clutch replacement for "brake fluid level low"

EdGasketTheSecond

Whatever happened to the £10 clutch slave cylinder service kit? All cars I've ever owned, the slave cylinder is outside the gearbox/bellhousing and you just replace the seal for peanuts or the whole cylinder for around £20 to £30.

AdrianC

EdGasketTheSecond wrote: »

Whatever happened to the £10 clutch slave cylinder service kit? All cars I've ever owned, the slave cylinder is outside the gearbox/bellhousing and you just replace the seal for peanuts or the whole cylinder for around £20 to £30.

The world moved on, and slave cylinders became internal. In the case of small Fords, a couple of decades ago...





...other manufacturers long before that - it was a combo slave and release bearing on "proper" Saab 900s, and that design had been around since the 60s - but at least that was accessible, because of the weird design of the transmission.

EdGasketTheSecond

Seems like the world's moved backwards. How can it be a forward step to bury something you need to maintain such that you can't economically maintain it? Anyway I don't know about 'decades' ago; my two current cars have accessible clutch slave cylinders.

facade

EdGasketTheSecond wrote: »

How can it be a forward step to bury something you need to maintain such that you can't economically maintain it?

Manufacturers are not bothered about ease of maintenance, only ease of assembly. The owner gets to pay for the maintenance after they have bought the car, the manufacturer makes more profit on the car because the concentric slave doesn't need all those expensive pivots, levers and stuff.


You are supposed to change a concentric clutch slave when you do the clutch as a matter of course. (Well common sense as it requires the gearbox to come out again if it fails later), in this case, it makes sense to change the clutch when the gearbox is out, even if fluid hasn't got onto it.

reeac

My 60 year old MGA has a combined master cylinder for brakes and clutch but, although it's been no problem during my 35 years ownership, I've always thought that it's a bad design as if you lose the fluid then you have no brakes (apart from hand brake) and no clutch making changing down potentially problematical. (Actually, I'm sure that all MGA owners are adept at double declutching). Seems a retrograde step to go back to this system after decades of separate master cylinders.

custardy

EdGasketTheSecond wrote: »

Seems like the world's moved backwards. How can it be a forward step to bury something you need to maintain such that you can't economically maintain it? Anyway I don't know about 'decades' ago; my two current cars have accessible clutch slave cylinders.

They make cars to sell them new. How many buyers check where the clutch slave cylinder is located when choosing a new car?

molerat

reeac wrote: »

My 60 year old MGA has a combined master cylinder for brakes and clutch but, although it's been no problem during my 35 years ownership, I've always thought that it's a bad design as if you lose the fluid then you have no brakes (apart from hand brake) and no clutch making changing down potentially problematical. (Actually, I'm sure that all MGA owners are adept at double declutching). Seems a retrograde step to go back to this system after decades of separate master cylinders.

The way they are designed is if you get a clutch leak all you lose is the clutch, the lowest take off for the clutch is well above the brake take off. If you have a brake leak you lose the clutch as well but that would be a minor inconvenience in comparison !