Soft clutch

[JFMBMW318i]

I open up the cap on the brake master cylinder to have a closer look at the fluid.
It is in the middle of the low and max line. I go to pull the car out the garage
later and the clutch pedal goes down to the floor.....Wth????? I have a can of
brake fluid and I pour into the master cylinder to the max line. I pump on the
clutch pedal and still soft. I was not having any issues with the clutch pedal until
I opened up that cap.:mad:

How can I get the clutch pedal stiff again?

Thanks

[Romak]

You need to bleed your slave cylinder. Make sure you have enough fluid in the brake master cylinder to be above the blue braided line coming from the side of it. That line feeds your clutch pedal and in turn goes to the slave, if the fluid goes low during this process you'll have to do it all over again so keep an eye on it or have a friend top it off as you go. I can't find the original but I have the copy and paste version.

Credit goes to Bluebimma:

You can bleed the slave by yourself, i have every single time, and thats before i had a power bleeder. If you have a bentley, just follow it precisely and you can bleed the slave without a problem.

To completely bleed the slave cylinder you have to do the following after using the pedal-pump or pressure bleeding methods:

1) Slowly pump the clutch pedal to build pressure to push the brake fluid through the line and fill the slave.
2) Unbolt the slave cylinder from the gearbox
3) Attach a tube from the bleeder screw to a small bottle
4) Hold the slave cylinder so that the bleeder screw is pointing straight up*
5) Open the bleeder screw
6) Push the rod/piston all the way in to the slave cylinder
6) While holding the rod/piston in, close the bleeder
7) Repeat steps #4-#6 two or three times or until its too hard to push in when the valve is closed
8) Ditch the tube and old fluid.
9) Bolt the slave cylinder back in place, be very careful that the tip of the rod lines up with the indentation on the fork
*Very important

At any point, do not slam on the clutch pedal while the slave it out of the gearbox, you will blow it apart...literally. Once bolted in, slowly depress the clutch to make sure that its not binding, seated properly and as precaution to not blowing it apart on first install. If the pedal is firm, then youre all good, if not, you need to repeat the bleeding procedure until firm. If it never gets firm, check for other leaks elsewhere.

If you have a power bleeder, now will be the time to do a brake fluid flush as well.

Make sure to top the brake fluid off.

Good luck!

[JFMBMW318i]

Thanks for the response I will save this and refer back to when I bleed the
clutch slave cylinder.

This is what I did, thanks to UTUBE........

I used a turkey baster filled it 3/4 with brake fluid ( used too much and I made a mess). I gently pulled the clutch tube from the brake master cycliner and
inserted the turkey baster and pumped it as much as I could. I had the wifey
Pump the clutch pedal as I did this and VOILA it got stiff again!!! I put the clutch tube back on and top off the brake master cylinder. I test drove the car
and now the clutch feels better than it did before!!!! The turkey baster is now
part of my tool collection! I of course got permission from the wifey to use and
keep the turkey baster in the garage.

What a huge relief it was an easy fix.

[JFMBMW318i]

It turned out that my slave cylinder was leaking. I replaced it and no more leaks. The pedal is not as stiff as I would like it. I will perform the above
procedure and get all the air out. The opening the bleeder on the slave cylinder
Procedure. I should have did it when I was putting it in, why do something once
when you can do it twice, LMAO!:wink: