Master or slave cylinder?

[Yuriman]

This morning my clutch was a bit spongy. It didn't go to the floor, but something wasn't right. After dropping my wife off at work, I checked the fluid level and found the reservoir was low. I topped it off, pumped the clutch a few times, and it hardened back up. I'm certain the reservoir was full maybe 2-3 months ago, last I checked it.

I decided to do a visual of the entire line, and didn't see any puddles, but it appears there might be a slow leak at the slave, and I'm not sure about the master - there's some grease that has migrated out and it could be because of a leak.

I went ahead and bled the system, hoping the newer, thinner fluid might leak more quickly and be easier to spot, and found the old fluid looked like chocolate milk.

What do you guys think?

Slave:

Master, where the grease is coming out:

Fluid:

 

[tweakmonkey]

Replace both. Cheap and might as well do it once.

 

[Yuriman]

Makes good sense. Only comes out to about $150 total for factory parts.

 

[thedarkwolf]

If it is anything like my miata it is the slave but once you replace that the master will immediately die and once you replace that the line will blow .

 

[neocpp]

If it is anything like my miata it is the slave but once you replace that the master will immediately die and once you replace that the line will blow .

Nearly the same story here with my integra. Nothing seemed to be leaking, but I've read on other forums that sometimes the slave can be the culprit even if it looks okay visually. Replacing it fixed the problem, but then the master went soon after.

Also the price you mentioned seems a bit high. I didn't use OEM (just bought something off rockauto), but it only came to $25 or so in parts. I didn't see what type of car you have though.

 

[Yuriman]

2000 Honda Insight, and I'm choosing to go with parts from g1parts.com, which is a genuine Honda parts distributor. There are aftermarket units available on RockAuto for less ($100 vs $150 total) but they appear to be of different design and for only $50 more I'd rather have the original parts. If it had been $25 vs $150, I'd probably have cheaped out.

 

[skyking]

Somebody put the grease on the master plunger. The slave is leaking.
They may have greased it because it squeaked in the piston socket.