clutch slave bad? flywheel toast?

[rennbob]

I'm in the middle of a clutch/IMS/RMS/AOS replacement on my '99 996 C2, 100k miles, original clutch.   

 

1)  The bottom of the slave cylinder rubber bellows is slightly wet with fluid mixed with dirt/clutch dust.   Is this a case of "they all do that" (esp after 15 years) or is this truly a sign of impending failure?   

 

2)  I was planning on replacing the flywheel (esp since i can get one "cheaply" for ~$500).   But the flywheel looks pretty good-- i don't see any bluing from overheat, it does has some spots scattered over it.   and it centers itself pretty firmly, with < 15mm movement in either direction.    

 

Replace these or no?   I'm trying to walk the fine line between doing everything "while I'm in there" vs throwing money away on an old car.  

[devin_wala]

I replaced my clutch/IMS/AOS two years ago at 100K miles. '00 996 C2 original clutch (I believe).

 

1) My slave cylinder showed no signs of leaking at this mileage.  After verifying that the fluid you are seeing is not coming from another source I would replace the slave cylinder.

 

2) I didn't replace my flywheel and now I'm sorry.  My flywheel is now likely to be the next point of failure and will likely to take the clutch disk with it as it goes.  If you are going through the trouble of dropping the transmission it's nice to have the piece of mind to know that you wont be doing the job again for a while.  Then again if you are only going to keep the car another year or two you might get away with it.

[Silver_TT]

Tough call.  Normally you inspect the flywheel both visually and test it (which is sounds like you have)..... if it passes, leave it.  However you have 100K on the car with the original clutch so it's gotten some use (that's a generalization since I don't on what "kind" of miles those are and how the car was driven).

 

It's probably prudent to replace it or skip it at this point.  If you have a great deal on a flywheel and you already have transmission out, maybe you just bite the bullet if you plan on keeping the car and putting many more miles on it....otherwise if you feel like rolling the dice a little bit, it could likely have quite a bit of life left in it given that your inspection/test results were good.

 

For what it's worth, if you replace it I would stick with the dual-mass flywheel.

[creekman]

I would replace the slave cylinder and the throw-out bearing for sure...  If the flywheel face isn't torn up could you have it resurfaced, I'm not sure if that's saving you a lot of money over a new flywheel?  But considering your labor and the future use you'll get from a good clutch I would look at either surfacing or replacing the clutch, "while you were there".

 

Keep us posted on your decision and the results...