Clutch or clutch pressure

Tiny
KELLY.PROBERT
  • MEMBER
  • 1999 VOLKSWAGEN BEETLE
  • 1.9L
  • 4 CYL
  • TURBO
  • 2WD
  • MANUAL
  • 75,000 MILES
My car previously was losing power on an incline, which I now know, means the clutch was slipping. Also, it was hard to get the car to go into reverse or first gear. I had to play with it and find that "sweet spot" that allowed the car to engage in these two gears. About two weeks ago the car just stopped going. It would not move no matter what gear I put it in. And the clutch had lost all pressure. I smelled a burning smell, when I tried to see if the car would move. I am guessing this smell would be the clutch. When I looked further into the problem, I seen where the shift linkage was broken and so I replaced that. I tried to see if the car would move after that. No such luck. So I replaced the slave cylinder as I figured, this would be the cause of the car giving me such a hard time going into gear. When bleeding the slave cylinder I could get the pressure back in the clutch, but when I went to crank the car and put it in gear (which it went smoothly into), it would lose some pressure. It moved the car a little but not like what it is supposed to. I am talking it moved maybe four inches. My question is, would losing this pressure in the clutch pedal, cause the car to not move? And if so, how do I fix this? Or if not, would it mean a bad clutch? I have done all this work myself, and I have seen how much the clutch cost to have replaced. And I have also done my research to see how much of a job it will be to do it myself. So before I decide to have the clutch replaced, I want to make sure that it sounds like this is the problem as to why the car is not moving.
Monday, August 13th, 2018 AT 5:04 PM

1 Reply

Tiny
MHPAUTOS
  • MECHANIC
  • 31,937 POSTS
It does sound as if the clutch has failed, with a fault in the hydraulic system the pressure plate will not depress and the clutch will not disengage and you will not be able to engage any geat or it will grind as the input shaft may still be turning to fast to allow the synchros to do there job correctly. The burning smell you mentioned is often associated with clutch burn out as well. One simple test is a stall test, if you can get the start the engine, and select first gear with the handbrake on hard, then try to drive off, if the car stalls the clutch is in reasonable condition, if the clutch slips and your foot is nearly off the clutch, the clutch is faulty.
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Tuesday, August 14th, 2018 AT 7:50 PM

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