I have a 98' neon DOHC, and recently my clutch pedal went down kinda like what the brake pedal does when you blow a brake line while moving slowly in the drive through of our popular coffee shop. It still works fine but you have to press it all the way to the floor, unlike before where it was set to like half way. now it's like nothing for the first 3/4s of the way.

It still shifts good, no grinding, doesn't slip at all ever, I can shift into 3rd gear going 20 clicks and floor it and it will accelerate without any slipping. I brought it to a few garages and they say it has to be my clutch... but they agree it doesn't have any of the clutch symptoms, one mechanic said drive it till it completely breaks... then I'll be able to tell for sure.

Any ideas from the Neon Gurus

--
Danny

 

Every neon Ive ever owned Ive had to put mostly to the floor...I dont quite understand Do you have a modular/non-modular clutch? Well ......I think you siad in an earlier post it was from detroit...but i dont think its a problem unless you feel vibrations in the clutch pedal...

 

I'd say the cable is a damn good guess. I had the exact same symptoms after changing my trans. See the cable is "self-adjusting" if you look at it under the hood you'll see a spring on the outside of the cable which maintains cable tension. Mine snagged on the brake booster (I think maybe it was something else) when I re-installed the cable and thus couldn't self-adjust properly, I'm betting your spring broke and you need a new cable I think they're pretty cheap. Just out of curiosity do you hear any rattling from the bellhousing area, my throw-out bearing rattled a bit without that tension on it. I'm disappointed that a professional mechanic couldn't diagnose this.

 

I never noticed a ratle, but funny you say that I was hearing some kind of rattling this morning, I thought I just being paranoid after breaking a CV joint yesterday.
I'll check for that tonight after work and let you know for sure, I'll also check to see if there is any damage to the spring.

just to be sure, would I hear a bit of a ratle when the clucth is engaged or when not ?
--
thank you,
Danny.

 

clutch engaged, should go away if you put a little presure on the pedal.

 

I'd agree that your clutch cable probably isn't self-adjusting anymore. Personally, I like mine that way and adjust it so the clutch is fully engaged about 1/2" off the floor - as low as I can get it without grinding any gears (still have ot double-clutch to downshift). Saves wear and tear on the TOB, which is why I had to pull the tranny last time... Inner race had fallen off and the outer race dug into the pressure plate. Ate through 9 fingers before I could get to it...

Pulling the spring away from the firewall shortens the cable length and will raise the pedal height.

Best of luck!

 

Yeah, I do hear a ratle when the clutch is pressed, I also hear a weird noise when I press the clutch after going in reverse for a bit, the noise is hard to explain. kinda sounds like a metally 'chick'...



--
Thank you
Danny

 

Is it in your clutch pedal or outside the car??? Is your clutch pedal a lot tighter?? Harder to engage??? When you shift hard does it let off a burning smell??? Is your shifter hard to engage into a certain gear? 2nd or 3rd?? Is there any stutter when you take off??? Any slipping where it seems to catch and hold for a second???? Certain problems can be caused by a bad throwout bearing....differentials... broken off or worn clutch pressure plate fingers...Poor transmission mount....low or no clutchfluid....damaged flywheel...spline problems ......blah blah blah There could be a lot going on you just need to open it up, see whats goin on or just replace a lot of it if your ready to upgrade to a better clutch...or flywheel or LSD ..limited slip differential.

 

Outside the car, the clutch gives the same resistance as it did when the pedal only had to move down about an inch before engaging the clutch. There is abosultly no smell at all or slipage in any of the gears, and is easy to slide in any gear, exept for the first gear going 80 km/h

I replaced my front motor mount last year, it was badly torn, I put a solid mount, I suspect the trainee ones are probably in need of changing as well, could that be it?... my friends are telling me that solid mounts are hard on your engine and trainee... is that true?

--
Thank you
Danny.

 

Sweet my car brought this exact smae problem to the table today like 5 hours ago, im afraid to drive it