depends how brave I'm feeling

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  • 4 months later...

I have the 2007 HR 313 & have changed the clutch fluid for dot 5.1 as had an issue at Brands Indy (fluid was boiling due to probably never being changed!!) Same thing happened with my brakes but changing the fluid on them was a doddle...

 

I've just spent all day :headhurt: attempting to flush/bleed the clutch line to no avail!!

 

Followed the usual procedure as in the service manual etc... Am I missing something??

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Unfortunately chap the slave cylinders on these Zs are pretty shoddy and are a known weakness. As ive said in a another thread today they can appear to be fine but upon fiddling the seals flip. Many replace them with upgraded slave cylinders which is what I did, Chris at tarmac sports sells them for £36 quid and really saved my bacon.

 

The added issue for you is you have an internal slave on your gearbox whilst ours are external... Which means gearbox off...

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Unfortunately chap the slave cylinders on these Zs are pretty shoddy and are a known weakness. As ive said in a another thread today they can appear to be fine but upon fiddling the seals flip. Many replace them with upgraded slave cylinders which is what I did, Chris at tarmac sports sells them for £36 quid and really saved my bacon.

 

The added issue for you is you have an internal slave on your gearbox whilst ours are external... Which means gearbox off...

Thing is I had a reasonable clutch pedal before I cracked open the nipple on the remote bleeder on the bellhousing... All I wanted to do was expel the old fluid by flushing with new so in effect there wouldn't have been a break in the integrity of the system to induce an air lock etc??

Edited by Mavrik
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Unfortunately chap the slave cylinders on these Zs are pretty shoddy and are a known weakness. As ive said in a another thread today they can appear to be fine but upon fiddling the seals flip. Many replace them with upgraded slave cylinders which is what I did, Chris at tarmac sports sells them for £36 quid and really saved my bacon.

 

The added issue for you is you have an internal slave on your gearbox whilst ours are external... Which means gearbox off...

Thing is I had a reasonable clutch pedal before I cracked open the nipple on the remote bleeder on the bellhousing... All I wanted to do was expel the old fluid by flushing with new so in effect there wouldn't have been a break in the integrity of the system to induce an air lock etc??

 

Honesly bud, I went in the same. I went in with a perfectly working clutch pedal that I just wanted to upgrade to a braided line. Popped the line off, replaced it and buttoned it all back up, mustve taken 15 minutes? To then spend nearly 4 hours trying all different ways to bleed it to no avail. They are notoriously bad on these cars

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I have the 2007 HR 313 & have changed the clutch fluid for dot 5.1 as had an issue at Brands Indy (fluid was boiling due to probably never being changed!!) Same thing happened with my brakes but changing the fluid on them was a doddle...

 

I've just spent all day :headhurt: attempting to flush/bleed the clutch line to no avail!!

 

Followed the usual procedure as in the service manual etc... Am I missing something??

 

These are a PITA - most likley you created air bubbles when you boiled the fluid, bleeding has moved the air so it is now trapped, I have done loads of these and had every result bleeding them from a 5 mintue bleed and perfect to 5 days of hell.

 

The only thing that has never failed me (and this works on LS v8 conversions as well ;) is the wood trick - pump the clutch until as firm as it will get - place a rag against the seat and then with a bit of wood from the seat wedge the clutch pedal down. Leave overnight, in the morning remove wood and bleed again, even if the pedal feels OK in the morning bleed again!

 

That has never failed me unless there is actually a leak or a failed slave cylinder, I haven't yet had a master cylinder fail but that can happen.

 

Good Luck :thumbs:

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