Hi.

I replaced the clutch in my nephew’s 2007 2.0 litre petrol Focus last week. New flywheel, new clutch plate, new pressure plate and new concentric slave cylinder.

I put the box back in, put everything back together, went to bleed the clutch and after 2 presses of the clutch pedal, the pedal locked up. I couldn’t press it any further. I released the bleed screw and we were able to press the pedal again, held down the pedal, tightened up the bleed screw went to press the clutch in and the pedal locked up again?

I looked under the car and found brake fluid dripping from the bottom of the bell housing. Oh shit!

A couple of days later I pulled it all apart again, dropped the box and removed the slave cylinder and found that the seal had blown out. Clutch (brake) fluid pooled up under the face of the thrust bearing. I couldn’t see any fluid on the new pressure plate or on the new clutch plate so fingers crossed it didn’t get contaminated.

I wasn’t going to let it beat me so I thought “nothing to lose” I’ll put the old slave cylinder back in. The bearing was a little noisy but it wasn’t leaking so what the hell.

I fitted the old slave back into the box, lifted the box back onto the motor. It went on with ease. I put a handful of bolts back in to hold the gearbox onto the motor. Went to bleed the clutch again and the same thing happened????????????

What have I done wrong?

I picked up the new broken slave and attached it to the clutch hose. I got my nephew to push the clutch pedal down and the thrust bearing moved forward on the cylinder (like it should). After he let the pedal back up I tried to push the bearing back into the cylinder and I couldn’t. Whilst I held the bearing in place I released the bleed screw and pushed on the bearing again and it went back. I got him to press the pedal again and once again it moved outward. Once again I couldn’t push it back. I got him to push the pedal a second time and the bearing moved further out from the cylinder almost to the end of its travel and again I couldn’t push it back in.

What is wrong here?

Any ideas?

I’m open to suggestions.

Brian