Just went on a small road trip in the girlfriends new-to-her kia forte (2010 166000km), 6 speed standard.

Drove on the highway and in town fine, on the way home it started being a little hard to shift. Got to a stop sign and had to fight it into first, now the clutch slips so bad that it will actually stall the car out trying to get it into gear. Reverse is a no go.

Fluids are fine and the pedal..about 3/4 of its travel is free play.
Starting the car with clutch in and transmission in first will drive the car.

I'm hoping I can save her a clutch replacement. Perhaps something small? Odd that it happened out of nowhere and not gradually

Any ideas?
Thanks.

Slave cylinder or master cylinder assuming it is a hydraulic clutch.

Yes it is I forgot to mention. How would I go about diagnosing?
I should mention that the pedal does not stay down, rebounds as normal
Thanks FMX

This post was edited by Wimp on Dec 2 2016 11:08pm

Make sure the shifter cables are nice and solid

i was thinking pressure plate is bad.

Usually it will still disengage even with broken springs if it is a sprung hub. It'It's definitely a possibility though.


OP check the clutch fluid level and report back. Look at the color of the fluid too. You either have a master that isn't pushing enough fluid to the slave, or a slave that is busted. Often a slave failure is a seal issue and fluid will leak out. Once that happens you are fucked. If it is an internal slave the transmission has to be pulled to replace. External it usually doesn't. Master Cylinder can be replaced more easily.

Had to go to work but here's an update;

Checked fluid it was slightly dirty but levels okay. I trailered her car to a shop before I left for work(11 days on / 4 off )and the guy suspects moisture in the fluid. He flushed and will try tomorrow.

However - that makes no sense... wouldn't the brakes of been spongey in that case? It's a shared reservoir and the brakes were fine.


Maybe I'll be pulling it from the shop and do it myself on my days off. Thanks for your help / advice

This post was edited by Wimp on Dec 14 2016 09:57pm

Did it do it when it was cold? You wouldn'wouldn't notice much difference until the fluid reached 200°F+ and the water started to boil if it was moisture.

Cold and warm.. which is what threw me off. Drove ~300k before it happened and it did it after it sat for a couple day as well

This tech claims that he has not had issues since the flush.. I dunno something seems odd

My guess is something caught in the slave.. when he flushed it, what ever it was came out and that's why it's fine now. That, or he didn't do thorough testing

This post was edited by Wimp on Dec 15 2016 05:51pm

I'll guess you'll find out bud. Most of the stuff I've dealt with that had dirty fluid only acted up after it had some heat in it.