Bad Clutch vs. Slave cylinder

[ZF2SC]

Sitting here waiting for the verdict on a clutch issue.

At 30k, car suddenly became hard to shift in every gear, slipped a bit if you really got on it. Also had a very slow return on the clutch pedal when depressed. Didn't see any leaks, but found hydraulic fluid about 3/4 inch below the low line, and had a bit of smell. Car was a PCNA car the first 14000 miles, never titled, supposedly never tracked (I have it in writing from dealer) and only driven by a little old Porsche guy on Sunday. If true, I'm thinking 30K is **** early to go and hopping mad, I put 70K on my old 911 without doing a clutch replacement at all.

Any ideas as to whether its the slave cylinder or the clutch? They couldn't find anything external to the bell housing and told me its $1295 to tear it apart and see, a freebee if it's the slave, and $895 to reassemble with new clutch kit if clutch is not.

I've come to expect that level of cost from the dealer, but as long as its apart, even if it's just the slave and clutch et al looks ok, should I have them pop in a new clutch/PP/Bearing, or ride it out?

Thanks, Scott

[SA321]

let me guess - cracked pressure plate? hope not but tell us the results. if you are changing clutch may as well do RMS , not much extra

[1schoir]

let me guess - cracked pressure plate? hope not but tell us the results. if you are changing clutch may as well do RMS , not much extra

There is another school of thought that holds that if the RMS is not leaking, do not replace it. But, by all means have it and the IMS seal and bolts inspected. YMMV.

Regards, Maurice.

[ZF2SC]

let me guess - cracked pressure plate? hope not but tell us the results. if you are changing clutch may as well do RMS , not much extra

There is another school of thought that holds that if the RMS is not leaking, do not replace it. But, by all means have it and the IMS seal and bolts inspected. YMMV.

Regards, Maurice.

SA321 you're really close. They claim no issue with slave, but that some of the fingers on the pressure plate were bent causing the problem.

They also say it has to be abuse, which is a hoot because I've been dinking along on winter tires gingerly avoiding the winter city potholes for the last three months, and have always babied the poor girl anyway.

Not sure what I'm gonna do about that :)

[1schoir]

let me guess - cracked pressure plate? hope not but tell us the results. if you are changing clutch may as well do RMS , not much extra

There is another school of thought that holds that if the RMS is not leaking, do not replace it. But, by all means have it and the IMS seal and bolts inspected. YMMV.

Regards, Maurice.

SA321 you're really close. They claim no issue with slave, but that some of the fingers on the pressure plate were bent causing the problem.

They also say it has to be abuse, which is a hoot because I've been dinking along on winter tires gingerly avoiding the winter city potholes for the last three months, and have always babied the poor girl anyway.

Not sure what I'm gonna do about that :)

Since you know you haven't abused the car, here's a good place to start:

If your car is under warranty and they are claiming abuse, ask them to give you a detailed written explanation of how your operation of the clutch pedal actually caused some of the fingers on the pressure plate to bend (and not others).

Regards, Maurice.

[SA321]

this "abuse" argument is a load of crap. bend fingers will only come from cracked pressure plate (look at pic). I had exactly the same. Porsche eventually admitted defective part but they claimed that I "have changed clutch myself" before the problem happened!?!?! and so no warranty in my case... as far as abusive driving i am in your camp (i get more than 20k for a set of tires...)

[ZF2SC]

this "abuse" argument is a load of crap. bend fingers will only come from cracked pressure plate (look at pic). I had exactly the same. Porsche eventually admitted defective part but they claimed that I "have changed clutch myself" before the problem happened!?!?! and so no warranty in my case... as far as abusive driving i am in your camp (i get more than 20k for a set of tires...)

Thanks guys, I have all the parts but have been out of town and haven't opened up the box yet to see what the pressure plate looks like, but will pursue it with PCNA and let you know.

If the pressure plate looks interesting I'll post the pix. Oddly, the clutch itself was in fine shape.

I have a heard time figuring the warranty stuff out - they look all over for anything they can do - this trip I got a new muffler and truch actuator without raising the issues - but when they get anywhere near something that maybe, could be, don;t wanna set a precedent they want to play hard ball about it even though they can;t know what's going on. But I expect they have non-published guidelines to work from, right?