05 V6 Hellion

I'm a new member here and wanted to get some of your opinions on an issue that I am having with my 05 V6 Manual. I have noticed that the clutch pedal gets soft after driving it for 15-20 min. Today on the way home from work, I coasted to a red light with the clutch disengaged and noticed that the it was difficult to shift from 5th to neutral (I could tell there was a slight load on the engine and the RPM's rose slightly when I did get it out of gear.) I let the clutch pedal out and stepped it in again and didn't feel it disengage until just before it bottomed out. Of course the light turned green and I couldn't get it into gear (Kind of had to rely on the syncronizers to get moving before I could get it into gear) Couldn't shift to 2nd. So I shut it off and let it sit for a minute or two and then tried the clutch and it was fine. My thought is that it is the Master Cylinder that is letting fluid slip past. If it were the slave cylinder leaking, I don;t think that it would come back like it did. Any thoughts?? I don't want to have to drop the transmission if it can be fixed without doing so. Thanks!

05 V6 Hellion

I pulled my car up on ramps today and saw that there were drops of brake fluid on the bottom of the bell housing (and that the wires to one of the rear O2 sensors are cut but that is a different issue) I have changed my diagnosis from Master clutch cylinder to slave cylinder. Can anyone tell me how involved it is to replace the slave cylinder?? My biggest concern is lowering the transmission out of the car without the use of a hoist or transmission jack. I am also tempted to upgrade the clutch but the car only has 46,000 miles on it and I think that the clutch still has a lot of life left in it. Any recommendations?

svastano

I would recommend that if you are going to change out the slave, you might as well change the clutch too.

Boneman

I've heard the same thing... that if you have to replace the slave cylinder... it's enough of a project... you might as well change the clutch too. I would absolutely make sure it's not a "hose" issue before doing so... 2005 is 7 years ago... I too have a 2005 and about this time odd things start happening that are more age related than mileage related.

I could be way off base there as I've not really been underneath eyeballing the system... but a buddy who bought his F150 new in 05 had to replace all of his power steering hoses as they were failing left and right.

Good luck and do post back any findings.

05 V6 Hellion

Well, I was able to remove the transmission today to gain access to the slave cylinder. Only took 3 hours (which I consider to be pretty good considering that this is the first time that I have removed a transmission and did it with a floor jack). The slave cylinder fell apart when I went to remove it. The clutch appears to have a lot of life left in it so I guess that a clutch upgrade will wait. I guess that 3 hours isn't too bad to get at the clutch for when I need to replace it (And next time I will know what I am doing so it should go quicker!) The only drawback to not replacing the clutch is that I have to buy the $7.00 throw-away alignment tool that would have been included in a replacement clutch. (The only reason why I was looking into aftermarket clutches! )

Boneman

Wow. Nicely done. I presume you were working on the floor then.... how high did you have to jack her up to get the trans outta there? BTW.... how many miles on the car? Just wonderin'... I've got 135K on mine... and (fingers crossed, touch wood, etc.) still running the original clutch, throwout bearing, clutch hydraulics, etc.

kevinmalec

My slave cylinder and throwout bearing went out at 65K miles. The clutch had a 2 inch dead spot at the top and I could barely get my shifter into any gear.

I had everything replaced, except for the master cylinder. It was not a cheap fix either. Wish I could have done myself!!

05 V6 Hellion

Boneman, I jacked the rear of the car up and put 6"X6" blocks under the rear wheels and run the front wheels up on ramps. The transmission is still under the car. I just pulled it back and lowered it to get at the slave cylinder. The slave cylinder is only held in by 2 bolts and I was doing everything else from under the car so decided that 5 more minutes of work under wouldn't be that bad. My car has 46,000 miles on it. I was originally thinking that it may have failed prematurely because I usually have the clutch disengaged when I am sitting at red lights. But after looking at the design of the slave cylinder, I have decided that this is not a plausable explanation. I see that the slave cylinder has a spring in it to keep the throwout bearing against the fingers at all times.

Kevin, my clutch pedal had a dead spot at the top too when it went out. When I was researching this topic before I posted this thread, I read some of your posts on how your clutch pedal was soft after they replaced the clutch and that it engaged when the clutch pedal was closer to the floor then before. I suspect that this was a result of air being in the lines between the slave and master cylinder that would compress when the clutch was disengaged, causing the slave cylinder to react more slowly. Did yours eventually get over the soft feel and engaging sooner then you expected? I am curious how my clutch pedal will feel once I get everything back together.

Boneman

Nice work. I had read somewhere that the manual trans in the 4.0 weighs in around 75lbs.

@Kevin: One stealership quoted me $1800 to replace the clutch, T.O. Bearing and Slave Cylinder. Hearing that it might not be a Cambodian Clusterfark to do it... I may actually (should the need arise) attempt it myself.

Additionally, I believe the Slave Cyl and T.O. bearing are integral and you can't replace one without the other.

As it were, I had similar issues with a Pontiac G5 GT... originally, the stealership thought it a bubble in the line.... nope. It was actually synchros that were blown very prematurely (36K miles) and pursuant to issues GM was having with their suppliers at the time, it took them 28 days to fix it.

It's why I was (and still am) VERY concerned that Ford opted to put Getrag transmissions in the new 'Stangs.

Great to hear a success story here! Keep us updated!

kevinmalec

Yeah, the clutch stiffened up a little and does not grab as low as it first did. I guess the clutch had to settle, which it did within a couple hundred miles. =-)