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My clutch pedal was harder than normal at start up on my .1 997 turbo. Low Milage Car with under 10k miles and recentlserviced. I checked the power steering fluid and it was bone dry. The brake fluid in front was at ok but at min level. I’ve read numerous threads about accumulator and slave but not sure if this is related. Don’t want to drive car until speaking with my mechanic.
Remove the drivers side plastic inspection cover (right of the battery center cover). You will notice that your slave reservoir is most likely full and over-flowing.
You will see Pentosin all over the bulkhead.
You should have been seeing small puddles under the car up front and in some cases under the gearbox, bell housing>>passenger side under the starter.
Replace your slave cylinder and accumulator.
Fill the power Steering Reservoir >>you will be able to drive your car to the shop.
Just to clarify, the brake reservoir is visible without removing any panels, but isn't what you want to check. The clutch reservoir is similar, but not visible unless you remove the plastic panel. Pentosin is nasty stuff that will deform and eat at plastic and rubber... Don't wait to get it addressed.
When the slave fails, it allows pressurized power steering fluid (which is used in the slave to "assist" for lighter pedal pressure) to push through a seal into the clutch circuit, draining the power steering reservoir and overflowing the clutch reservoir. The accumulator stores hydraulic pressure so that you get some assist even when the engine/power steering pump are not running. OK idea, but a terrible implementation. Swap to GT2 style setup if you want more clutch feel and never want it ti fail again.
Your ps pentosin fluid had to go somewhere... Next place to look is under the car, right above the drive axles. The accumulator and the slave itself also leak there. Might need to put the car on some jackstands/ramps/lift to get a good look.
Could be the power steering rack, but I've never heard of one of those leaking, and pretty much every 996/997 turbo will have the clutch system leak at some point.,..
Could be the power steering rack, but I've never heard of one of those leaking, and pretty much every 996/997 turbo will have the clutch system leak at some point.,..
Mine leaked into the boot for the inner tie rod. Discovered a few months back when I was doing the suspension refresh.
I had an internal seal/ diaphram failure in my accumulator, so the fluid was collected inside, no leaks. Symptoms were the same as yours, virtually no PS fluid in reservoir, clutch reservoir was ok, no leaks anywhere, and hard pedal with engine off.
PS: it was on a 12k MI 2007 tt. Mechanic said that this particular type of failure is more common on low mile older cars (997.1, 996), where the internal rubber diaphram simply disintegrates then fluid backfills into air cavity, becoming trapped inside the accumulator.
Not a hard repair but awkward, parts are less than $200. Installation at an indy is roughly $400 - 500, Porsche is about $700. Total cost 3rd party install... $800 to 1200 depending on where it is done.
If you want to eliminate this problem all together there are a few ways to replace both accumulator and clutch slave cylinder...BBI, GT2 parts swap, Evom. There are several good threads on these options..
05-12-2019, 03:22 PM
Power steering fluid bone dry
