Clutch Hydraulic Problems

[HankG]

For a while now the Pathfinder's clutch has been giving me problems. In the mornings, it is fairly unresponsive. I push the pedal down and it stays down and I have to pull it back out with my foot. After driving for a while it mostly starts working. Unfortunately, it has gotten worse recently. I was on the freeway the other day trying to downshift, pulled it out of fifth, and couldn't get it to go back into gear. I had to wrestle with it and finally got it into gear with a bit of grinding. When I got home, I coasted into the driveway in neutral and couldn't get it to go into first when I was parking. It just grinded badly every time I tried, and I haven't driven it since then. Today I called my brother for help, and his first thought was air bubble in the system. So I pumped the pedal for three to five minutes, and it started working normally. However, we couldn't find any leak at all anywhere in the system. Everything is completely bone dry even after all the pumping and holding the pedal down for a while, and the fluid level in the reservoir is full and not going down at all. So my question is, how is air getting in but fluid not getting out? Is there any other trouble shooting we should be doing? Is there a part that commonly fails that could be doing this somehow? I don't really want to start replacing things without knowing if they're bad, but the Pathfinder isn't really drivable currently.

 

Thanks for any help.

 

 

Edit: Since posting this, did more research, and it seems like the clutch damper is a common fail point. We bypassed it and the clutch feels very nice, but I won't really be able to tell until it sits overnight.

Edited January 27, 2010 by HankG

[beastpath]

did you bleed it? that will get air bubbles out and make it nice and springy again.

[piste]

For a while now the Pathfinder's clutch has been giving me problems. In the mornings, it is fairly unresponsive. I push the pedal down and it stays down and I have to pull it back out with my foot. After driving for a while it mostly starts working. Unfortunately, it has gotten worse recently. I was on the freeway the other day trying to downshift, pulled it out of fifth, and couldn't get it to go back into gear. I had to wrestle with it and finally got it into gear with a bit of grinding. When I got home, I coasted into the driveway in neutral and couldn't get it to go into first when I was parking. It just grinded badly every time I tried, and I haven't driven it since then. Today I called my brother for help, and his first thought was air bubble in the system. So I pumped the pedal for three to five minutes, and it started working normally. However, we couldn't find any leak at all anywhere in the system. Everything is completely bone dry even after all the pumping and holding the pedal down for a while, and the fluid level in the reservoir is full and not going down at all. So my question is, how is air getting in but fluid not getting out? Is there any other trouble shooting we should be doing? Is there a part that commonly fails that could be doing this somehow? I don't really want to start replacing things without knowing if they're bad, but the Pathfinder isn't really drivable currently.

 

Thanks for any help.

 

 

Edit: Since posting this, did more research, and it seems like the clutch damper is a common fail point. We bypassed it and the clutch feels very nice, but I won't really be able to tell until it sits overnight.

 

HankG,

Resurrecting this to see if you have any further information. Did you keep the bypass of your damper? Where did you eventually end up with all this to resolve your problem??? I've been having the EXACT same symptoms you had...for four years now. http://www.nissanpathfinders.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=28863&st=0&gopid=549792entry549792

 

Do you have any supporting info around your statement that the clutch damper is a common fail point??