Hi all, I have a 2009 vibe, 2.4L, 5-speed. Bought it recently with about 180K and now has about 200K. I was told it had a new clutch put in. Ok here is the issue. The clutch does not disengage. At first I noticed about a week ago that when I put it in reverse, as I let the clutch out, it stopped halfway and killed the engine, sometimes it did this in first. But going from 1 to 2 to 3 to 4 to 5 was no problem. Clutch worked fine. This only happened a couple times a day. However, today I think it went out altogether as when I drove home, I think I was shifting on partial clutch or timing the rpms with gearing just right (I've done this in the past to show my kids that you could shift without the clutch). Now, when sitting in my garage with the car off, when I press the clutch pedal down all the way, it does not come up. I was told this was a master cylinder issue (rather than just air in the lines or slave cylinder. I don't see leaking on the inside of my car at the master cylinder, but I've been told that it can have an internal leak and loose hydraulic pressure.
Here are my questions:
1. For the 09, the master clutch cylinder looks awfully hard to get too from inside the engine bay. Is that the case? What all do I have to remove?
2. I have a picture of the slave cylinder. So it totally rusted out (ignore the battery ground and all the moisture is the anti-rust spray I sprayed on the fittings). So I figure I should replace the slave cylinder too, but if you look at the picture, there is a silver AL block 'thing' where a hydraulic line enters in, and then exits and connects into the slave cylinder. What the heck is that silver block?
3. How do the brakes hydraulics factor in? I know they share a reservoir, but do they share pressure and fluid in any way? I ask because my rear calipers are pretty bad, and one was binding and I'm sure really heated up. Can that effect the clutch fluid and system?
Thanks,
Paul