Is my clutch completely shot or what just happened??

Hello fellow enthusiats, I bought a 996 C4S a couple of months ago and have been enjoying it immensely ever since. When I bought the car, the clutch was a bit heavy and that was also pointed out in the 111-point test. I spolke to the mechanic about this and his only comment was that the clutch was a bit heavy but nothing to urgent, more something to keep an eye on going forward. This weekend, I was out taking a nice drive enjoying one of the last weekends of the season in Sweden. Just prior to taking the car back to the garage I drove a bit harder but nothing extreme in any way. All of a sudden after a gear change, the feel in the clutch pedal changed completely. Suddenly there was virtually no resistance at all in the pedal, compared to before. The clutch works as its supposed to, I haven't noticed any slip in it, no noises, the pedal doesn't get stuck in any position or anything else, so far the only issue is the resistance in it. Right now I am a bit anxious to drive the car since I don't want to make anything worse than it already is, or maybe nothing is wrong with my clutch? A little bit about the car: MY03, 996 C4S, has slightly under 80.000km on the lock and x51 if that does any difference at all... The clutch that is currently in the car is the original clutch and hence has c. 80.000km on it. I would very much appreciate any input at all! Have any of you guys had some similar experience or ever heard of anything similar? Thanks, Oscar

The clutch isn't shot if it isn't slipping. There could be some air in the system and the clutch can be bled. The slave cyl could be on its way out, look for weeping around that. I would start by bleeding the clutch and see what happens.

The clutch in a 996 will feel light rather than heavy when it is worn. That being said, you should also notice slipping and/or difficult gear changes. Hopefully your issue is something minor.

If the fluid level is ok the symptom reads like clutch fluid that is way beyond its change by date. Treat the car's brake and clutch hydraulic systems to a flush/bleed.

I think Mr. Gribble is on point, old fluid is unlikely to be the culprit, I like the slave cylinder as suspect too. If it is that, fix it sooner than later as it can leave a mess if it leaks. Test the clutch on a grade, if it's just beginning to slip it will happen there more readily. Hey Dale, my dad had a dealership too, I grew up there. Sounds like we had similar access to a myriad of cars except my list didn't include Ferrari cars, my dad did wrench on a few though.

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And I heard the opposite to be true. The clutch becomes hard to depress when it is almost worn out. Test it on the hill. That's the best way. Or along the straight put it into 4th at under 1500 revs and put your accelerator down. It should slip then.

That's what I've been told. The disc wears and the action loses some mechanical advantage and the clutch pedal gets harder to work. I note my Boxster's clutch is harder to work now but the techs tell me it is not yet hard enough to replace, nor does it slip or judder when taking off from a stop. This judder symptom can arise if the disc wears enough the rivets make contact with the pressure plate face or the flywheel.

I had always heard that too, until I bought a 996. My clutch went out earlier this year and the pedal was much lighter than it is now with a new clutch. The thing that surprised me was how quickly the clutch failed once the symptoms appeared.

Thank you so much for your input! I will have to try some hill starts and Hurdigurdiman's suggestion to determine any potential slip in the clutch. I will let you know as soon as I can try it out. How would I know if the slave cylinder was the culprit? @Dennis C - How fast did your clutch go after you first experienced the symptoms? Thanks a bunch guys!

another test would be select first gear with your hand brake full on. Very slowly start releasing your foot from the clutch pedal under more then the usual revs (about 3000). It should slip if its shot at. If it stalls the engine then it is still good. Then you would have to test the master cylinder. How? I don't know but other posters may. It might be a good idea to change the clutch and brake fluid which (unless you have another person to press the brake pedal) you would need a 'Power Bleeder'. http://www.summitracing.com/parts/mv.../applications/ The European Motive 0100. Get new fluid, fill the power bleeder about 2/3 full and pump it up to no more than 20 PSI screwed onto your fluid reservoir. Do rear passenger. Rear driver, front passenger, then front driver. Tighten the nipple bleeders up as you see the newer fluid coming through. Keep an eye on your Motive bottle so it doesn't get too low and sends air into the line. Keep the peressure up at 20psi during the job. Fluid is fairly cheap I would take the car out. Brake like hell a few times to awaken the master cylinder then bleed them again. Consider them done at that point. I use the Motive 0100 and its an easy task to perform.

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No. No. No. Do not do this test. Why abuse the clutch? There are various "tests" for clutch slippage but the one that is the least stressful for a healthy clutch (and less stressful on the rest of the car's drivetrain) is to floor the gas pedal with the transmission in 4th gear and at around 3K RPMs. You can do this on level ground or going up an incline, but an incline is not necessary. The car represents a considerable load to the clutch with the transmission in 4th gear (no torque multiplication by the gears) and if the clutch is going to slip it will slip under this test. To the OP the best course of action is to get the car to a qualified shop and have reason for that clutch pedal change in resistance symptom id'd and fixed. To me it reads like fluid is old and under driving got hot and developed some vapor pockets but it could be a number of things. Your qualified test will determine the actual cause. Chances are if the clutch is not slipping and you do not ruin it by testing it to death the clutch is just fine and once the pedal action has been sorted you could get maybe another 80K km from the clutch.

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It started getting soft about 2 - 3 months before it failed. Once I first noticed any slipping or difficulty getting into gear, it failed in less than a week.

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Thanks for that tip macster, hopefully I'll have time tomorrow to try this out. I agree with you that the best course of action is to take it to a garage and let them investigate. But since this forum is riddled with experience and knowledge I thought I'd give it a shot first. The car is going in for the big service (spark plugs etc) during the winter so I hope they can find something then. /Oscar

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Good to know. Hopefully I'll be able to drive normally the final weeks of the season then. I'll keep my senses open to any changes though! Thanks for sharing! /Oscar

sounds like a slave cylinder failure

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How can I determine if that is the case? Is there any way of saying that there's air in the system without bleeding it? I'm not to inclined to buy special equipment such as the one Hurdigurdiman provided a link to. /Oscar

Just to let you guys know, I took the car out today and everything was back to normal in terms of feel/resistance in the pedal. I have no explanation what so ever to this.. However, I really looked for slip or noises but the clutch works as good as ever, couldn't notice any slip at all and tried some of the various tests you suggested. Fluids were changed this spring (if I didn't say that) and all levels are where they should be, hence no leak in the system. I don't understand anything but I'm happy that it works as it should again!

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You can manually bleed the brakes then the clutch hydraulic system. There are I'm sure without looking a few good DIY write ups around. It takes a bit of work and a helper but many cars have had their brakes/clutch hydraulics bled this way with no problems. When doing the brakes avoid depressing the pedal all the way down as this puts the brake piston in an area of the master cylinder it has never been in before and this can damage the cylinder. After doing the brakes then do the clutch slave cylinder. If this doesn't improve things then you know. A pressure bleeder is not that expensive though and makes this job easier and less likely to need to be done twice. However, the biggest problem is getting the car in the air properly and in my opinion this requires a car lift. I am *not* a fan of the common practice of lifting these cars up by just any old spot and supporting the cars by bricks, blocks of wood, or even jackstands at God only knows what locations under the car. Thus to me without access to a proper car lift a brake flush/bleed is a job for a shop with a car lift so the can be lifted by factory sanctioned lift points and safely supported by same and the wheels removed to get at the brake bleed screws without any real difficultly. I have this brake/clutch fluid flush/bleed done every 2 years at the local dealer. I've done the clutch fluid flush/bleed myself -- at night in the parking lot at the office -- at least once when I suspected there was a fluid problem but that was a special situation. This job always gets done at the same time as the brakes get done.

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Thanks Macster! My problem is that I don't have any good place to do these kind of things (my garage isn't really flat) and I don't have anything to support the car when lifted, that's the reason I'm a bit hesitant to do it. Also, the system was bled, all fluids changed this spring. I talked to a Porsche dealer today an they will look for the culprit of this/give the clutch a thorough look when the car is being serviced during the winter.

The clutch helper spring may be the issue. Mine broke and it changed the feel from light to heavy, but function stayed the same. Of course it makes more sense if the clutch became heavier suddenly, but it is possible that the two broken pieces of the spring aligned temporarily on that day. All else equal, the 996 clutch gets heavier as it wears out just like any car. My clutch became heavy for several months before the spring plate broke and my new clutch is light as a feather. The clutch effort on my good friends car was becoming quite heavy as well, and his spring plate just broke. This may have happened to you as well. Even with the broken spring plate the clutch still grabbed well enough to let me drive the car. The pedal did not come up all the way, and I didn't test for slip, but it got me home. Perhaps your spring plate has been broken for some time and on the day in question your helper spring popped the pedal up. The light feeling you felt may have been you just overcoming the helper spring rather than the clutch plate. Dirty fluid is not likely to cause a sudden change in pedal feel, although I suppose a slave cylinder could if it failed internally. You are likely to see a leak, but not necessarily. Unlike Macster I am perfectly comfortable bleeding the clutch with a pressure bleeder. This can be done easily and safely at home, but you absolutely need to support the car at all four corners, at the jack points with jack stands. Alternately the jackstands at the rear can be placed under the suspension cross member. It isn't hard, but it isn't easy either and you need to know what you are doing. Nobody works on my car except me....barring an exceptional circumstance of course. It's an issue of trust first and finances second.