Have a rather odd issue pop up today on my r53. Clutch pedal went pretty much limp on the end of my drive to work. It had about a few inches of travel from the floor. and would only move just out of engagement. Made it hard to shift gears to limp the last mile and a half to work. Got parked at work with the motor off and lifted the pedal with my foot and it remained up. Full feel of the pedal had returned and clutch would shift with the car off. Left the car sitting while at work. Come back out and when I start the car up I hear a new strange noise. Sounded like hiss or bubbles in something, with there being a vibration transferred to the clutch pedal when touched. I cut the engine and checked the brake reservoir. Hmm mysterious below the minimum line, was checked 2 months ago. Scramble to get some brake fluid to limp home late at night. Ended up taking a 1/3 of a bottle and arrived safely at home.

Now I’m wondering what happened to the fluid, if my slave cylinder is on its way out, or if I have bigger problems just around the corner? I just put a new slave cylinder on order as a precaution. The car most likely still has the original factory clutch and slave cylinder as I bought it at 123k miles with no records and it’s now at 146k miles.

I plan to bleed the system as being that low on brake fluid has probably introduced some air into the related systems. Is the clutch pedal symptom that I experienced normal for a failing slave cylinder or am I chasing the wrong problem? I can’t probe more into it till the morning so any suggestions would be helpful when I poke at it more.

 

I had the same happen to mine. The [plastic!] slave cylinder is known to fail. Replace and bleed.

Watch the Mod Mini video and pay attention that you don't lose the little seal piece that has to be moved from the old slave to the new. That cost me a bunch of frustration.

 

The slave cylinder was just the start of the issues. Had to do a full clutch replacement as the throw out bearing decided to give up the ghost. What remained of it had fused with the end of the guide tube. New parts are in, just doing the dance of getting the transmission mated back up to the engine now.