Hi everyone.
I posted this a hwile ago with no response from anyone.
Today I may have found some answers. Does this make any sense?
First is my original post:
I'm having a clutch problem in one of my older trucks.
The truck is a 2002 Chevy with the 8.1 engine and a 6 speed tranny. This truck only has 52,000 miles on it.
Here's what's happening......
I was on a trip to NM from Pittsburgh with a 6 horse trailer.
After driving with a full load for about 7 hours, the clutch would begin to get some play in it when shifting between 5th and 6th. By play I mean it wouldn't grab when you first started pushing it like it usually does and it also wouldn't come back nice and firm when I would let it back out.
Now, when I would slow down to exit the interstate and go 4th, 3rd, 2nd, it would work perfect.
If I would stop to fuel or eat, it would work great for about 1/2 hour and then start doing it again.
And of course on the way home, it didn't do it at all!
I'm just worried that I'm going to engage it one of these times and it's not going to come back up off the floor when I release it. 8
My GM dealer and a couple other local gararges say they have never heard of anything like this and to just run it until it goes completely because they don't understand why it's doing it.
Now today this is what I find:
A new mechanic looks at the clutch fluid and tells me someone put some wrong fluid in and things are contaminated because it's reddish brown and it's supposed to be clear. He also says that some damage has been done to the cylinder because of the wrong fluid.
Well, I'm the only one to add fluid to it and put in the correct thing (I even showed him and he agreed)
So afterwards I called a big truck dealer in OK and he tells me that some of these lines are run too close to the manifold and it's causing the fluid to overheat and boil!
The service manager is calling me on Monday because he knows more about this.
Does anyone have any input here?
- Dave
Posted 2006-09-08 9:24 PM (#48166 - in reply to #48151) Subject: RE: Clutch Fluid Boiling?????
Expert
Posts: 2689
I'd ask it on the truck forums.
For hydraulic oil (which clutch fluid is) to boil it would have to get incredibly hot, the redish/brown color might indicate that it has overheated, but I think the steel line would have to be actually touching the manifold to pick up enough heat to boil oil.
A possibility is that there is some water in the system, THAT could be boiling at a much lower temperature - - I don't know if that would give the symptoms you described or not.
I think you might need a different GM dealer/service dept.
They SHOULD be able to troubleshoot this.
They could at least confirm whether or not the fluid is "burned" and perhaps get down to some possible reasons for that.
Clutch Fluid Boiling?????
