Slave cylinder bad
 

So Im leaving work at about 10pm and Im at a light. The light turns green and I go thru 1st gear and push the clutch in to switch to 2nd and my clutch just drops to the floor. I got into 2nd gear and made it thru the rest of the gears and made it home but the clutch pedal is not really coming all the way back up on its own and it really feels like the lines are full of air.
So I get home and have a look in my engine bay to see if there is any fluid coming from the slave and I see alot of fluid all over my under body pan. I then jack the car up and take the belly pan cover thing off and see that oil is coming from my slave cylinder. I push on the slave boot and oil just sprays out like crazy, Im like wtf. I take off the 2 11mm bolts holding the slave on and put my oil drain pan down to catch some of the oil so it dont get all over my floor. So I pull back on the slave boot and bam the boot goes flying off and the internals of the slave go shooting down into my oil drain pan. It apears my slave came completely apart and the spring and the plunger and some plastic O-ring that holds it all in just all came apart and out. I never had a slave go out and come apart like this before but I never had a slave that all the internals were plastic.
Im wondering if I could just put it back together and try it again or just order a new slave.. Im thinking I should order a new slave since I hear they came out with a stronger slave then the stocker that came in my 07 MS3. I also have about 55k miles on the stock slave so maybe its time to say goodbuy and Im sure my ACT clutch is putting a bit of a hurting on it anyways.
Hear are a few photos of the internals incase you guys want to have a look at the weak sauce slave internals we have on our cars. Im lucky I made it home since the slave was only held together because of the rubber boot and I have a 32 mile drive each way for work so I went over 20 miles with it like this.

I've gone through 3 slaves. The third one is a new revision and the parts guy said its internals are stronger. I also have an ACT clutch.

Oh, one point to look at. The pipe connecting to the slave, it has some rubber gaskets/grommets. Make sure that they are there. If not replace that pipe too. Otherwise it will fail in another 10-15k mi.

wtf, our cars have the same problems sharkdiver - when i went under my car to change the starter - i discovered my slave is leaking crap too.. is that covered under powertrain or do i have to order it?

$96.42 B37F-41-920B Auto Town Parts :), $120 at the dealer.

The slave cylinder should be covered under powertrain warrantee and the starter should be covered as well. Powertrain warrantee covers everything involved with moving the car pretty much, except for brakes and clutch.

the starter is not covered under powertrain, at least that's what one of the stealerships said.

Why doesnt anyone make heavy duty slaves, every car ived owned the slave has been the weakest link.

I dont doubt that the "stealership" would try to not cover a starter but thats why i stated it should be covered under warrantee. If it was worth your time and energy you could probably get them to do it. I understand some things just are not worth fighting.

anybody know if the slave cylinder is in the same spot on a speed 6?

They new revision of the part is stronger and it feels WAY better that the previous 2. It is very noticeable w/ the ACT heavy duty PP

apparently there's a 4th revision that my dealer just ordered. they said it wasn't covered under powertrain either - since it's clutch related.

i think he said it was part number B4S41920D ? i'll check again when i get it in on friday.


after replacing it - do we need to bleed the clutch since a good amt of fluid came out?

yeah and the breaks a little bit, same reseviour. not a full flush just a bit.

ive been through 3 over the past 2 years. first two felt like trash newest one feels good.




So far........

I would think so...

Also Im hoping I get the newest revision.They were suppose to have the part today but I went to pick it up and they oredered the master cylinder instead. They say they will have the right part tomorrow (Turs.) now.

same here, im on my third one. the 2nd one didn't last a month before that POS broke. Luckly it broke as soon as got into my gargage. as soon as the car slowed down, the clutch peddle hit the floor and i turned the car off. popped the hood open and looked down and saw fluids all on the undertray. this third one does feel better than the previous two.

Does any of you have the part # of the third one that you say works the best? i want to check it with mine tomorrow when I get it. Im pretty sure that when they come out with a new part they junk all the old stock but I could be wrong.

let me know what part number you get. how much did you end up paying? for some reason i only got charged $108 for the new part. i hope they didn't order the wrong thing for me, i kept asking him to make sure.

Mine should be around the same price..I think he said it was $130 but I get a 10% discount. The other day I called about 5 dealers to see if any of them had this part in stock and I got 5 diffrent prices ranging from $120-$230.
Ill post the part # when I get a chance tomorrow..

Call Josh at AutoTown Mazda. Tell him Sterling sent ya. He will hook you up

Part # B37F-41-920B


Toll Free: 1.866.537.6959
Local: 503.652.9101

Heh rocking my third Slave cylinder also, just replaced last week.

posted that up there already ^

Thanks for the replys... My part should be here today tho but if there is a problem I will call autoTown.. Im just hoping they have the right part this time..

Just because it failed it doesn't mean it's weak.

got mine today - part BP4S41920c (they ordered D but it says C on the package) - boot is black abd seems to look smaller. i paid 108.29 which is the listed retail price... hope i didnt get the wrong part - the guy insisted on using my vin and would not use the parrt no i gave him... so i hope this is the newest rev..

if you know what you want never give your vin. some of these guys are retarded.

I changed out my slave yesterday. I bleed the slave 2 times and it still dont feel right, It will go into gears but not as good as it did before. It feels like it still has alot of air in the system but now it seems my clutch is slipping. A bad slave or alittle air in the system should not cause the clutch to slip should it..? Im going to bleed it again tomorrow but Im really hoping its not my new clutch that is messed up. I have about 9k miles on my ACT street disk with no problems so far.

Boot should be red hope you didn't get a regular 3 slave.

haha looks like it might be a mazda 5 slave wtf.

edit: haha he admits he was wrong- so at least he's express ordering it for me. stupid guy should have listened to me when i was like - well i have the part number that i want... are you sure? this isn't the same part number i have...

new part number is the same as the one from autotownparts.

So after bleeding over and over and never getting all the air out I took my car to my mechanic to have a look. So we bleed the system with a mityvac type and it never stops with the air bubbles,We try to gravity bleed and it still dont get all the air out. You can even push the slave rod in by hand and you can hear the air bubbles in the slave and lines. The slave is not leaking any fluid out so we think that is ok and I did just replace it so we now think its the master cylinder that may have gone out at the same time OR the master went out and caused the slave to go bad somehow. Either way Im ordering a new master and will install that and see what happens. If thats not it then it must be the throwout bearing or just a clutch plate malfunction or bent clutch fork thing.
My clutch is also kinda slipping now but my mechanic thinks that fluid from my bad slave may have sprayed into the tranny and got some on the clutch but that sounds like a long shot to me. He also thinks that having a bad master could cause the clutch to slip but I dont see how. I think my ACT street disk or bearing is fucked up somehow and Im sure I will be taking off the tranny soon. What a joy that will be......

I think you just got to bleed the fuck out of it like I had too. Anyway if your master was out your brakes would suck and if you let your car sit for a while and the clutch gets soft but when you start the car it pressurizes that means your master and brae booster is fine no? Some one correct me if im wrong.

It doesnt really get anymore pressure after I start it then it did when not running. I left my car at the shop or I would go outside and check it out again to make sure. My brakes have been ok this whole time. If my clutch master cylinder is bad it will make my brakes go bad also?

bleed them both, brakes and clutch.

Well i maybe wrong but when I was poking around mine the master supplys the brake and clutch so like with mine when i was bleeding it I knew I had air in the lines because I could only get it firm to a point and then once I start the car and the brake booster kicked the pedal would firm up. Same goes for when you pump your brake it will slowly firm up till you can't press it anymore.

why do I feel like I messed up that statement some where lol.

I was just looking at the service manual and it seems to show a clutch master cylinder and a brake master cylinder. The brake master is connected to the reserve tank and the clutch master is connected to the clutch pedal.

oh snap why'd I never notice it when My motor was out. Or maybe just cause I wasn't looking for it lol. No matter either way if you do have some bubbles but enough fluid in the chamber the system should presurize somewhat with the car turned on and you pumping the pedal I believe.

So I changed out the clutch master and it didnt help. It looks like I will be taking my tranny off this friday to check on the clutch plate,cover and throwout bearing. Im getting about 7/16" of movement with the slave but I still cant get the car into Reverse and its hard going into 1-6 gears. It still seems to slip and it just feels like the clutch is not engaging like it should. The service manual doesnt say anything about how much throw out the slave cylinder should be putting out but it seems like its going enough to disengage the clutch. The manual only tells you how to check the throw by measuring your clutch pedal travel. At this point it seems like taking the tranny off is the only next step,Its not something Im looking forward to doing.
If any of you out there with a ACT street dish setup want to measure your slave cylinder throwout or distance it moves when you press your clutch pedal in that would really help. Your slave is easy to get to and measure but you will need 2 people to do it.

I hope for the best but I still would like to think you just have a real pesky air bubble in the line.

Even if I did I dont know how that would cause my clutch to slip. Before I take it apart I will try to do another bleed and also try and look inside the clutch fork boot and see how far the clutch plate moves when I push the clutch and see if there is any visible problems.

I don't remember seeing any rubber gaskets or grommets on my pipe - it was just that big plastic connector that snaps into the slave and is held in by a clip. care to elaborate?

So I took off my tranny last Friday to see what is wrong with it. As soon as we saw my clutch we seen the problem,The clutch diaphragm fingers on 1 side are bent. Act is sending me out a new clutch plate and a new disk with a new pilot bearing today at no charge. I had to send them photos of my plate and disk and after I get the new parts I will have to send them my old stuff. As soon as they seen my photos they said it was not repairable and I will get new parts instead of waiting for them to repair the old parts. It really suxs to have to go thru all this but its cool that they are replacing the parts at no cost,That helps alot. So it looks like this weekend I will be putting the tranny back into the car and hoping the tranny works as good as it did before all this bs.

Here are some photos of my plate and disk. Its clear what fingers are sitting low. The disk is alittle glazed but still ok if you ask me but they are sending a new disk anyways and thats what I wanted since I had it all apart already.
I just dont really know why my slave went out at the same time...

glad to hear ACT is replacing it free of charge! do you know what caused the fingers to bend? hope you have better luck this time around with the new parts. sucks you had to take your tranny out and take it all apart. i'm still having battery drain issues with my car! :(

I have no idea what caused this but im sure its not because of anything I did. Im hoping I never have to take my tranny off again tho because its such a pita.

you get the new stuff in?

I got the new parts on Friday and started installing it on Sat. and just finished it today. Everything seems good now but I only drove it about 30 miles. The clutch seems alot harder to push now then it did before,Im wondering if its in my head or they changed something with the plate. Im really just hoping it dont happen again since it happened to another act street disk clutch from another member, I dont know if this is a on going problem.

Ill post later on more but for now Im going to watch the football game and drink a beer and maybe some 420 action.

Thanks to all for the helpful information in this thread. My car is at the dealership now; about to recieve its 3rd slave. I made sure they were using the revised part #b37f41920b. $141.01 for the part....but they are saying about $500 total w/ labor. Sounds like I'm getting ripped...waiting to see what discount they can give me. They are also supposed to tell me if the last dealer replaced the pipe and grommet or whatever when they did my slave in May '09. I know this thread is old, but Shark Driver or anyone else could you tell me how long it took you to swap out the slave?

lol they tried to quote me 500 dollars too. literally it takes 10 minutes to swap. 5 minutes to bleed. I'm glad i took the chance and did it myself

definately do it yourself, if your not confident in doing it see if one of the guys in your sig will help. I know several have done this. I would help but no longer up there.

Well I was able to negotiate with the dealership, and got it done there for 1.5 hrs labor. They were also replacing my leaky water pump (warranty), so I said f it. Now the clutch pedal feels a lot SOFTER. Smooth, but less feeling?! Feels like the engagement spot is closer to the floor too, if that makes sense. Could this be a clutch cable adjustment problem? What happened? I remember the clutch pedal feeling much stiffer, now it feels like a Civic Si clutch pedal for anyone that has driven one of them. Did they not bleed it or did they leave fluid all over the place?!?

You should just download the service manual in the VIP section and you could have saved yourself alot of cash. You can change out the slave in under .5 hrs if its your first time but you would need a friend to help you bleed the system. Its all very easy to do.. If I was you I would bleed the slave again just to give you peace of mind that there is no air in there.
Also we dont have clutch cables on this car or I should say most all cars now.

Mines broke as well....the boot was leaking DOT 3 fluid bad. Paid about $230 OEM (I needed it ASAP and my local dealer had it) and paid $75 for having a Trans shop install it...

Haha at the clutch cable thing. I went back to the dealer and cried to them about it today. They said they hand bled then used the machine. I do believe it could be a little air. It is already feeling better I think. I may not be used to the way the clutch starts to engage a inch off the floor...it just feels a little to soft all the way through and not as firm and reassuring as it was before the slave blew. This may be a good thing though, especially if the bubble gets worked out? Thanks too for the idea about the service manual.

I think the first time my slave went it was leaking because I could still drive the car, and this time I guess it blew out completely.

does this mean a good way to check if you have air in the lines is to pump your brake pedal, and if it gets extremely stiff you know you have air in the lines?

if so, is this when the car is on or off or does it matter?

THE SERVICE MANUAL IS HUGE! How do I find the how to on installing the slave cylinder or the lines or bleeding the lines, my computer can barely hold that stupid thing open hahaha let alone scroll around in it

it will only work if car is on. Trust me there probably air in the lines. when you buy the slave new the best chance to bleed it firm is before it pops into place. if you mis that chance you got to work at it.

so is the place to bleed it on the slave cylinder? Should I go for replacing the slave and the line at once? According to what you said above I would take them both off then before connecting the new slave cylinder I should bleed the newly re-attatched line correct? ...and "the line" - is there only one? The line going to the slave cylinder? Is it obvious?

sorry for so many questions at once

you shouldn't need to change the line just the slave.

I had the same problem, went to the stealership to get oil serviced and when i got my car back the clutch just went down to the floor and never came back up. had to get my car towed down to denver to get fixed. slave cylinder went out and so did the pipe connected to the slave cylinder. had to fight for a week with the speed dealer in denver to get it fixed for free.

am I having the smae problem as these people??? I mean, I pull my clutch back up (with my toe) and it is workable again... I mean it'll get stuck down every once in awhile but as long as Im careful it wont... whats up with these people and clutch pedals stuck to the floor and needing to get towed... could you not put your toe under it and pull it back up?

Mine did that for about 10 mins before the clutch stopped working all together and i couldnt get it to come back up at all. it was totally stuck to the floor. my slave cylinder was completely shot at that point. you may only be leaking a lil and thats why you can pull it back up and it works again. but you shouldnt have to do it. take it to a stealership and see aobut getting it fixed. and make the service guy ride with you so he can see the problem first hand. that may be an easy way to avoid the $100 diagnostic charge.

It seems like leak = broken... Ill look into it... and bleed the hell out of the lines before ever considering replacing (hoping this will fix PWEEEEZE!)

So I replaced my slave cylinder and it turns out it has a perfectly round tiny hole at the end of the rubber bushing leaking.. So I put the new one on and started to bleed it for about 20 minutes before my hoe brother wimped out

I was getting almost entirely air for the whole time and only really accumulated about an eighth of an inch at the bottom of a clear water bottle (not even barely enough to have the lopsided tube's hole completely submerged to show bubbles) --- what is the bleeding process... I read it somewhere --- I guessed to pump the clutch in then release the pressure at the bleeder valve then tighten it and have my brother pull the clutch back out once it is tightened.

Why does he have to pull the clutch out every time? Am I doing it right? Or should I open the valve THEN have him push in the clutch then close it then have him pull the clutch back out

am I forgetting anything important?

If your car is raised and level, over fill the resovoir, the max fills the chamber for the brakes but not the clutch fluid chamber. I was doing this yesterday and I was just getting air, until I added more fluids. Don't worry about the over fill, just bleed the bitch until its back on max. By then there shouldnt be any air in the clutch line.

Edit:
the tiny hole is supposed to be there, its for air flow when the slave boot cover extends and contracts, part of the suction the boot creates when its compressed.

however, if fluid is leaking out of that hole, then you have a leak in the system.

The new one doesn't have that hole. I dont know why I didnt think of this sooner but my great uncle owns a used VW dealer and basically buys wrecked cars and completely rebuilds them and sells them and has done this his whole life so I called and asked him.

Im at the point where there is no hydraulic to the clutch at all (just spring) and he says that this will probably require a pressure bleed, meaning I hook up 3-4lbs of pressure to my reservoir cap and then open the other end of the system and let it bleed. Our hydraulic conection to the slae is also the shitty little thing where it just slides in and clips so he says I may need to just bleed the line disconnected from the slave until there is only fluid coming ouit of the line to ensure that the slave gets fluid. Ill get at this some more today, Im gonna call around and see if anyplace will be able to let me use their pressure bleeder of even if any of these exist... :P

Vacuum breeder. Over fill the reservoir so fluid gets in the clutch chamber, if you don't you will just pull air or little fluid. After 4 pumps of the pedal you shoild get pressure.

I got some minivac thing from Napa and got fluid in the lines, it hooked up the the bleeder valve and created suction at that end pulling fluid through.. now I have someone coming over and hopefully I can bleed it normally (with the whole - press clutch open then close bleeder then release clutch)

I replaced my slave and Im having a problem... I figured out how to get it bleeding but when I apply pressure to the clutch the connection between the slave and the line leaks

this can be one of two problems:

1. whatever bushings/o-rings Im supposed to have in the connection isn't right
2. the quick disconnect on the line is broken and leaking somehow

So my connection is like this, inside the slave there is 1 rubber bushing thing shoved the whole way down in the bottom of the hole and then there is another (slightly different) bushing that goes on the end of the line going into the slave.. has anyone done this and had a similar situation?

someone posted a link to a replacement steel braided line for 15 bucks which I think Im going to go ahead and purchase so it'll be on its way

fixed it, damn connection.