Does the pedal feel firm or does it sink part way to the floor? If it is
firm then hydraulics is not the problem. If it gets soft, than most
likely there is a bad check valve in the clutch master. Bleeding it
makes it work for a while but then it sticks open letting the fluid go
back to the reservoir instead of pushing the clutch slave. If the pedal
stays firm then maybe there is another problem with the clutch, release
bearing, or trans input shaft that wasn't discovered when the clutch was
out.

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf
Of Keith Hattrup
Sent: Saturday, March 20, 2004 9:41 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: clutch hydraulics or more serious?

Hello list.  I'm a relatively new owner of a '90
Westy, with a *very* annoying clutch issue.  I wonder
if you can help me out a little.  Here's the scoop:

Previous owner gave me all previous repair orders for
the car, so I have a little history.  I see that 1000
miles before I took ownership, the clutch master and
slave were replaced.  No symptoms were reported on the
order, but the mechanic noticed a leaky master and so
replaced both (perhaps an upsell.)

About 500 miles later, under my ownership, the clutch
stops disengaging intermittently.  e.g. it's difficult
to take out of 2nd or 3rd gear with the clutch pedal
depressed to the floor.  In 1st, the car wants to roll
forward with clutch pedal on the floor.  I check, and
there are no leaks anywhere near hydraulic components.
 There is a lot of creaking somewhere in the clutch
line when I depress the pedal, however.

So, I take it to local Autohaus and they replace
entire clutch, pilot bearing, T/O bearing, and
resurface the flywheel.  Everything seems fine for
about 500 miles, and then the same problem returns.
So, I take it back, and after a week, they tell me
they have bled the hydraulic system and everything
should be fine.  Well, it's not, so I return again,
and wait another week.   This time, they tell me they
bled the system again, and then could not reproduce
the problem.  So, I drive off, and it works fine.  So,
if the shop is to be believed, then this second
bleeding fixed the problem, temporarily.

Well, the car really does work just fine for about 4
weeks of daily driving.  However, yesterday, the same
problem returns again.  This time, the problem really
took much longer to return (4 weeks rather than 4
days).  So, my hypothesis is that the problem must
somehow be related to hydraulics.  I say that b/c the
bleeding did indeed improve the problem temporarily.
(That is, if we can assume the shop really did bleed
the system and not use some other prophylactic measure
they won't tell me about.  They don't impress me as
being either honest or competent.  Bad choice to go
there in the first place, I know.)

There is still no leaking, no drop in fluid since the
"repair", and the creaking persists.  The clutch works
fine when cold, but after driving awhile, it fails to
disengage intermittently.  So, I wonder if the
replacement master or slave were just bad parts.  Does
that make sense to you?  I've had problems with
rebuilt auto parts in the past, so it seems plausible
to me.  Otherwise, I'm at a complete loss.

Can you help?

Thanks a million for any insights on this one!!

Keith

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