master cylinder gone bad?

[panzershreck]

been a long time since i last posted (almost a year)

my clutch went out months ago, the pedal literally just did absolutely nothing

you could press it all the way back with no resistance to where it's hitting the floor, and when you pulled it back into position it acted more like a spring flying forwards...

i looked under the car, noticed what looked like brake fluid leaking from the slave cylinder (nothing recent - dried up), thought that was problem, and took the cylinder off. No fluid in the line, but still a lot of fluid in the slave cylinder. The fluid reservior still has plenty of fluid...

any ideas? could it be the master cylinder?

(1990 BMW 525i)

[Jeff N.]

The clutch has a separate "master cylinder" from the brake system. I can't tell from your post if you're having clutch or brake problems. If you're having clutch problems, I'd carefully inspect the slave, the line and then if they look ok, the master under the dash. Try carefully bleeding them if you're still having issues.

[tye1138]

Hmm, very interesting... my 1991 525 has one reservoir and 2 cylinder's, one for breaking one for clutch. Wouldn't the clutch master cylinder leak?

[panzershreck]

The clutch has a separate "master cylinder" from the brake system. I can't tell from your post if you're having clutch or brake problems. If you're having clutch problems, I'd carefully inspect the slave, the line and then if they look ok, the master under the dash. Try carefully bleeding them if you're still having issues.

no brake problems

the clutch pedal basically "went out" months ago, stuck in the "open" position (meaning right now i can move the shifter freely)

recently got around to replacing the slave cylinder, a little bit of pressurized air in the line, absolutely no fluid (only a little bit in the slave cylinder)

haven't been able to get to the master cylinder yet, will look at that tomorrow morning

[winfred]

make sure that the fluid line going to the slave cylinder has not collapsed. if you run into a bitch of a time bleeding hit the bleed nipple on the slave (the one on the tranny) with a very short burst of compressed air this will reset the pistons and allow fluid to freely flow and basicly gravity bleed the system, then a little pumping to get the peddle up and it's good to go

[panzershreck]

figured it out, another problem...

the clutch only gets to a certain point before it stops gaining more resistance, is the pushed in pushrod on the slave cylinder a problem (pistons not reset)? any way to reset the pistons without compressed air?

[winfred]

if it's bled the pistons are reset, if fluid will flow through the system when the bleeder is opened the pistons are inplace as they should be, it can take several minutes of pumping to get the peddle all of the way up with the system totally bled and other times it comes up in a few pumps