Tough to get into 1st and 2nd

[P5Klunker]

I have a 2003 Protege5 with a 5 speed stick. It's got about 175 000 km on it. Over the last little while and on an intermittent basis it is sometimes tough as hell to get it into 1st gear and sometimes 2nd gear. At other times it shifts smooth as butter with no issues.

I've as well noticed that sometimes when I have the clutch pressed to the floor and the car is difficult to get into 1st of 2nd gear, when I do get it in, the clutch seems to be pulling it along, again while my foot has the clutch pedal to the floor. When this happens you hear the engine revs drop slightly like it is under load, which it is.

On occasion I've had difficulty getting it out of gear as well when down gearing or wanting to get into neutral.

I discovered that the brake and clutch systems share a fluid system. I checked the master cylinder the other day and noticed it was low. Adding fluid made the problem seem like it went away.

Since adding fluid these issues have not occurred nearly as frequently, but have returned some.

I did a fair bit of stop and go driving today in traffic at times. During this time, I thought that I noticed the odour of a fluid being burned off on hot metal. The shifting issues as well get pretty bad. When I could I pulled over and noticed that the brake fluid reservoir was lower than where I'd filled it to last night.

I've never noticed any wet spots on my driveway where I always park this car.

Any thoughts? Master cylinder, clutch (slave) cylinder? Both?

Thanks for any help.

 

[Nyshadow]

I've had a similar issue with difficulty getting in to first and second and disappearing brake fluid. As far as the shifting goes, i had a transmission leak and there wasn't enough fluid in the transmission. After i fixed the leak and put fresh gear oil in the transmission shifting was fine. As far as the brake fluid my rear calipers were leaking, the fluid was leaking in to the rim so i didn't see any fluid on the ground.

 

[P5Klunker]

I never thought about the gear oil. Will check that as well

I'm thinking that there is a leak somewhere for sure because just before it gets bad agin I can smell fluid burning off.

 

[lowlevel]

I'm having a similar problem and this is just a guess, but perhaps badly worn motor mounts could be causing the shift linkage to be slightly misaligned.

 

[SmilesPerGallon]

I once had an old Volvo that was sucking brake fluid into the brake vacuum booster through a bad o-ring seal in the master cylinder. This could account for the burning oil smell as the brake fluid is consumed by the engine, and also for the lack of puddles.

 

[jbrewer4639]

had the same problem and i replaced the clutch, clutch master cylinder, and clutch slave cylinder. i couldn't tell you which one was the actual cause of my problem because they were replaced all at once

 

[P5Klunker]

Had the car in for an oil change the other day. (I don't do those in my garage anymore). My mechanic confirmed that the cluth master and slave looked good so far as not having any leaks. I had him bleed the clutch slave while it was in there. He indicated that he didn't think that much if any air came out. It's been better so far as not manifesting so frequently or when it does not nearly as bad, but it still seems to surface from time to time.
I did notice a couple of things:
1. When I feel it tough to get into 1st, if I pump the clutch a few times it helps to improve the problem and permit me to slide it in without any grinding.
2. The slave piston doesn't seem to come out of the body terribly parallel to the body of the slave. Could the piston be bent or something like that?
3. I as well had noticed the line that comes off of the slave at the second joint looked like it had a little bit of evidence of an old leak as about an inch of the line was darker and not so dusty. My mechanic dismissed that as the problem.

He did suggest that maybe one of the two cylinders was a little "weak" I'm assuming with age . I'm tempted to pickup a master and slave as looks like u can get them in the US for about $20 a piece and swap them out, or start with the slave and see what happens.

I'm willing to go as far as the two cylinders, but to drop the coin on a clutch for this thing isn't going to happen. It's suffering from the evil Mazda "rust" cancer

lowlevel, I'm trying to undertand how the motor mounts would affect the slave cylinder as it looks like it's all bolted together to the block in isolation of the mounts?

Cheers! and thanks to all for your contribution.

 

[jbrewer4639]

i got my oem clutch brand unused from ebay for $92.00 shipped labor was $400

 

[Inside]

After I changed out 3 motor mounts, the shifting became much easier.

 

[P5Klunker]

I've noticed that it seems to get bad when the clutch pedal is used lots i.e. in heavy traffic. I can drive long distances with no issues whatsoever. I've as well noticed that when I can press on the clutch pedal and I hear the clutch master "whine" is when the problem occurs. I'm guessing that the spring is tired as the pedal is real soft about 30% of the travel and then stiffer. I picked-up a new Luk Clutch master for 20 bucks. It's going in today.

 

[cglez32]

Any luck p5klunker? I'm going through the same issues.


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[p5TO]

Has changing the clutch master helped?

I changed 3 of 4 mounts about 4 years ago (haven't changed the rear mount yet) and the shifting improved to the point where it's no longer difficult to get it into 1st. However, it still occasionally grinds when shifting into 2nd and 3rd after driving a while. I lubed the shift linkages about a week ago and was surprised that the shifting was noticeably better. Changing the gear oil (75w90) made shifting feel smoother briefly but that could have just been in my mind.

 

[sonick]

Inspect the master cylinder cap for any cracks or leaks. Mine was barely noticeable, but I replaced it and made a world of difference.