How do I top up clutch fluid? (S3 V6)

[gatsovictim]

Hi all

A really stupid question for a Sunday morning, but I need to put more clutch fluid in and I don't know where the cap is.

I've looked through the Steve Heath book, but does it tell you? Does it buggery.

I've posted a picture of my engine bay - can someone tell me where it is? Hopefully I can get an answer today as I'd like to have a weekend blast.

Some background information:

Car has been sat in garage for two months whilst I've been recovering from a knee operation. It's started first time, but I cannot engage the clutch and the clutch pedal feels really soft, so topping up clutch fluid seems like the obvious starting point.

[phillpot]

Its the white plastic cap, centre front of your photo.

When you take it off the little pot should be full to within about half inch of the top. If its well down the fluid must have gone somewhere ?
Just topping up is unlikely to fix anything, will normally need bleeding, and ideally the leak fixing !

[Gerald-TVR]

HTH

[gatsovictim]

Cheers guys. Thought it was that cap but wanted to make sure.

When I take it off there is no liquid whatsoever!

phillpot said:

Just topping up is unlikely to fix anything, will normally need bleeding, and ideally the leak fixing !

OK. Some more dumb questions:

1. If I top it up, will I be able to get the car moving in the short term? It's parked nose in within a single garage, so access is limited.

2. Do I have to bleed it?

[jimed]

If you are very lucky you might get away without bleeding the clutch but with the S3C that I had it was best to use most of the pedal movement anyway so if there is any air in the system you will almost certainly have to bleed it - and I suspect that isn't always the easiest thing to do but no doubt others will tell you the best way to do that on the S. To get at the slave cylinder you will need to get under the car so dependent on how much room you have in your garage you might need to push the car outside to do that.
Whilst the above might enable you to get the car mobile I do have a major concern and that is where has the fluid gone to? Unless the master cylinder has leeked (that would leak into the inside of the drivers footwell so you should be able to look under the steering wheel and have a good look at the rear of the master cylinder where the pushrod goes in from the clutch pedal to see if that is where it is leaking - you might need to slip the boot off the inside end of the master cylinder to see if it is full of fluid - the boot should slip off and back on again without too much trouble)it is likely to be the slave cylinder which might need replacing or new seals fitting (assuming the cylinder bore is still OK).
Good luck sorting it.
Jim

[gatsovictim]

Thanks for the extra info, Jim.

Getting it out of the garage is not possible as my drive dips down into the garage.

It's recently had the clutch changed so I'm wondering if this is connected. The garage did smell strongly of car for a while (but obviously I was in no state to do anything about it as I was on crutches).

It's due a service anyway so I'm thinking that if I can top it up with fluid and get it working, then I can get it to the garage (who did the work in the first place) and get them to have a look at possible reasons as for why the fluid level has disappeared. As I mentioned before, I haven't driven it for a while, and my forum browsing has at least told me for next time that pumping the clutch pedal occasionally is something else I should be doing if the car isn't going anywhere for a period of time.

[mep12345]

gatsovictim said:

It's recently had the clutch changed

If you have had this done then they have taken the gearbox off which means the clutch slave will have at the very least been disturbed to disconnect from the box even if the pipe was left in place. I'd lay money on it being a result of the work

have a look at this and you'll see what I mean. Bleed nipple is above the pipe you can see and the exhaust is removed to gain this access.

Mark

Edited by mep12345 on Sunday 21st November 19:42

[tvrgit]

It's JUST possible to bleed the clutch with the exhaust in place, but it's a real knuckle-skinner.

I read here ages ago where a member advised turning the slave cylinder over so that the bleed nipple was on the bottom - do not do this - you'll never bleed it properly.

I agree with others who have posted that the slave cylinder will have been disconnected to replace the clutch, and the problem is almost certainly connected with that work.

ETA the bit that I meant to post in the first place! That if you pour some fluid in and pump it a few times, you might be lucky and get the clutch to work enough to get the car mobile and get it to the garage.

Edited by tvrgit on Sunday 21st November 19:52

[jimed]

You could try putting fluid in the clutch reservoir and then pumping like mad and seeing if you can get the pedal to firm up enough to get it in gear when you have the engine running but I suspect that if the pedal is very soft then driving it like that would be quite difficult with lots of gear crunching. Alternative could be to enlist the help of a friend with a 4x4 to see if they could pull the car up the drive so you could get to it- or even better ask the people who did the clutch work if they can suggest how you drive it out....
Good luck though.
Jim

[Buzzlt]

Just been sorting out the same problem (yesterday) on my mate (Pompey Tims) TVR we went on the thunder in the tunnels run in London and also had the same problem in the Alpes on the euro tour.

Suggest that you just put the car in reverse and use the starter to get it out as you really need to get underneath to bleed it. If you need to get it very far then suggest you warm it up so that it actually starts and run in reverse. Just use the brakes to stop it and it is unlikely to actually damage anything when you stall the engine.

Regarding bleeding it - well worth buying an easy bleed kit from halfords altough know from experience you still need to pump the clutch a couple of times to help the fluid through. Alternatively you will need to enlist the help of a friend to pump the clutch while you bleed it...
Get them to push down on the clutch while you open the bleed nipple and hold it down until you do it up. Repeat until you get a steady steam of fluid.

FYI Clutch fluid is hydroscopic and therefore absorbs water so is easily washed away...otherwise it is an awesome paint stripper so make sure you get it off the chassis!

Our problem turned out to be an invisible fracture in the pipe just behind the flare on the pipe at the resovoir so check for leaks first.

Hope this helps and you don't end up driving 30 miles in the Alpes like I did with no clutch at all! Only missed 2 gears as well!!

Greg

[phillpot]

Buzzlt said:

Regarding bleeding it - well worth buying an easy bleed kit from halfords altough know from experience you still need to pump the clutch a couple of times to help the fluid through. Alternatively you will need to enlist the help of a friend to pump the clutch while you bleed it...
Get them to push down on the clutch while you open the bleed nipple and hold it down until you do it up. Repeat until you get a steady steam of fluid.


Greg

Got my clutch bled on my own by just opening bleed nipple and letting fluid run through by gravity, its quite a large bore pipe (compared to brakes) and the route is all down hill !

thats not to say it isn't a lot easier with some help

[mikeock64]

This all sounded very involved and I had my smart trousers on. This happened to me yesterday. So I called the AA and within an hour and a half, we were good to go. I've now got to locate and order a slave cylinder as it has a slight leak that totally drained the master cylinder over a period of months. Note to self. When checking fluids check the master cylinder.occassionally
I should've known something was wrong as when I drove it for the first time in ages last weekend, I had to dip the clutch right down.

[MisterTee]

This happened to my car during lay up last year. Clutch slave cylinder, which was available from a local motor factors and (iirc) cost less than £30 for the parts and brake fluid - I did fix it myself though so that doesn't include any labour costs.

Andy

[NiceCupOfTea]

Had this on mine the day after I bought it! Topping up the fluid and pumping the clutch got me home. Turned out to be the copper pipe had a fracture at the slave end. Tbh it's not that bad a job once you're under the car, but I couldn't get it to bleed until used an eazibleed, piece of cake then!

[MisterTee]

NiceCupOfTea said:

it's not that bad a job once you're under the car, but I couldn't get it to bleed until used an eazibleed, piece of cake then!

I agree - I managed it in a very small integrated single garage - eazibleed all the way!

[TVRees]

mikeock64 said:

... I've now got to locate and order a slave cylinder as it has a slight leak that totally drained the master cylinder over a period of months.

Let us know what type you get, so it can be added to the alternative parts list.

I recently bought a Samko M30022 slave cylinder (for a Landrover Discovery II), which has the correct thread for the original Cu pipe to the master cyl. on my car.

[NiceCupOfTea]

Got mine from a company called Powertrack who specialise in obselete Girling/Lockheed parts for British cars. IIRC you can replace both master and slave for Landy parts making it easier next time but there was nothing wrong with my master so just got the slave (and then it turned out to be the pipe, not the slave!)

[AutoAndy]

just refurbishing the existing slave is also an option;

Kit (a couple of bits of rubber) is available be on EBay
Also just clean off the dried up gunk on the end of the cylinder where the leak was

...seems to have worked for me without having to find a replacement cylinder that fits...plus cheaper too

[phillpot]

AutoAndy said:

just refurbishing the existing slave is also an option

It is although slave cylinders tend to fail far more often than master cylinders because, in their location, crap and crud gets into the bore, scoring it which damages the seals and will damage new seals in no time.


Sounds like you got lucky Andy



For the work involved and the few extra pounds for a complete new cylinder it's a "no brainer" imho .

[mikeock64]

I found this on Tvr parts. Your thoughts? It says it fits an S3.

http://tvr-parts.com/tvr-parts/part-details/tvr-q0...