How to tell if a clutch is low?

[Novice_cardude]

Hey, i just bought a '96 Camry DX. The clutch doesn't engage until the pedal is almost all the way out, so I was able to get the salesman to drop the price under the assumption that i'll need a new clutch soon.

However, i tried making it slip by accellerating to about 25 mph, putting it in 5th and flooring it, and the clutch doesn't seem to slip at all.

My question is, could this be a low clutch or a hydraulics .. misadjustment? The pedal feels just like the swing in any other pedal, where you can almost visualize the pressure plate working and all that, but the clutch doesn't engage until the pedal is like 3 inches from the end of its swing.

Oh yeah, and the pedal has almost no freeplay.

i dont want to go tearing into my car before I have to, especially if I get the old disc out and find out its got plenty of surface left.

[CamryPunk]

Check the clutch fluid and bleed it and fill it again. That may work.

[Novice_cardude]

Yeah, I checked the fluid level but I haven't bled the system yet, i'll give that a go.

It uses dot 3 brake fluid as the hydraulic fluid dont it?

[eyeball96]

I wish I had a clutch!!

[Novice_cardude]

Oh yeah, failed to mention the car has 100k miles on it, and I know a lot of clutches make it way past the 100k mark, that's why i'm hesitating to replace it yet.

I am gonna try the freeplay and pedal height adjustment, as well as bleeding the system tomorrow. Hopefully I won't have to replace the clutch, but if I do i'd like to know as soon as possible.

So how do you tell for sure if your clutch has breathed its last?

[Digger1]

CMIIW, but if your clutch lines needed bleeding, wouldn't you have the opposite problem with your clutch, i.e., wouldn't you have a HARD time disengaging the clutch?

[Novice_cardude]

Thats what I was thinking but I bled the system anyway.

Didn't change the feel or release point at all, but it was fun.

I didnt accomplish much by adjusting the pedal either, but again that was fun too.

So does that mean my actual pad is low? Or is there something else I could check?

[luisitol]

you said it doesn't slip so it shouldn't be the disc. On my '95 the engagement seems high as well but i kn ow its a new clutch so i know its not the disc. Hopefully someone else will have gone through the same thing.

[Novice_cardude]

Hmm, this is REALLY high, but yeah, if it's normal to engage that high it doesn't bother me.

What am I saying? It bothers me because i've never driven a car with a clutch that engages this high before. Its like you can feel the pressure plate moving, and way toward the end of its swing the clutch starts to engage, like the last 2 inches of pedal movement.

So other than slipping are there any other signs to look for that will indicate a low clutch disc?

It's a different feel than what i've driven before, and rather annoying to drive with only a couple inches of engagement room (i jerk the car around a lot) but I can get used to it as long as i'm sure that's the way it's supposed to feel.

[marc780]

Its got 100 k and chances are the last owner was as loathe to change a clutch as you are so i'd be geting ready to change it. Not a fun job but not too expensive if you do it yourself - fair amount of work, all day maybe two if youve never done one in which case have it done. $2-300 probably around here.
HOW TO TEST A CLUTCH, THE HARD WAY, WIThout tearing out the trans and actually looking at the cltuch disc and pres plate (and if you got that far youd just change the damn things anyways): The next paragraph is probly not good for the car and this is not too easy on a clutch so i'd only do it once..
To test the clutch, Drive the car somewhere where there is nothing to hit for a 50-or a hundred feet or more in front of you.
Pull the parking brake on good and tight. Put trans in SECOND and give it some gas, hold engine at 2000 - 2500 rpm then drop the clutch (let up on pedal). Maybe a second afterward clutch engages let up on gas. The engine should immediately stall. If it doesnt, clutch is probly a'slippin.

[blueapple]

I bought a 96 camry with 99K, and the clutch engages way high, within a week of purchase, it started to slip. 5th gear usually doesn't slip, try it in 4th, floor it from about 40mph or 20k rpm.

And ever since I had the clutch changed by a local mechanic, the engagement point stayed pretty low, and I get this buzzing/dragging from the pedal whenever the car's warmed up. (weird, I have no idea why, but nothing else is wrong, so the shop won't redo it. I bought all Toyota parts by the way) . doing it yourself on a gen3 camry is ALOT of work, I tried, and gave up ( I had 9 hours and a lifter, but still, It seemed to be a 2 days job to me, and if you are not gonna take the entire drive train out, you gonna need a engine lift to support the engine, since the engine's bolted on to the subframe, entirely )

The pedal weight changed a lot, I don't know if the guy who did it swapped my toyota parts for something else, but it's so much ligher. Which reminds me, if the pedal feels very stiff at the very end, it could be time to go.

[wop9]

I've had a 97 camry V6 since it had about 40k miles now and the clutch has always engaged when the pedal is high. It's at 97k miles now and the thing that is starting to worry me is that it is more difficult to get it into gear than before. I haven't checked anything yet but I'm anticipating a clutch replacement soon.

[Novice_cardude]

well it's 1,000 miles later, and the clutch ain't slipping yet. It's still disturbingly high, but no problems yet. I'm going to wait until I actually have problems to do anything about it, I just hope I don't have problems at a critical time. :P

[5spd V6 ClrTail]

I have that problem too, no freeplay or slipping or anything but the engagement point is like 3 inches from the floor. I changed the master cylinder twice, cause the clutch stuck to the floor twice in an intersection <<<<scary. My clutch has a mind of it's own, it's sometimes high up there like it used to be, and then low