New in town - Looking for comfirmation on my clutch troubleshooting hypothesis!

ben851 · Post by **ben851** » 09 Mar 2016, 08:27

Greetings!

Introducing myself:
I've been lurking for a while, but I now have a question regarding the clutch on my new to me 2002 Volvo S60 T5 Manual. A bit of history about me, this is my second Volvo, after owning a 97 850 NA Auto. Absolutely love the cars, so was quite excited when I found this 2002 S60 T5 with only 126,000kms. The clutch and slave cylinder had been replaced by the previous owner around 106k, so I was pretty confident that I wouldn't have to worry about the clutch for a while but looks like I was wrong!

Problem:
The clutch pedal seems to change its feel on its own. Sometimes, it feels nice and tight and gives great feedback on the bite point. Sometimes it feels soft and I really have to guess at where the bite point is, but it shifts gears just fine. Twice now, the clutch pedal has been super spongy and not immediately returned position after changing gears, but the gear changes have been fine.

Hypothesis:
I also occasionally get "Break Fluid Low, Engine Service Required" when I first turn on the car, but it goes away after 5 seconds or so. It doesn't happen every time and I've checked that the reservoir is full. Combining this symptom with the moody clutch, I'm thinking perhaps there is air in the system causing these things to happen, and as I depress the clutch throughout the day the air circulates around the system causing the symptoms to appear and disappear? What do you guys think? I realize a quick test is to try bleeding the slave, but I'm hesitant to do so given some of the horror stories of bleeding this system I've seen on the net...

Any input appreciated!

Thanks,
Ben

Post by **abscate** » 09 Mar 2016, 09:22

It does sound like problems with the hydraulic part of the clutch. Be careful you don't run out of fluid of course, you don't have two engines to fly your Volvo like United 232 when it ran out of hydraulic fluid....

Post by **oragex** » 09 Mar 2016, 11:27

not bad idea to flush the entire brake system, it's just that the bleeders might be stuck. uk people may give you extra hints, they are used with manual transmissions http://volvoforums.org.uk/

ben851 · Post by **ben851** » 09 Mar 2016, 12:44

Many thanks for the advice. abscate, I've double checked that I've got plenty of fluid but I'll obviously be keeping an eye on it. I also checked under the transmission bell housing to see if the slave was leaking but didn't see any evidence of that. I guess that's a good sign.