Lanos Sport M/T Problems. Clutch? Bearings?

[BosnianLanos]

Hey guys! Problems again...sadly... This time my manual transmission seems to be the culprit.

Last week, coming home for university, I was driving down one of the major interstates in the area and my clutch slave cylinder went out. Pedal fell to the floor and all the fluid leaked out past the piston. I managed to rev-match it to the side of the road and got a tow home. I replaced both the master and slave cylinders (both very easy, so why not?), did some basic bleeding of the clutch system, adjusted the linkage a bit, and the car was just fine. Shifted great, pedal feel was nice and firm, I thought I had fixed the problem.

Drove it to and from work in heavy traffic (lots of shifting, stop-and-go) and everything ended up being just fine.

Last night, driving home from a friend's house, I was on a large stretch of (deserted)highway and I decided to do a 3rd gear run up to the redline and all went well, but as soon as I pushed the clutch in shift up to 4th, I had trouble shifting and the pedal was very slow to come up. I pumped it a little and I managed to get it into 5th relatively smoothly and carefully drove it home. The only issue now is that the clutch pedal doesn't want to go all the way to the floor. Maybe only about 75% of the way down before it stops cold. It used to go down all the way to the carpet.

I've narrowed it down to two possible problems.

1 - I didn't bleed the cylinders well enough. Granted, my bleeding procedure was relatively short...so I'm sure a little bit of air may be left in the system, but the car shifted and ran fine, so I figured it was not an issue. The only thing that's puzzling in this scenario is why does the pedal refuse to go down to the floor? I figure since air is compressible, it would drop to the floor easier. It doesn't add up.

2 - My clutch throw-out (release) bearing is shot. I have been noticing a progressively worse rattling/buzzing noise from the transmission in neutral and acceleration that goes away when the clutch is depressed. I had no idea what it could be, but after last nights issue, I researched the problem and found out that that TOB problems fit the bill. A bad TOB also seems to make sense because I can't get the clutch pushed in all the way which makes me think that the bearing is seized or somehow lodged sideways.

Has anyone seen these symptoms before? Do you think I'm on the right track thinking that it's the TOB that's at fault? I'm going to do some bleeding tonight (with a power bleeder this time) to make 100% sure that it's not the cylinders that are at fault.

[MMamdouh]

i am more inclined towards the clutch itself... how many miles are on that clutch???

i replaced mine at some 100k kilometers.... previous owner was a woman - no offense - and probably didn't treat the clutch properly... my dad's car is still on the OEM clutch after 130k kilometers although i feel that the pedal is heavy compared to my new clutch set... this is a sign of worn disk

last days of my clutch set saw weird feel from clutch pedal... it was like nothing is resisting it through first half of its travel then it becomes noticeably heavy at the second half... the clutch itself was weird as when the car was cold it would disengage at the very end of the pedal travel and when it becomes hot it disengages midway... their was also occasional grinding when car was cold

MMamdouh

[BosnianLanos]

Car has just over 80,000 miles on it. Right about the 130,000km mark. I've had the car since early 2006, I learned to drive manual transmission with it...and I'm pretty sure all of my nitrous shots at WOT didn't help. I also felt that over the course of the last few weeks, my clutch "bite point" has been getting a little bit higher in the pedal travel, no doubt sign that the clutch is toast. This car has not had an easy life!

I also power bled the system today. No change.

Clutch it is! I'll order a nice clutch online and throw it in one of the weekends I get a chance.

Thanks for your help man!

[MMamdouh]

it is also advisable to get the lever connecting the slave cylinder to the release bearing along with the clutch kit

MMamdouh

[aderolee]

The lanos shares its chassis with a vauxhall but you can get an xe for about 350 quid for everything ( engine,gearbox,loom and so on). a let is going to cost you around 1000 and you might not get the f28 6 speed gearbox for that. when i converted my corsa to xe all I needed was to make 1 engine mount , modify the gear linkage and mix and match driveshafts and cv joints.

[BosnianLanos]

I would like to get an upgraded transmission, but I'm in the USA and my options are limited. The transmission I have in the Sport works great for me...now if only the clutch would listen.