Experiences with Clutch Fluid Bleeding

[fedmax]

My clutch pedal did not feel well after a gearbox rebuild so I figured I'd bleed the clutch fluid and while at it (the car has 80'000 miles) just replace the whole fluid.

Based on POSES instructions and the DIY tutorial I figured it's an easy job to do before dinner on an evening. As it wasn't and quite painful...I think its good to share my experiences including pictures.

Basic conditions: I did this alone in my garage with two car jacks, it was my first clutch bleeding.

What you need:

- There is about 0.7l (7 quarts) of fluid in the system, I bought 1 Liter (10 quarts) of Pentosin CHF 11 S: http://www.pentosin....c=&pid=668&vid=

- My Porsche 996 TT needed a 11mm wrench for the bleeder valve

- a good light source, I had an LED light

- a catch can/bottle with a hose that fits on the valve, I bought a special brake/clutch catch bottle with a fitting end

- a pice of wood or similar to push back the clutch pedal

- a feed hopper to not spill any Pentosin while filling up

1) Use the car jacks to bring the car up as hight as possible. Search for the the bleeder valve. It is well hidden: Follow the driver side rear wheel to the gear box and look high up. You see two hoses, above one is the valve.

2) Now comes the difficult part if you have large arms and hands: Reach to the valve and take off the valve cap. Attach the wrench with the closed round side to the valve so that the other end of the wrench touches the underside of the car. This makes it easy to open (pull down) and close it (push up) again.

3) Attach the hose of the catch tank to the bleeder valve

4) Open the cap of the green compensation reservoir under the black plastic cover right next to the battery in the trunk, make sure it is filled, it may not at any point drain in air instead of fluid, to not spill any Pentosin cover the area with paper and attach a feed hopper, I taped it to the strut brace so it doesn't move

5) Push the clutch pedal far down, secure it with the piece of wood against the driver seat with enough soft cushion to avoid scratches

6) Open the bleeder valve (a few cm are enough) you'll see the green fluid coming out

7) slowly pull and push the clutch pedal 5 iterations

8) fill up the compensation reservoir with Pentosin

My mechanic support told me to change the whole fluid as he said you cannot be sure where the air is kept so I repeated steps 7 and 8 till I got 0.8l (8 quarts) of Pentosin in the catch can.

9) Leave the clutch pedal in regular position

10) close the valve by pushing the wrench up, make sure it is closed tight but do not add pressure

11) Remove the bleeding hose and wipe off any remaining Pentosin, put back the valce cap

12) fill up the Pentosin into the compensation reservoir so it is between min and max levels

13) after Pumping 4 times the pedal feel came back, if it does not return slowly pump forth and back

My clutch feel is now back to normal, I hope this helps someone to speed up the process :).

Cheers

Ronny