Extending the life of a leaking Slave Cylinder
 

Always good to see the many 'How To's' on the forum, although you don't tend to get any 'I tried this and it isn't worth doing' threads. :}

The jury is still out on this one - it could go either way, and is probably leaning towards the latter. :getmecoat:

Many of us have been there with a leaking slave cylinder, some more than once or twice. Well after a fair few years since the last change my slave cylinder is leaking again. Fitting the GhettoTech Easy Read And Top Up Tube, I can see I am losing around 3ml per week.


https://i.imgur.com/rDz3Qv8.jpg?1


Interestingly, if the pedal is depressed overnight it stays pressurised, and also it took 3 or so weeks before there was any fluid visibly leaking from under the gearbox.

Years ago I had a weep from one of the steering rack seals, and used some of this:


https://i.imgur.com/LlSvkCc.jpg?1


It swells the rubber seals and worked a treat - the rack has now covered over 409k miles in over 20 years. I wondered if the same product could do the same job with the slave cylinder, so I have added half a tube to 500ml of clutch fluid and filled the circuit with it.


Have already bought a Borg and Beck replacement and have a good DMF to fit, as the original was worn near the limits last time round and that was over 100k ago.


I'll keep you posted. :}

I tried something similar about a 6 months ago on a customers car, that I couldn’t afford to have the clutch done on straightaway, and I haven’t seen the car back yet so can’t say whether it worked or not but when they spoke to me about a month later they did say it was still holding so this will be interesting please keep us posted
Mick

Cheers Mick - sounds like a ray of hope! :}

I'll monitor this to see updates

macafee2

Time for an update; the level is now constant so the leak has stopped. I'll keep monitoring and see how it goes. :}

The slave cylinder on mine must have started to leak slightly in the cars 16 year life.
---I injected some fluid into the bleed screw 6 months or more ago and the clutch has been working fine since then.--:D

However Mike your experiment is interesting and I'll be following your thread with the hope you've found a sort of cure.---:bowdown::bowdown::bowdown:

More of getting a bit more out of the slave cylinder than a cure Jon, but we'll see how long term the effect is. :}

Good to hear mate, I’m going to try to get hold of my previous customer and see if it’s still holding at there end, I’ll keep you posted too.
Mick

Cheers Mick - will be interesting to hear if his is still leak free after 6 months.

This is all very interesting, I look forward to further updates.

Martyn.