To make a long story short, my 04 stratus R/T coupe 5-speed with 88,000 miles was having no problems as of friday night. I drove to rochester and back (about an hour each way) without a hitch/issue. Saturday morning i woke up and drove to get coffee, at which point i realized how insanely difficult it was to shift. Putting it into first, second, and third was hard, putting it into reverse was literally impossible. It seems like the clutch pedal is a little easier to depress than it was friday night, but im not sure how much easier, it does feel like there's still hydraulic pressure though. Any ideas?

 

Slave cylinder going bad most likely. If sitting on a level surface with it in first and the clutch in does it creep forward? Mine did this. The slave cylinder is on the front of the transmission and is baby blue when new. It should be less than $100 and is pretty easy to change out. If you can bleed brakes you can change a slave cylinder.

 

my master cylinder was bone dry, with what looked like black goo/sludge in the edges of the cylinder. I'm just waiting for a second person to help me push the car into the garage and i'm going to bleed the clutch fluid. any idea what that black sludge/goo looking stuff might be?

 

It maybe from the lack of changing the fluid. But that just a guess.