More G50 clutch bleeding issues...
 

Last Sunday we did the second bleed in as many weeks, drove the car very hard for a while afterwards and then let it sit for the week. Today I fired her up and it felt fine for about 2 minutes. Then I ended up limping it to my girlfriend's house 18 miles away. Bled it again tonight and the clutch feels new - AGAIN. I'm heading to a tech session first thing in the morning and want to know how to tell whether I need a new slave cylinder or a pressure bleeder. Tonight my girlfriend pumped the pedal, while I did the bleeding. Will a pressure bleeder make a difference? If I need a new slave cylinder, how hard is the install?

Also, since it takes a while after a bleed for the air to work its way back to the slave, could it be that the master is bad? How do I narrow this down? I've about had it with the contortionist act required to bleed this clutch. Please don't tell me I'm in for a partial engine drop to replace the slave.

P-l-e-a-s-e advise. Thanks.

I forget who said they replaced his slave and his problems went away (it's in the other thread about this problem), so maybe that's it. I bled mine manually the first time. Although it didn't feel that good compared to the pressure bleed, it did last. So maybe it is the slave. Once again, my disclaimer is that i've only done this on my car, so I don't have a ton of experience with all sorts of clutch bleeding on different cars. I can say that the manual for my Eagle Talon simply states to bleed the clutch. No mention of pressure bleeding. So it can be done. Just keep in mind that the Porsche manual says to pressure bleed it. FWIW.

Replacing the slave cylinder is easy. There's two nuts and two spring washers that hold the cylinder on the trans. I think 10mm wrench size. Take those off and then release the hard portion of the clutch fluid line from the plastic bracket on the trans. You should be able to wiggle the cylinder down from its perch and then you can get a wrench on the fitting that connects the line to the cylinder body. Take the old off, put the new on. Put a tiny (TINY, I said) blob on grease on the end of the pushrod of the cylinder. Reinstall cylinder on trans. Don't gorilla-tighten the nuts! Bleed system for the fifth time. ;)

I really think you ought to spring for the pressure bleeder too. I love that thing and i've only used it twice. It makes for easy, one man clutch and brake bleeding. Honestly. Plus, it definitely rids the clutch system of all the air. When you do the brakes with it, then you'll really like it.

Cool - thanks. I plan to get the pressure bleeder. I'd just rather get what I really need first. And I still don't know how to determine whether my slave is really the culprit. Last night I used this problem as an excuse to get some rhino ramps, a super lamp for working under the car and another set of small metric wrenches. I'm off to a tech session now to see who says what about narrowing this down between master and slave. Will reports back later.

I,m waiting for the results and am going to order the pressure bleeder today from Alan Johnson, they have a sale going.
keith

it's a tossup whether it's the slave or the clutch master cylinder. replace them both. they're pretty cheap. the m cyl. is easier than the slave.

Having bled the clutch last night, I still ended up limping into the tech session a mere 10 miles away. No one around here had a slave cylinder in stock on a Sat., so I ordered one and a pressure bleeder. My master looks very clean and my slave looks a little leaky. So we burped it again today to make it back home, where it will sit until I receive my parts, probably on Thurs. If that doesn't do it, then the master is next. Hope R&R of slave is not too much of a project.