It feels like it is never ending

[ast]

@Pollyanna

there was no oil to speak of in the slave cylinder. I bought an automatic bleed kit and bled all the old oil out that was left in the cylinder and tubing which was very dark brown, nearly black. Once I got the bleed kit set up it only took me five minutes to bleed it by pumping the clutch pedal. Now I can get it into all the gears with the engine running. I think I might jack the car up on four stands and check the gear box oil level on the next sunny day when I can then do this job outside of my garage/workshop

I hope this is a typo. Its not oil, its brake fluid. The blackness is from the rubber seals. I hope you didn’t top up the master cylinder reservoir with gear oil.

[Pollyanna]

No it’s just me and my old age, I used clutch/brake fluid through out. Car changes gear and runs really well now. I hope I can get out next spring and gets some motoring done in my MX5 as I have only drove about 300 miles a year in the last three years.I need to get a dose of visiting my favourite place in the UK that is the Lake District one we get rid of this Covid disease. I normally drive an automatic and it does feel a bit strange using gears again. I am going to check it for leaks tomorrow to try see why I lost the clutch fluid in the first place.

[Enjoyabull]

Oh the lake district… that is something to look forward to.

[Pollyanna]

Hi, I checked the slave cylinder for leaks this morning and it definitely needs replacing so that’s a job to be done before Spring. I took the opportunity while under the car to check the gear change oil, and it was just a little above the level of the plug hole and surprisingly it was very clean, just like new…

[ast]

Gear oil doesn’t heat cycle like engine oil. Something like Redline oil is effectively in for the life of the car; the only reason to change it would be because of contamination (according to the Redline rep).

[IanHP]

I fitted a £14 MX5 Parts slave cylinder in May 2015 and it’s fine 20,000 miles later. The tip I would offer is to connect the hydraulic pipe to it before fitting it to the bell housing at it can be a so and so to line up the union if the cylinder is in place.

[Pollyanna]

We were supposed to go to the lake district in May this year but with the corona virus it was postponed until September and as things hadn’t improved, it was postponed until May 2021.The booking agents and the owners of the Holiday cottage have been very good about all the postponements . I suppose our ages helped as we are in the vulnerable 80 to 85 years age group.

[ast]

I’ve been through a fair number of slave cylinders over the past 25 years. Whether Mazda or aftermarket, they all seem to last about 40-50k miles before giving up.

[Pollyanna]

I checked up on all the sales receipts and info that were with the car I bought 16 it years ago and there was nothing related to slave cylinders, and this is the first time I will have changed it so it is possible that it is the one that was fitted when the car was made and has travelled 53,726 km since new, which i suppose for a modern car is not that much.