I have a 98 cavalier Z24. My clutch pedal over the past few years will suddenly go soft and fairly low to the floor somedays. After usually a week or so it stiffens up and is like brand new, and will stay like this for months on end. I was going to rule out a leaking slave cylinder but the thing that catches me is where it is leaking. Typically i bealieved that if it was a slave it would be dripping from the bell housing. Which is the one with the bleeder on the top right side of what i believe is the bell housing. It is leaking off of where the drivers side CV goes into the tranny. This makes me think maybe a lose hose or possibly the master cylinder? Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

Clean everything up real good and then watch closely to see where it is coming from. You already named all the possibilities.

 

So I took another brief look at it and it actually doesnt seem to be leaking at all, I have been checking the clutch fluid everytime after driving and no level change so I am starting to wonder maybe i should just bleed the lines or change the fluid entirly. It is very black and I read that meant the fluid caught moisture. One more thing is when i drive it for like say a half hour or so the pedal returns to normal position. What do you think?

 

And this problems only seems to happen when its cold. I live in Canada and this all started last week when it hit -25

 

Master. No leak anywhere, happens in cold. I'd rebuild the master.

 

So before I tried the master or slave I thought I would flush old black fluid and put new fluid in and now I cannot get any pressure to the clutch. First time opening the bleeder was fine lots of fluid and a bit of air. After the first time that was it complete lose of pressure, sometimes it will drizzle out sometime a bit of a stream and sometime nothing. Still no leak frm bell housing or master. So I will assume master then? What do you guys think

 

Ya it was the master, the spring inside the master broke in 3 different places, so just a heads up for anyone with the same problem, its a quick and about $80 replace