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Clutch Pedal Harder?

1606 Views 13 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  zanilth
When I got my car about 5 months ago, the clutch pedal was almost as soft as my gas pedal. Now it's starting to feel much, much harder, like my brake pedal, almost.

It could just be that I'm getting used to this clutch the way I was used to my last vehicle. When I first started driving my 3, the clutch felt like pressing down nothing, compared to how my Tacoma felt (like doing leg presses). Maybe I've adjusted to the 3, and now it just feels hard to my leg.

Has anyone else noticed this with their MTX?
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That doesn't sound good, I'd take it in. I've had my car for seven months now, and it still feels completely identical, and very soft.
My clutch hasn't change... but it has never been "soft" always had a firmness to it, which I like...

My other car has a soft clutch, and I find I am stalling it because i come on or off too fast because I am expecting more resistance.
I would say if it changed from very soft to very hard, you may have a hydraulic issue. Mine is still nice and soft and has not changed at all even going from nice mild weather to frigid arctic winter weather.
Yeah, I was wondering if the winter, sub-freezing temperatures had anything to do with it.
Have you checked you fluid lately? Maybe your fluid might just be getting low.
No, I haven't. I'm not a car person at all. I can figure out how to check it, though. I'll do that. Thanks.
It's the small resevoir sitting all the way in the back, pretty much centered under the hood. It's right up top and has an odd shape with a big black cap on top. Our car uses the same resevoir for the brakes as the clutch, so it's the same fluid in the same place.

It's the little white resrvoir sitting right there, top dead center. Here.
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It's definitely the winter/extreme cold. The hydraulic fluid get's cold, the viscosity of the fluid increases with decrease in temperature. Making it more sticky/stiff. Causing the amount of force needed to depress the clutch pedal to increase.

It'll get back to normal once the temps get back above/near 32F.

Story, last week I kept my car in the garage, when it was turned on the temp gauge read 20F. The clutch felt relatively normal. I drove to the end of my development, the temp guage read -5 the clutch felt extremely heavy.
[quote author=AlvinRow link=topic=134018.msg2882561#msg2882561 date=1232641318]
It's definitely the winter/extreme cold. The hydraulic fluid get's cold, the viscosity of the fluid increases with decrease in temperature. Making it more sticky/stiff. Causing the amount of force needed to depress the clutch pedal to increase.

It'll get back to normal once the temps get back above/near 32F.

Story, last week I kept my car in the garage, when it was turned on the temp gauge read 20F. The clutch felt relatively normal. I drove to the end of my development, the temp guage read -5 the clutch felt extremely heavy.
[/quote]

Only thing I go on here is the fact that her in central PA, the temperatures haven't gotten about like 25 in about a week or more and the clutch in my car (even when the temperatures dipped below 0 wit hthe wind) never got hard. It's been soft the whole way through. Maybe it has a lot to do with the age and quality of fluid in the system as well.
Yeah, it's probably a combination of things, but I've noticed the clutch pedal get stiffer in the winter in 3 different cars that I've driven during the winter - an 03 civic, 04 element, and my 07 MZ3 with 34k miles. My 90 corolla had a cable clutch, it was pretty consistent.
I think the clutch might be pressure sensitive...

Reason I say that is because I was gone for a year in Iraq, and my wife drove the car while I was gone. When I got back, the clutch felt like a feather...So much so that I thought something was wrong. She hadn't noticed any difference, but within a few miles, it was back to what it should have been. Then the next time she got in the car, she called me "What did you do to the clutch? It's a lot harder to press now!"

Checked the fluids and such, car only has 17k on it (07 model) and everything is in working order.

:shrugs:
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