Hello my name is Chase and this is my first post on these forums. I honestly do not have a whole lot of mechanical experience so ANY help you can provide would be greatly appreciated. If I have a car problem i try and fix it. Besides that I am not a mechanic.
I drive a 98 Chevy Prizm (rebadgged corolla) and seem to have myself a soft hydraulic clutch issue. For about 7 days now my clutch will have no problem with shifting from N to 1st however with my clutch pressed to the floor it will engage on its own after about 20 seconds of idling at a stop light. I NEVER POP THE Clutch OUT. This problem had begun to progress rapidly in a short time so I know some part is going bad. I had no slippage what so ever at any RPM. I feel I have an issue with my hydraulics. Please let me know if you think other wise. I checked all the steel lines under the hood and mater cylinder toward the fire wall for any obvious leaking. None. After taking the driver seat out i inspected the petal adjustment and rubber boot around the rod. The rod or whatever it is called is dry however to petal adjustment was off a little bit. By about 6mm or so. So I was going to try and put it back in place. However i read into it and decided to bleed the system before doing so. Well the reservoir was nice and full but the fluid was nasty. It was thick, black, and contained gray swirls. I pumped out the fluid out of the tank with a hand pump and then topped it off with dot 3. Once I got some help my buddy and i started to bleed the system. I started off by having my buddy pump the clutch about 15 times and hold it down. I cracked open the bleeder valve and fluid squirted right out. I tightened the bleeder had him let off the clutch and pump a bunch more times. I cracked the bleeder. Nothing. Well we repeated this several more times until the bleeder began to drip fluid. But it was only a slow drip. So I left the bleeder open and had him pump several times until we got all the old fluid was out using this slow drip. After topping off the reservoir tank we tried to bleed the system again the proper way. After about an hour of bleed attempts, no fluid would squirt out. Just a light drip. My shifter wont go into ANY GEAR with the engine running now. So I got another friend to help me out. He's been a mechanic at an RV place for 8 years but has never had to mess around with hydraulic clutches. But plenty of brake hydraulics. Well we started trying to bleed the system again. No luck just a light drip. He then started to crack lines open one by one to see if fluid would squirt out. All the lines would squirt out once loosened except the small steel line running off the slave cylinder. Should I replace my slave cylinder? Or do I have a clutch problem? The clutch set is under a life time warranty but I plan to pay someone to put it in. Thanks for any help you may provide.

 

From what you are describing it sounds like the clutch master cylinder is to blame.