mmmantei

Hi everyone. I have an 03 Lancer OZ that has clutch issues. My son was driving the car down the freeway and the car just stopped moving forward and the engine revved. We had it towed home and when I was able to look at it, every gear I tried felt like neutral, the car would not move. The clutch also seemed a little harder to push in. I opened the slave bleeder and bled the system, I know this is usually only done with a squishy pedal but I tried it anyway, and the pedal was still pretty stiff. Is there anything else I should look at before pulling the transmission and replacing the clutch? Thank you in advance.

Crazehen

Go ahead and pull the trans. The clutch is gone from how you describe it. Luckily you don't have to drop the sub frame in order to get the trans out. From what I've been reading, it's a pretty simple job (for a clutch replacement, not gonna be as easy as an air filter lol). Also for reference, the slave cylinder and throw out bearing are all one assembly, so if one goes kaput then the trans has to come off again so be sure to replace it while you're replacing the clutch.

Hell, these cars are getting so old you might as well replace the flywheel and rear main seal while you're at it just in case.

mcgarvey

Umm yea it needs a clutch. Probably something actually came apart in the pressure plate, considering it happened on the highway (a condition which doesn't stress the clutch at all), but the result is the same. Get a clutch, pressure plate, flywheel, and release bearing/slave cylinder. Don't cheap out on the latter. OEM or don't bother. Made that mistake before.

mmmantei

So, just like I suspected, it was the clutch. I replaced the clutch, pressure plate, throw out and had the flywheel resurfaced. The entire job was fairly straight forward, it helps to have the service manuals.

However, the job turned out to be a bit more in-depth once I tore into things. Two new outer tie rod ends because they looked rough, were cheap, and I was right there. New end links because they always rust and break off when you try to remove them. And once everything was put back together I noticed a lot of play in the ball joint, so I decided the control arm needed to come off to replace the ball joint, bad idea.

Just like the other horror stories I have read about the control arm, the nut on the horizontal mount had broken off it's weld in the sub-frame. Well that is just effin great! Luckily, I had determination, and hundreds of dollars already stuck into the tranny, and with the help of my neighbor, we cut an access hole, tightened it back up, and welded a plate over the hole.

He then asks why I didn't just rent a tool from the auto store to take the ball joint off the the control arm on the car . The whole job could have been worse, despite the troubles I had. Thanks everyone for the info.

mb3_semperfi

I have an 02 oz rally lancer standard. I had replaced the clutch about 2 months ago and was having problems getting it into gear after a while. I just had the master cylinder replaced and one of the hoses and it was working but now It feels rough when I am shifting and sometimes it wont ingage into gear. I can still feel pressure on the clutch but after driving it it will go into gear but when I have to down shift it hard to put into gear. What could it be.

Crazehen

I'm hoping that's just a problem with the rusty cars up north. Seeing how I'm at 170k and ball joints don't last forever. Did you need any special tools to get the trans out? Or was it an easy pull with jack stands and standard tools?

Sounds like an abused gearbox to me.

mb3_semperfi

Sorry I ment to put that it gets hard to **** bc air keeps getting in the clutch line and after the mechanic bleeds it its good. But he cant seem to fund the problem so he is like its the clutch. I just replaced about 6 months ago. And he wont work on it untill he changes the clutch. But I dont think the clutch would be the issue.

CrAnSwIcK

iTrader: (5)

The Exedy OE replacement clutch kit comes with a slave/release bearing.



I had to do the same thing...the problem is that the nut inside the subframe isn't welded, it's actually held from turning by some sheet metal locking tabs...once corrosion sets in on the threads, the running torque increases, and that nut will just bend the tabs out of the way and spin freely and fall off if none of the threads are engaged...**** poor planning from an engineering standpoint...or maybe that's the idea...to add insult to injury, they made the nut inside the subframe MUCH larger than the head of the bolt, so you need to cut a pretty big hole to get a wrench in there...


next time you need to change a ball joint...it can be done without special tools...I mean...if you have an old wheel bearing kicking around that is...