Quote:
Originally Posted by Pkeen
When that clutch fluid starts getting dark you need to bleed it out with fresh fluid. It definitely makes a difference!
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My clutch fluid doesn't really seem to get dark(er) until maybe like 4-5+ months of daily driving. I average anywhere from 9-13k miles a year, and around 200-300+ miles every week. My clutch fluid has never gotten to more than like a light brown color, and I usually cycle new fluid in by then, using the "Ranger" method.
But seeing how some folks get away with not changing their clutch fluid for even YEARS, I feel like it might not be such an apparent issue for some others. I've seen some folks running low clutch fluid, or even clutch fluid that's damn near super dark brown, almost black! These folks have a separate, remote clutch fluid reservoir thankfully, or I can't even imagine how their brakes would be functioning at that rate...
Most recently though, I have been installing like a new clutch master cylinder once every year or so, and I get some contamination in the clutch fluid, from what appears to be the silicone lubricant that's put onto the CMC's during production. It takes me roughly 2-3 cycles of new clutch fluid, before all the contaminants seem to go away, leaving clean fluid without particles and bits. The silicone lubricant also leaves debris in bits, and collects up towards the top of the remote clutch fluid reservoir, and is super annoying to clean.
With that said, I was starting to speculate that the silicone grease, combined with clutch dust particles, "over-contaminated" my new CMC's that I installed, and that's why I've gone through the span of FOUR clutch master cylinders, in the span of barely THREE years! I opened the CMC and found nothing that alerted my attention or concerned me outright, besides the remnants of the silicone lubricant during production, which collected down towards the end of the CMC, and also around the main rubber seal of the CMC's "plunger".
I'm probably going to cycle in new clutch fluid maybe for the 4th or 5th time here, on my latest CMC. I'm still on the factory CSC, so that was a concern as well. However, the clutch pedal has seemingly held hydraulic pressure pretty well. I sometimes check the clutch pedal for play at the top, which indicates that air has gotten in, or that there's a leak; with it usually being the former, in my particular cases.
I find that sometimes pumping the clutch pedal with the reservoir cap off, also seems to either let air out, or do something to where it helps keep the clutch hydraulic system from having play. Unforunately, this GM hydraulic system seems to be rather poorly designed/engineered, so I'm constantly paranoid and feeling like the performance fluctuates every other few times that I drive the car...