13 replies to this topic

[850T5M]

My question is basically the title, does the clutch on our manual 850's have to be bled? How would I know if I had air in my clutch master cylinder? What would it feel like on the pedal?

[matt b]

Is this after a manual swap, or a slave cylinder replacement ?

Short answer: yes, and they are a royal pain in the ass to bleed.

[850T5M]

The car is a OEM manual, but the previous owner changed the slave/master cylinder about a month before selling it to me...im just wondering if it was done right and what are the side effects of having air in the clutch.

[FCP Groton]

I think you would know if there is air in the line. How does the clutch feel?

[Ihatespeedbumps]

A very light pedal feel would indicate air in the system.

I bleed these by filling an oil can with brake fluid and I attach a hose to the slave. Suck some fluid out of the master cylinder and keep the cap off. Open the bleed screw and attach the hose and start pumping. You will see the master cylinder fill with fluid. Repeat this process a couple of times and the clutch hydraulics will be bleed correctly the first time

[850T5M]

The clutch pedal feels fine, its just hard to downshift sometimes or upshift when the car is under high boost...someone told me its cuz my clutch might be finished or the throwout bearing...I was just hoping maybe there was air in the system and the clutch wasnt completely disengaging.
Basically when the car is off, its easy to shift, but when the car is moving (when I push it hard), it gets hard to shift threw gears. Similarly, when I try to downshift, its hard to get from 4 to 3 or 3 to 2...should I try changing the tranny oil? or is this usually a clutch related problem?

[Turbosleeper]

Not sure if the clutch is the same but I have a brand new oem one for a 97 850 awd...make an offer

[sconeman]

The clutch pedal feels fine, its just hard to downshift sometimes or upshift when the car is under high boost...someone told me its cuz my clutch might be finished or the throwout bearing...I was just hoping maybe there was air in the system and the clutch wasnt completely disengaging.
Basically when the car is off, its easy to shift, but when the car is moving (when I push it hard), it gets hard to shift threw gears. Similarly, when I try to downshift, its hard to get from 4 to 3 or 3 to 2...should I try changing the tranny oil? or is this usually a clutch related problem?

when there's too much air in the system the clutch pedal does not spring back well. FYI best way to bleed it is using gravity, then finish with pumping up the slave and bleeding repeatedly until remaining air is out.

Edited by sconeman, 03 April 2010 - 01:51 AM.

[TyConn]

A very light pedal feel would indicate air in the system.

I bleed these by filling an oil can with brake fluid and I attach a hose to the slave. Suck some fluid out of the master cylinder and keep the cap off. Open the bleed screw and attach the hose and start pumping. You will see the master cylinder fill with fluid. Repeat this process a couple of times and the clutch hydraulics will be bleed correctly the first time

.........

Edited by TyConn_S70, 03 April 2010 - 06:04 AM.

[yangotang]

The easiest way to bleed for me is to use a pressure bleeder on the top in conjunction with the normal foot action bleed.

[Ihatespeedbumps]

.........

I should clarify. I have a dedicated oil can that only houses brake fluid.

[fasteddyT5]

The easiest way to bleed for me is to use a pressure bleeder on the top in conjunction with the normal foot action bleed.

This is the method that I have used in the past and it works very well. It can be a little tricky to cleanly capture the fluid since you can't really see the bleeder valve while you're opening and closing it in time with the pedal action. Its hard not to knock it off sometimes.

[Che'_Moderator]

Bump for the updated movie:

http://volvospeed.co...utch_bleed.html

[tls850r]

When I did the manual swap in my '96 850R wagon, I first allowed the clutch hydraulic system to gravity bleed until fluid was dripping out of the slave cyl. Then all I did was manually manipulate the slave cylinder after closing the bleeder and all of the air came out through the master into the reservor. I only took me 5-10 minutes to bleed all of the air out of the system. When my "new" slave cylinder took a dump after a week, I bled it the same way with the new one, and again, only took 5-10 minutes to bleed. VERY easy. It's been 1 year now. No issues.