Hi, all. I'm a newbie, and it's great to find a site where I can talk about my Civic with others.

Anyway, I'm fairly good with the basics of car repair, especially with electronic systems, throttles, replacing an alternator, etc. But here's a problem I don't have any experience with: driving home this evening, trying to shift from first to second, I pushed in the clutch pedal and it was just completely slack. It didn't feel like it was actually pushing the pushrod at all. I pried back the pedal with my toe, and it came back up to normal. But I pushed it again, and the same thing happened -- just a pedal pivoting on its shaft, but not actually doing anything. (Fortunately, I was about 100 feet from home and just coasted in.)

Is it possible that the clutch pedal actually became disconnected from the pushrod or whatever it is supposed to connect to to actually engage the clutch? If so, is there an easy way to fix this?

Many thanks!

 

sounds like the hydraulics are going out

 

The clutch pedal controls the clutch through a hydraulic system much like the brakes. Like the brake system, there is a clutch master cylinder with a reservoir containing brake fluid. Check whether the fluid level is low. Refill if necessary.

If the level is low, you likely have a leak, which normally comes from the clutch master cylinder or the slave cylinder located on the front of the differential/transmission. Also look for a fluid leak at the top of the clutch pedal. The fluid may have spilled onto the carpet near the driver's feet. Such a leak would also indicate a bad master cylinder.

 

Excellent -- thanks for the suggestions. I'll check into it and let you know what I find.

 

Yes, with manual transmissions where the clutch pedal goes "dead" as you describe, there are generally three area's to check.

1. Leaks. It's the easiest thing to check first. If you keep your car clean, as I do, you'll notice a leak right away, if not you could check the clutch fluid reservoir to see if it's low or empty. To pinpoint any leak if you've found either of these to point to a leak happening, you simply clean off any fluid around the undercarriage and engine compartment, refill the reservoir, and have someone press the clutch pedal while you look for where the fluid is squirting from.

2. Linkage. If you've determined there are no leaks in your system the next step is to look at the linkage from the pedal to the clutch to check for any slack, worn, bent, or broken parts. If you find something has simply come loose, reattach it, and try your clutch again. If anything is worn, bent or broken, replace it and try again.

3. This is a two fer. If all of the above has been eliminated as the issue, the only thing left is your clutch master/slave cylinder's. The very first thing you'd want to check, is if you have air pockets in the lines by bleeding the clutch system. If after this you still have the problem, you are more than likely going to need to replace one or both of them(this is dependent on the vehicle as some will only have a master, and some share with the braking system or steering system for the clutch system, although those are marked by brake pedal/power steering issues at the same time in most circumstances)*.


* I looked up the breakdown spec's for your car and you indeed have a clutch master and slave cylinder that is an independent system. The link to this breakdown follows:

http://www.hondaautomotiveparts.com/...LINDER+%281%29


Hope this helps.

EDIT: I forgot to mention, there is one other part that can fail and cause an issue. It's called a "throwout bearing." It's a hydraulic bearing that moves the constrictor fins on the clutch itself. This usually doesn't cause a dead pedal though. More often it simply makes it so the clutch will either not engage, or not disengage.