Ok you motorheads, riddle me this one.

As many of you may recall, I got my Type-S in late December, the backdrop here is that when I bought the Acura the lone tech note from the dealership's survey was that it was going to need a clutch soon. Whether or not "soon" was 2000 miles or 20,000 was/is unknown. Here's what its begin doing yesterday and today:

When I start up first thing in the morning the pedal engagement was very, very low. Only got resistance probably a couple inches above the floor & I couldn't get the stick to pop into first, second or reverse. Due to the slope of our driveway I'm able to get a roll going and get the car into gear the old-fashioned way. Decided to drive around the hood a little and see what happens. The pedal engagement remains very low...until things get warmed up. Once the tranny is good and warm, I dunno, its like the clutch develops extra pressure in the system or something and it returns to operating fine. I hopped on the freeway and ran up a few exits then back, by the time I got back to our off-ramp the pedal would engage about two inches from the top of its travel range - just the opposite of what it does when cold. Causing me to wonder if I really have a failing clutch or something else, perhaps related to hydraulics since with time/heat pressure seems to build.

 

Have you checked the clutch fluid? Something similar happened to my Maxima 5-speed a few years ago, and the fluid was low due to a leaky hose.

 

My '05 did the same thing. It ended up being both a slow leak and the clutch master cylinder going bad. I knew the clutch was due as well, so I initially thought it was the clutch. The master cylinder gave me about another six months before I had to replace the clutch.

 

Yep. I checked it and its nice and full. About a fifth of an inch above the "F" line, in fact. Funny thing, I had a Maxima 5-speed too. Pebble beige. Loved that car.

Fluid isn't low & there's no fluid on the garage floor beneath the car - so its not losing fluid. weird

 

Sounds like either your clutch master cylinder or your clutch slave cyl. is going bad. I had a similar issue and had my local dealership replace both the clutch master and clutch slave cylinders.

Just a FYI...when I first got the car back, I still had some difficulty getting the car into 1st & reverse gear and the pedal didn't feel as firm as to what I was used to. The system likely needed to be rebleed. Took the car back to the dealership and they were more than happy to bleed the system again. Now the TL shifts perfectly and clutch pedals feels nice and firm.

My dealership price-matched the Clutch Slave Cyl. with the cheapest online Acura price and I purchased the genuine OEM Clutch Master Cyl. from Amazon. (See link below)



Highly recommend buying the genuine oem clutch master from Amazon. Part came in sealed genuine Honda box and the cylinder itself was in a sealed bag inside the box. Very happy with the purchase and the price is unbeatable.