Saab: Clutch Repeated Disaster

1992 Saab 9000s 2.3 plant, 5 sspeed box and 168k miles


Last August I made a trip of about 1400 miles to the Toronto, Canada
vicinity and while I was there three or four times the clutch pedal
went to the floor and did not come back by itself. However when I
pulled it up it remained up and the clutch acted normal for sometime
and then the same thing repeated. I got back here, Baltimore, without
to much trouble and then the clutch finally gave in. You could not
pull thre pedal and have it act normally! All the clutch action was
gone

The result of that experience, so my repairer said, was that he
rebuilt
the clutch almost completely because both master and slave cylinders
were
shot and the clutch plate was saturated in hydraulic fluid.

Today, in town the same thing occurred but on a much faster cycle.
Three times the pedal went to the floor and I pulled it on and every
thing was fine. This happened three times within twenty minutes and
then a few minutes later it recurred and this time it would not
respond.

The car was towed in but it was after closing so I had no one there to
examine it.

I f it is master cylinder I will be very annoyed, if it is slave, L am
going to exploded . could something like this re- occur in 3 to 4

What could cause such a rapid failure. And without much warning.

Comment or assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Unfortunately I am scheduled to got to canada again on Thusday. It is
now the wee hours of Wednesday morning and I will be at my repairers
early tomorr0w. Can anyone make a suggestion. Estimate or guess a
cause.
__________________________________________________ _________


We bumped our way to Toronto and back in my wife's Wolfsburg

__________________________________________________ __________

That was about a week ago and my local guy messed around trying to
bleed this thing and claimed to have solved the probleb by bleeding
the system. As a guess, iI feel that this cannot be corrected by
bleeding. If he bled air out, how did it get in.

However, foolishly I took the car and drove a short distance only to
have the experience of the clutch pedal on the floor again. However
this time I filled the reservoir (It was down to the Brake /Cluch
partition.) and found that if I pumped the pedal manually that
eventually ( 10 or 15 pumps ) that the system would pressureize and I
had my clutch back.
It is scheduled to go into the guy who is supposed to be the private
Saab mechanic in my area with the most experience in my area. I find
that I can drive it aroyund townif when I am stopped at a light or a
stop sign aand with the transmission in neutral I pump the system up,
that I can maintain pressure. But I feel that not only is this a
sloppy way to drive but before long, there will be enough fluid lost,
replaced and lost again that the system will have air entering each
time and that ultimately there will be so much compressible air that
all the pumping I can do will not restore the clutch operation.

Noting that I had similar symptoms three and a half months ago to
repair which vitually the entire clutch was replaced with both slave
and master cylinders, what is left?

what can be happening?

All replies would be much appreciated.

Again the saab "affectionately known as Sven" is a 9000s 92 with165k +
mi;les with a 2.3 engine and a five speed box. I have always felt that
with some TLC Sven would make it to 200k miles easily.

Malcolm

On Tue, 13 Jan 2004 23:32:54 -0800, _Al_ <com> wrote: 

I've had good luck, myself, by raising a turkey baster full of brake
fluid, connected by an appropriate sized hose, to the slave-end of the
system. Pushes the bubbles _uphill_ rather than trying to force them
down that long vertical section of metal tubing against the wheel arch.

Just attach the baster to the top-edge of the hood (while open of
course). I used a clip-type clothes pin but of course duct tape would
work. Keep the baster (just the funnel part) full with brake
fluid, and it'll sloooooooowly push the new clean fluid through
the system. Takes a while but beats swearing at the inevitable
bubbles when doing it the other way.

Dave "yeah, I'm around..." Hinz