2005 Vue clutch cylinder issues! HELP!!
 

I recently got a 2005 Vue 2.2 5-speed from a buddy of mine... After replacing the clutch kit with the included slave, the master cylinder failed 5 months or so later. He ended up with a new car from his grandmother and I told him i'd take it on. got the master replaced and was having trouble getting into 2,4,R. I thought it was a bleed problem with the new master and all. After realizing that the mounting bracket for the shift cables had come loose and was the reason i couldn't get into 2,4,R, it was tightened and this seemed to fix all... After driving the car for an entire day, about 120 miles in total, and it sitting for a night I went to leave the next day and found it very hard to get in gear. After a few pumps got it in gear followed by a stall. Clutch hadn't disengaged. Pulling it back into the driveway i looked and saw fluid coming from the bellhousing. BLOWN SLAVE. The guy who initially fixed it and put in the master cylinder said that the slave was kinda cheap in the first place and that I needed to get a better slave and we could get it fixed up in a few hours. Now that i've gotten that out of the way. I drove the car with intermittent 2,4,R problems and the slave was fine... Why only after fastening the shift cable bracket did the slave blow? Ill timing? I mean, after all, the slave was only in service for a few months before it sat for another few. It was just fine for me for the prior few weeks. No problems while he was driving it, either. The sequence of events seems to be too perfect for this to be coincidence, and although i'm no mechanic, i'm pretty intelligent so looking at this cause and effect leads me to worry about something else being an issue... AFTER we pull the tranny apart... AGAIN... The proper route would be to take it to a shop where I get a warranty on the part and the ripping apart of the motor would be on them, but on a musician's budget, that's not in he cards... sorry for the novel and thanks for any help you guys can provide..

I've contacted a transmission specialist who frequents the site.
Hopefully he'll be along soon to provide an opinion.

Mechanical VS Hydraulic
 

Hey there Alessir, sorry to hear about your "ill timing" issue. Manual, or "Standard" transmission problems can be tricky to diagnose. Not surprising that the Master Cylinder would fail shortly after replacing the Slave Cylinder. A chain is only as strong as the weakest link, as so with a clutch hydraulic system. Most repair shops will recommend replacing both cylinder at the same time, even if only one of them has a problem. In the Old Days, Most GM's had external slave cylinders. Saturn was the only one who sold their Master and Slave Cylinders as a pre-bled kit, with the lines and everything. You could not buy them as separate units from the Dealership, or even most part's stores.

To answer your question, "Karma", haha. I would think just ill timing, as the Hydraulic and Mechanical aspects or operations of a Standard Transmission are totally separate systems. Although they can effect the operation of the other system, but usually won't cause the failure "of" that other system. Now, say the wrong clutch was used, providing too much clearance between the slave cylinder and pressure plate. If there is nothing to stop the movement of the slave cylinder, the piston will breach the boar of the cylinder, causing it to blow out, or leak. A shift cable, would only effect the movement of levers, linkages and gears, absolutely nothing to do with the hydraulic system.

Now, My concern is if they used a cheap slave cylinder; that came in a kit with the clutch disk and pressure plate, I would wonder about the quality of the other components. If a customer wants a good warranty from the shop I work at, we highly recommend OEM, or Luke clutch kits and/or components. We will install customer supplied parts, but cannot warranty the product, only the installation. Cheap parts are cheap for a reason...

Best of luck with your project! If you have any other questions or concerns, please feel free to ask. Let us know how things turn out? It has been a pleasure chatting with you! Take Care and God Bless...