9-3 Aero 2001 Cluch Failure

[Tregar]

Hi Guys,

Slowly lost the clutch yesterday, now can't select anything. Gears are fine but only works if you switch off, pick a gear and strart the engine. Not the best way to travel!

Briefly checked and can't see any fluid leaking so I'm thinking to bleed system, see if that makes any difference.

Question is, what's the likely fail point, Master or Slave? And if it's slave, how much am I looking at to fix?

TIA

Terry

[phoenix]

The slave is the more usual failure point but it may also be the hydraulic hose. If you've lost fluid it is most likely to be the save or hose; if not then you may be lucky and it could be the master. It's unlikely that bleeding the system will help.

You're probably looking at a minimum of £400 to do the slave as it's a box out job.

[antonyn]

I had this symptom on my 9-3 - no obvious fluid loss, so thought it was the Master.

Replaced the Master (a job for a contortionist) , bled the system - seemed to be repaired, until my next ~30 mile journey proved it was the Slave!

Issue was that the fluid loss from the Slave was replaced by air - so the level didn't drop anymore, no matter how much pedal work was invoked!
So next time I would bleed the system and watch very carefully for fluid leaks under the car after reasonable use.

Antony.

[Tregar]

Well, had the car recovered to BPV in Slough. This was the day before I'm off on holiday so left the car with them. Came back to find clutch plate had fractured and a piece had broken off and was jamming the operation.
They showed me mine and another one they had, which was breaking round the springs, so obviously a common problem?

Result was a new clutch and I'm just shy of £700 worse off ;-(

Clutch is now very smooth and easy so must have been going for a while as feels totally different.

Hopefully, this will last a lifetime (or another 140K!).

Terry