Clutch not engaging?

TCUPS24

MEMBER
2004 SATURN VUE
2.2L
4 CYL
2WD
MANUAL
116,000 MILES

I was driving my vehicle listed above aggressively one day and it broke the shifter lever cable adjuster/connector located under the shifter and connects the shifter to the transmission shift cable. I replaced it and it had a hard time going into 1st or 2nd gear (The shifter was stiff to pop into gear), but shifted normal into 3rd 4th and 5th gear. Reverse was really difficult to get into gear. I had to get it home so I just did what I could to take it easy shifting the whole 20 something miles home then parked it. Now when I try to shift it into gear it won’t go at all while it’s running but would go into gear just fine when it’s turned off. And the clutch pedal feels very easy to push like it has no pressure at all, but it does return to original position when it is pushed on. I checked the master cylinder fluid, and it was full, the clutch fluid is good.

1 Reply

JACOBANDNICKOLAS

MECHANIC
109,615 POSTS

Hi,

It sounds like either the clutch master cylinder or slave cylinder have failed. You can't shift with it running because the transmission is not disengaged from the engine.

We need to check if the clutch master cylinder has failed. One thing you can do is try bleeding the system to see if the MC forces fluid properly. I attached the bleed directions below.

If it does, the slave is the other likely issue. On this vehicle, you will need to remove the transmission to access it.

Try this and let me know what you find.

Joe

See pics below.

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