My sister's car crapped out on her today but she doesn't live in Houston so I can't see it for myself. All I have to go on is what she told me... it's a 5spd '97 Honda Civic EX - difficulty shifting into reverse - difficulty shifting into all forward gears - clutch pedal goes all the way to the floor with very little resistance, but could recover resistance if you pumped the pedal over and over Is it simply a worn clutch? Maybe not the clutch but a master or slave cylinder that needs replacing? Sorry if I sound stupid but I haven't really been into cars for a couple of years so what little knowledge I did have kinda went out the window. Thanks for any help.
I had a problem like this in my old integra. It was a pain in the ass to try and get into reverse. I was told it was a some sort of transmission issue. I never did anything about it. Sometimes I would have to try to shift into reverse two or three times before it would switch gears. But, I am not a mechanic........at all
Hmm...well she can't drive her car at all. Had to get it towed from the side of the road and everything, so she definitely has to do something about it
I'll bet it's the hydraulic element of the clutch, and you were right - you should have her check the clutch fluid reservoir (At the back-right [firewall area] of the engine housing in a see-thru plastic basin with fill lines). If it's empty or exceptionally low, that's probably the deal. But it's definitely a clutch problem. Hope it's only hydraulic.
I've got one.... Sometimes, when my car is parked for 2+ hours, when I put it in gear to begin to move it from where it was parked, I hear a rubbing noise coming from the back, like one of the tires is hitting something. It makes the noise two or three times, but when the car reaches greater than 5 mph it is fine. When travelling on city street or highway speed, the car runs great. Weird...I think it might be the struts. The car has 115,000 miles on it.
Clutch slave cylinder. Easily replaced and cheap. If it's not that, it's her clutch. How many miles are on her clutch? If she's a conservative driver her clutch might be ok, well to be safe I would replace both. A manual vehicle should have the clutch replaced every 100k imo. I change mines every 25-30k, but I have a sports car... A worn clutch would make it difficult to shift, a worn slave cylinder would make the clutch pedal feel light or have no resistance. Now that I think about it...she should replace both the slave cylinder AND clutch. Actually now that I think about it again, it could be the master cylinder too. I've never had a problem with a clutch master cylinder, but we cant rule out any possibilities since we're not there right?
Master and Slave cylinder need to be replaced/ they are leaking. She can fill the reservior up near the top of the engine compartment with brake fluid to determine how severe the leak is -- once the brake fluid works its way into the M/S cylinders the clutch will start working again (for a while anyway).
Ding. Missed this post -- Master and Slave replacment will run about $300 parts and labor on a Civic. Fill the reservoir first because you can drive a car quite a while with a slow Master or Slave cylinder leak. Don't let some mechanic tell her she needs to replace the entire clutch before checking this out.
She's going to need 'bout ten quarts of anti-freeze, preferably Prestone. No, no make that Quaker State.
