Rep Power: 0

2002 civic lx / hydraulic clutch / 5-sp / problem either with clutch or with starter ?

engine has 260k highway miles . . . clutch / starter original.

while car is running, i can access all the gears without difficulty . . . just starting the engine is the problem. seems each week i have to press the clutch pedal further down . . . today all the way down to the floor . . . before starter finally initiates.

realizing a driver needs to push down the clutch, in order to start the car (safety issue) . . . does this switch need replacing . . . or is the hydraulic clutch really going bad ?

oh yeah, one other thing . . . there seems to be a couple drops of oil / fluid on my garage floor that are quite recent.

based on the info i gave, if it is the clutch going bad . . . would it be the hyd-master or hyd-slave cylinder . . . or some other focus entirely ?

thanks in advance for your knowledge / experience.

 
Rep Power: 218

Usually, if one of the cylinders goes bad, it's usually the slave IIRC. My car, and every other standard I've driven, behaves the same way when starting. The clutch needs to be floored in order to start it. I mean, it seems like that. I've never really thought about it since I always did that when learning. Check to see where the fluid is coming from if you can. Check the reservoir as well. A guy on another forum I frequent had his CSC go and fluid got on his pedal and on his foot. I work on my car so I know the smells of all the fluids. I can't really describe them, so I don't know how to help you with that.

 
Rep Power: 0

slave cylinder . . . ic . . . thanks for your quick input.

 
Rep Power: 218

I would wait around and see what the other members say, just to be safe though.