What did I do wrong? (Slave Cylinder)

[Kholland82]

I have a 2016 Fiesta ST stock (40k miles) with the common clutch pedal falling to the floor issue. I replaced the Master cylinder, bleed it, worked for a day then same issue, bleed it multiple more times. Day later same.replaced the clutch line and that didn't help either. So I did some reading on here and seems like the slave cylinder was the next logical thing to replace. Got a new stock clutch/pressure plate, slave cylinder and Fidanza flywheel from Whoosh (only because I couldnt find a stock flywheel in stock anywhere and i didnt want to wait 30+ days).

So this morning my son and I pulled the transmission. There was no leaking slave cylinder, its was dry in the bell housing. Clutch didn't look too bad. We still went ahead and replaced all the parts. Put everything back together, bleed the clutch and it felt fine with the car off. I start the car and pedal goes to the floor, so we bleed the clutch again and it feels good so i start the car again and this time the pedal was super stiff could only push it maybe a 1/4". I pressed just a bit harder and then hard a pop and pedal goes to the floor and break fluid leaking out the bell housing. I assume i blew my Slave cylinder. Was there something special i needed to do unique to fiestas? I am a loss and any help would be much appreciated.

 

[haste]

Probably put your clutch in backwards. Look at your old clutch. It should be stamped/marked with the correct orientation for installation

 

[Rocketst]

Check the hard line going to the slave cylinder and verify the o ring is still on it. Also there should be a metal clip holding this onto the tranny. Verify all parts are installed correctly, I think your issue is that hard line.

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[Kholland82]

Probably put your clutch in backwards. Look at your old clutch. It should be stamped/marked with the correct orientation for installation

It was installed with the longer splines towards the transmission and flat side to the engine.

 

[Kholland82]

Check the hard line going to the slave cylinder and verify the o ring is still on it. Also there should be a metal clip holding this onto the tranny. Verify all parts are installed correctly, I think your issue is that hard line.

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Checked and all the orings/seals where there and we had installed the metal clips. Definitely poring out from the bellhousing. And I mean its pouring out of there

 

[haste]

It was installed with the longer splines towards the transmission and flat side to the engine.

Yep, that is backwards.

Flat side goes towards the transmission.

 

[Rocketst]

Yep, that is backwards.

Flat side goes towards the transmission.

View attachment 42138

If he installed it backwards could he have messed up the slave too? Could explain the fluid in the bell housing.

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[haste]

If he installed it backwards could he have messed up the slave too? Could explain the fluid in the bell housing.

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The slave is definitely toast. Ask me how I know.

 

[Rocketst]

The slave is definitely toast. Ask me how I know.

Lol that sucks man. Op looks like you'll need to buy a new slave but that is only like 70 bucks so it could be worse. If you got brake fluid on your clutch, replace that too because it'll cause contamination leading to slipping. you could have driven with a spec 3+ clutch backwards for 3k miles and incinerated your steel friction plate on your fidanza flywheel and snapped not only the friction disc but also the pressure plate. That's what happened to mine

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[Kholland82]

So this is the correct way? If so.... well shit! Lol. Been 20 years since I've done this in depth of work on cars. Coming from the DSM world. I guess I'm slipping in my older age. Thanks for your guys input.

 

[Kholland82]

So where can you buy just a new disk? Everything I find is a clutch/pressure plate

 

[Kholland82]

The slave is definitely toast. Ask me how I know.

How do you know. I'm sure we have similar experiences with this issue.

 

[Rocketst]

So where can you buy just a new disk? Everything I find is a clutch/pressure plate

I'd try to contact ron and see if he'd be able to split a package for you but honestly I'm not sure if you can buy just the disc.

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[Nitelife]

Thanks for posting all of this. It will be a good resource for others as it seems this problem is going to be cropping up more-and-more. Sorry about the install mishap.

Didn't you say you had the old clutch parts that didn't seem to be worn out? Could you possibly use the original disk(even if its just until you get a replacement)?

Is the clutch disk still solid even though you are using a Fidanza? I know the stock flywheel is dual mass, but typically the Fidanza is solid and then "usually" you have a sprung disk. Of course you can run a solid disk on a solid FW (I pulling from memory bank when I ran in DSM and FWD SR20 realm) but can be tricky to modulate.

 

[Rocketst]

Thanks for posting all of this. It will be a good resource for others as it seems this problem is going to be cropping up more-and-more. Sorry about the install mishap.

Didn't you say you had the old clutch parts that didn't seem to be worn out? Could you possibly use the original disk(even if its just until you get a replacement)?

Is the clutch disk still solid even though you are using a Fidanza? I know the stock flywheel is dual mass, but typically the Fidanza is solid and then "usually" you have a sprung disk. Of course you can run a solid disk on a solid FW (I pulling from memory bank when I ran in DSM and FWD SR20 realm) but can be tricky to modulate.

Good catch, yeah you can't use a fidanza with a stock clutch disc. I didn't read his first post thoroughly. Op you need a sprung disc for that flywheel.

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[Intuit]

.......... this morning my son and I pulled the transmission. There was no leaking slave cylinder, its was dry in the bell housing. ............

Prior car had a reservoir that like this one, was divided by spillway. The clutch reservoir (tiny back corner of it) would be bone dry but the reservoir itself would still appear plenty full. If I hadn't cut my hair off, I would've been pulling it out trying to bleed that thing. Once I figured out what was happening, I just resolved to keeping the reservoir tippy-top full the entire time I bled and after loosing an hour, was pretty much done in like eight minutes. Soaked up the excess fluid out of the reservoir with paper towels.

 

[Ford ST]

The original flywheel was probably okay. I'm not sure why so many people change the flywheel when they do clutch jobs I have actually never replaced a flywheel in my life. Even when I worked in a shop we didn't replace the flywheel. If it was damaged yeah we would but they never were damaged, and they are so darn expensive.

Just my personal opinion but yeah never a problem on any car I have done a clutch job on which is a few. Ford escort, Nissan 240, Nissan Maxima, Chevy S10 just to name a few.

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[Nitelife]

The original flywheel was probably okay. I'm not sure why so many people change the flywheel when they do clutch jobs I have actually never replaced a flywheel in my life. Even when I worked in a shop we didn't replace the flywheel. If it was damaged yeah we would but they never were damaged, and they are so darn expensive.

Just my personal opinion but yeah never a problem on any car I have done a clutch job on which is a few. Ford escort, Nissan 240, Nissan Maxima, Chevy S10 just to name a few.

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I know not much to go wrong with solid flywheel; maybe a resurfacing if necessary. I know you can put some hot spots in them if you burn out the clutch too much.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeqzZniVmrM


Dual mass flywheels are a new animal for me. I know some of the OG owners have had issues with them and had to have them replaced, or decided to replace/swap out on their own. I know flywheels are pricey. Now imagine they take the spring/NVH mechanism from the disk into the FW...$$$. I'd probably look into alternatives.

 

[Ford ST]

I know not much to go wrong with solid flywheel; maybe a resurfacing if necessary. I know you can put some hot spots in them if you burn out the clutch too much. Dual mass flywheels are a new animal for me. I know some of the OG owners have had issues with them and had to have them replaced, or decided to replace/swap out on their own. I know flywheels are pricey. Now imagine they take the spring/NVH mechanism from the disk into the FW...$$$. I'd probably look into alternatives.

My brother has like 300,000 miles on his Dual mass flywheel. Ford focus.

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[haste]

How do you know. I'm sure we have similar experiences with this issue.

In a hurry and tired. I knew damn well which way it went but somehow put it in backwards. I had the same symptoms as you. I had just finished putting a LSD and a final drive in the transmission. I couldn't believe it when I had no clutch pedal and fluid leaking from the bell housing. After about 15 minutes of trying to bleed the clutch and fluid kept coming out I knew I had done something wrong. At least I am very practiced at removing the transmission from this car now.

The clutch disc shouldn't be damaged. It shouldn't be a problem reusing it. I also reused my OEM flywheel(85k miles on it). It met the re-use guidelines, but BARELY. I've had it back together now for over 6,000 miles without any problems.