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I have two different opinions on whether a clutch should be replaced when a slave cylinder fails:

  1. It WILL coat the clutch plate and will wear the clutch plate. The clutch plate MUST be replaced. $1500

  2. Even if it fails catastrophically, at worst, it will be 50ml of brake fluid, which can just be rinsed off with water (or hose pipe), and slave cylinder replaced. At worse, gear box taken off and bell housing also rinsed out.

Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2
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Anthony Horne
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2 Answers2

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The slave cylinder is mounted on the bell housing with the fluid valve outside, and the piston within the housing. If there is a catastrophic failure, it is likely to be from the piston gasket: then all the fluid goes straight into the bell housing, wetting the clutch.

Some points to consider:

  • They may be rather more fluid than the slave piston volume; the circuit is pressurized (by pedal action) and some fluid will be coming in from the pipes.
  • The clutch disk will have received fluid projections. Since it was spinning at the time (engine turning), projections will have affected a large part of the disk surface.
  • Once on, clutch fluid gets into the disk material and cannot be removed.

The end result will be a slipping clutch, even if you clean the interior of the bell (and the disk).

Taking the transmission line apart requires some labor since you need to move the T-box out of the way. Even if you do manage to save the clutch disk (which I do not think you will), you would still need to spend quite a lot of time to take it apart - or pay to have it done. I don't see much saving to be made here.

ALAN WARD
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You won't be able to rinse brake fluid off the friction material, if it has become contaminated it will remain so for ever.

Whether it needs changing depends on whether it has been contaminated to such an extent as to have a detrimental effect on the clutch performance - which it may not have done - you'd only be able to tell by driving the car (n.b. on the other hand, if brake pads get contaminated at all, they MUST be replaced for safety reasons).

However, if you have to take the gearbox and bell housing off to change the cylinder and/or check the clutch plate, then you may as well change the whole clutch at the same time - the vast majority of the cost of a clutch change is the labour to remove and replace the gearbox, so it's worth doing while it's off...

Nick C
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