Hello all,

I hate to keep pestering this forum, but I can't find an answer to this on any forum, or through googling. This doesn't help, given my inexperience. Anyway, I have just posted about bleeding my clutch, which was successful. Overnight, I noticed that the clutch pedal goes immediately to the floor. I bled the clutch again and went for a test drive, and noticed that fluid was leaking out of the bleeder valve. As the clutch pedal is pushed in, the cap on the bleeder will eventually come off, letting fluid leak down the transmission.

Initially I thought the TOB/slave cylinder I installed was bad (which I hope isn't the case). If it was, I think fluid truly would leak out of the bottom of the bell housing, and the fluid in the reservoir would drain to empty, which it hasn't. To try and fix the problem at the bleeder, I tried pulling a vacuum at the bleeder itself to pull fluid and air, which did come out. However, after pumping the clutch, fluid still leaked out of the bleeder. I checked the o-ring at the end of the hydraulic line and it looked in good shape, though I haven't changed it.

Any help and suggestions would be appreciated. I really have learned a lot from this forum

 

The bleeder should be a taper against a tapered seat. There may be a flaw in the sealing surface. I have seen many posts about Ion clutch hydraulics issues.

They are similar to the L series cars but they sold many times more Ion stick shift cars than L series stick shift cars.

 

I ran into the same problem when last installing the clutch slave cylinder, only I had the leak at the fitting where the line plugs into the hydraulic damper up near the master cylinder. I found I had torn one of the o-rings on the line when installing. By trial and error, I found that the size o-rings that seemed to work best was a 9mm x 1mm o-ring on the larger groove and a 7mm x 1 mm on the smaller groove. If this is the issue on yours, unfortunately it means removing the line again and starting the bleeding process over. This job is a genuine PITA.

 

Thank you for your replies. I just went out to take a look again at the o-rings and they looked in fine shape. It looks like the bleeder nipple has stopped leaking fluid. However, when it looks like when the cap is removed, there is residual fluid remaining around the tip of the bleeder nipple. It looks like it is "bubbling" at the entrance. In other words, it looks like air is coming out of the passage and is causing the bubbling. My question is why. From what I can make sense of this it can mean either:

1. There is a failing seal or seat in the slave cylinder, which means I have to drop the trans again and replace it
2. I just need to bleed this air out of the system

Hopefully it is the latter. Any inputs would be appreciated

 

Make sure the bleeder is tight, it is normal for fluid to remain in the bleeder under the cap. It is not normal for the cap to get pushed off or the pedal to drop overnight. Do not break off the bleeder! Maybe remove the bleeder screw and look at the sealing surface.

 

What does the inside of the bleeder look like and what do you use to bleed it? Maybe a small allen wrench? I can’t tell by looking at the parts on Rock Auto. I see it is all plastic.

 

To my knowledge, the bleeder on these slave cylinders is integrated into the slave cylinder itself, so there is no screw. Essentially the bleeder valve here is a zerk fitting with a rubber dust cover cap over top of it. What I previously did to "bleed" it was to pull a vacuum on it to let all the fluid leak out of it, then vacuum bleed from the reservoir to get pressure back in the pedal. I got pressure back in the pedal, but fluid continued to leak out of the bleeder every time I pressed in the clutch pedal.

 

Maybe try to pull a vacuum there again a couple times and see if it will seal. That would be better than the alternative of replacing it.

 

Boxrocks, when you're bleeding, are you unlocking the horseshoe clip and allowing the hydraulic line to move out about 1mm, then pulling the vacuum? If you look at the picture of the line tip that I posted, the bleeder is situated between the large taper and the larger o-ring. When the line is moved out a little bit, the smaller taper near the tip is backed off from the slave cylinder end of the assembly, allowing any trapped air to move to the larger space and out the bleeder. Once the bubbles stop (and only fluid is coming out) move the line back to the fully seated position and lock the horseshoe clip back into its slot. With the line fully seated, there should be no way for air or fluid to get past the larger o-ring and out the bleeder. If you are getting either bubbles or fluid, it seems the line is not seated or the o-ring is not doing its job.
If you're not getting fluid dripping out of the bell housing, I think the slave cylinder itself is okay. I would fully investigate getting things sealed up around the bleeder before tearing the transmission back out of the car. Even if the o-rings look okay, try new ones.

 

Thanks for that explanation! I now understand how it works. My L has a bleeder like a caliper.