How to bleed air from hydraulic clutch 

Legend has it that to this day he is still pumping out the air out of the master cylinder

this worked for my 2007 Dodge Caliber manual transmission..but with just the rapid petal pumping during both cap off and cap on..also pumped the brake and clutch pedals together since my Dodge Caliber shares the brake fluid with the clutch pressure plate. thanks for the information..it saved me from a very expensive transmission repair!

Somethings wrong when you take more air out of your clutch system than what you have in all 4 tires. Think about it. Do it like he says and you'll be wasting alot of time.

A #8 Rubber Stopper on the Clutch Reservoir with the Brake Bleeder works great too. A vacuum on the hydraulic system removes the master cylinder's air without having to remove anything. If the slave cylinder is not connected to the hydraulic line, put a baggy with a Zip-tie on the Slave Cylinder end which will prevent the hydraulic line's check valve from sucking in air. Works great.

Some inaccurate methods in this vid as several ppl have pointed out, some helpful methods such as popping the clutch method works for some, it helped me get some air out of my system while I wait for my mityvac in the mail to do a proper bleed job. Thanks for taking the time out to make a vid and sharing your trial and error experience with us.

I literally had bubbles coming out for two hours. Very helpful video.

He's still removing air to this day

dude, this is so wrong. You havnt a clue what your doing.

how do u replace a 91chev S10 2.8 b612 slave cylinder (mounts to firewall) with the new one when old one has a 45 degree angle, new one does not; or matters not

I don’t understand the hate on this video?

This is a brilliant way to take all the fluid out of the system in 3 seconds but not to remove air from it

Do you do the vacuum pump with the pedal pushed in or no?

There could NEVER be that much air in a hydraulic clutch line.

That air is coming from between the hose and fitting

I'm not so sure those bubbles are coming out of your system. Could just be the connections in your vacuum pump leaking

Honesty poping up the pedal works for me thanks bro!! For this video!!

why does a clutch lock? does it need more fluid or does it mean I need to buy new parts? I've spend so much on my car, and at this point i am exausted.

So the nozzle goes in there tightly? I tried that but it was to tight it wouldn’t pull anything

It is terrifying to think that someone who doesn't know what they are doing might watch this video and think they learned something...

Dude there should be a round saucer looking thing in that kit, that’s is what u use to seal off the reservoir

Clutch popping helped in my situation. Thanks

Obviously there are better ways, but this method will actually work on some systems, but only if you draw fairly low vacuum, keep the reservoir level well above the outlet port, and regularly remove the vacuum fitting from the reservoir outlet port, to allow fluid to be sucked down into the slave cylinder. On most systems, the slave and master cylinder seals are only capable of sealing under pressure, and only seal to a certain extent under fairly low vacuum. What we're more than likely seeing here is outside air being sucked in the rear of the master cylinder, or in past the slave cylinder seals. Sure, the hose fittings could've also been allowing some air to come in too, but you can normally see the bubbles rising from between the fitting and hose rather than up through the middle. What's far less likely, as some 'scientists' in these comments have speculated, is the fluid boiling under vacuum, which is of course possible with many fluids, but only in a fully sealed vacuum situation. However, given the design of pretty much all hydraulic clutch and brake systems, this is impossible, given the seals will allow air to get in way before you'll ever be able to pull enough vacuum to boil the fluid.🤣👍

Do you leave to car of or off

Just saved me from calling in sick to work, Legend

try putting your vacuum bleeder on your BLEEDER valve on your slave cylinder. you should definitely delete this before someone tries this and puts air in their clutch lines

Thank you for your video, Was gonna tried something else, which wouldn’t be as easy as bleeding from the top.

Can anybody help me? I was attempting a reservoir air bleed and accidentally ended up sucking out all the air. Now the pedals dead. Any help would be nice

I did the popping and it allowed me to get pressure in my system. After 2 days my clutch stiffened and works. I have a clutch damper and i have had a difficult time with my clutch.

Looks like a loose fitting on the slave side. That’s how all those bubbles are getting in. It’ll feel better by driving because you’re basically pumping the air from a leak. Keep an eye on that clutch fluid level👍

Is that elbow made from rubber or hard plastic.

Great video it's also went you driver from 1st then 2nd in very fast then also the clutch go's why say that it's happen to me, my clutch pedal went spongy now I have 1/4 pedal of the clutch from the floor and the car will not go into gear I have push the pedal so many time when it is running.

I'm in the middle of diagnosing the hydraulic clutch system in an '84 Fiero, and I keep hearing the term "spongy" to describe clutch pedal feel. When you had air in the line, did it feel like you had a balloon under the pedal when you were stepping on it?

I hope people actually read the comments before attempting wrong methods lol

Thanks for your info me and my brother in law were scratching our head after putting the slave cylinder in his ranger couldnt get clutch back up pushed clutch let it spring up clutch pedal came back after pumping and bleeding did not work

knew he was wrong within 2 minutes. but I kept watching for giggles :)

Popping the clutch like he did at first worked for me

Thanks!

thanks it was lot's of help

that the air gradually worked its way out "eventually" but I literally have a bleeder tool i bought at a yard sale to do this for me made things sooo easy,.

You should stop working on cars.

When it's just a matter of a bit of air in the hydraulic clutch system causing the clutch to engage at the bottom of the stroke I've had success by just filling the master cylinder and very rapidly pumping the clutch pedal until the bubbles find their way out...You will gradually feel increased pedal pressure as the air works it's way out. It could take several hundred strokes but still a lot easier than what you went through in this video. My method may or may not work on a completely empty system....I've never been there.

Applying a vacuum to the top of the master cylinder will only remove small amounts of air near the top end of the system. You can spend an hour doing it and still have a soft clutch pedal. There is an air bleed hole in the clutch release assembly which is closed by the long hexagonal bolt/bleed screw seen at 0:10 in the video. Crawl under the car; the bleed screw will be sticking out of the side access port in the bell housing; that is the reason for its length. Unscrew that bleed screw...7/16-inch socket on swivel joint...enough to allow fluid to escape for a minute and pump the clutch pedal a few times without letting the fluid in the master cylinder reservoir drop below the outlet hole. You might see air bubbles...or not. Tighten up the bleed screw. Check clutch pedal action. Repeat, if necessary. Done !! The short fitting in the picture is the fluid inlet port from the master cylinder...which should have a braided steel fluid line attached to it. Easy to find if you just jack up the left side of the front end of the vehicle. Don't forget to use a jack stand for safety.

The air in hydraulic clutches gets out by itself while driving.. Usually there's a bleeder valve on/near the transmission(looks like the brake caliper bleeder) to get the air out if there is a fair amount of air in the slave cylinder. But the easy way is pumping the clutch pedal or driving.

Hey man, we did that too pumpin the clutch pedal adds air, cycling clutch bad idea

The air is coming from the seal from the plastic hose not from the clutch

RU-vid certified mechanic right here

Yep. An air tight seal is quite a bit tighter than a fluid seal. Some foil tape on the house connections next time!

Very Good

All that air isn't coming from the clutch system... You are sucking air into the hose from your hose connection to the little ELBOW. LOL

I did it the traditional way, bleed the air out from the slave cylinder, press the pedal down undo bleed screw do it back up. release foot pedal. do it all over again. Until pedal was felt like it was firm not spongey. sometimes there are no shorts cuts just do it right

If you put the vacume pump on the bleed nipple which should be on the slave or along the hydrologic line and pump the vacume then loosen the bleed nipple, when bubbles stop tighten the bleed nipple to close. This should solve any problems.

The bubbles are coming out of the holes that you put on there not out of the clutch system

push clutch in an its squeles like as if u had low power steering fluid 1994 mustang gt

His girlfriend was full of air too!

i have air in my lines but not this much! if i did i would be dead by now due to brake failure. Like an idiot though i let my brake fluid tank run very low and clutch pedal lost its pressure slightly now wont go into gear. I topped up the brake fluid but didnt bleed it. Devastated!. Thoughty my clutch was kaput but maybe not. find out Monday.

If you had so much air in your system, your clutch wouldn’t work at all.

But legit question... Why not use a vacuum pump kit to “force” suck the fluid down from the slave? I have a bit of air in my BMW hydraulic clutch and the conventional press the pedal in and bleed won’t work, there’s barely any fluid coming out. So I see people “reverse” bleeding by pumping fresh fluid up inside the system through the slave and let the air out the reservoir. BUT why not simply vacuum bleed it through the slave?

ive done this and it sucks. I installed a speed bleeder and what a difference

you had no air in your line. those bubbles were from "boiling" the fluid from lower pressure not from heat. if you took science class as a kid there was an experiment where a container was filled with water then put under a vacuum, when you held it in your hand it would look like the water was boiling, but in reality the vacuum lowered the boiling point of the water to boil from the heat from your hand. you want to use as low of a vacuum as you can when bleeding brakes. and the clutch bleed you are showing people is not accurate unfortunately.

Bought one of these brake bleeders to get the air out of my clutch and maybe I do not have any air to suck out but simply sucks the brake fluid dry and I see no air bubbles and re- introduces air back into system My clutch pedal goes all the way to the floor so I thought I had air in line.

I don't know a lot about this but how is that much air coming from the line? Also why are you doing it this way? You could just keep pumping the clutch until the air bubbles worked their way out.

no idea what your doing but good effort man!! atleast you tried lol

I think you will find you are sucking air past the seals on the master or slave cylinder.

3:15 is where the action starts

So do you work on aircraft too?...

This guy has no idea of what he is doing.

My pedal doesn't come back up after I push it down

driving the car did nothing!!!! brake and clutch hydraulic systems do not circulate fluids!!!!! its static!!! pressure!!! if the fluid circulated there would be no pressure which is how it assists/actuates!!!

Looks great, but it's good to see how you got the whole setup. Are you sure all those bubbles were coming from the line and not a leak in your improvised "elbow"?

This vacuum pump is working great. Look at all this air in the line😂😂😂😂

if he is sucking with that pump then the fluid level should be going down, but its not, i dont know

You aren’t bleeding air from the system. If it had that much air the clutch wouldn’t have worked to begin with. What’s happening is the vacuum not pressure on the system boils the fluid. You can apply vacuum on a jar of water at room temperature and it will boil. That’s why we have pressure caps on the radiator to increase the boiling point past 212 degrees.

ive never seen so much air in my life come out of a clutch,good lord.those were huge bubbles man

omg!!! is this fake? it has to be. i cant believe you thought that there was that much air in there. hahahahahaha!!

Use the closed system bottle method on the slave cylinder. At least I would say.

I just put my fish tank bubbler in my clutch fluid reserve and I fixed mines too :) no way!!! I am going to try a McDonald’s straw next I think it will make more bubbles and fix my problem even faster

That's way too Much air For a working clutch. Your pump Is pulling outside air from a loose connection.

OMG this is hilarious! 😂😂😂

It was sucking air through the junctions of you r adapters...

lets hope this method doesn't get used on the brakes lmao

One of the best trolls ever

Popping the clutch 100 times will firm up the pedal, but the vacuum pump in the reservoir won't do any good

This does not work on GM quick disconnect lines because the seal is meant to hold only under forward fluid pressure, using the vacuum will allow air to be sucked in past the QD line seal washer. When you look at the GM fitting pin retainer cup and the hose end, you will see how the fluid pressure actually presses the line fitting tight against the seal washer. Those QD line ends are not designed to hold a strong vacuum suction like a solid metal flare nut line would. In most cases a socket extension or long screw driver can be used in the inspection hole to hold the clutch fork so the slave piston can't come out as you work the bleed valve, this will require a helper to slowly push the pedal by hand to bleed out the line. The slave must be bench bled before installing it and capped with the plastic shipping plug, then the fluid line will be easy to bleed after installation . For the cost of that vac pump, you could have purchased a proper service manual that would have explained this. The engine vac method only puts minimal vac compared to that hand pump that is powerful enough to suck air in through the QD fittings. The GM specs are 51-68 Kpa on the vac method for pancake slaves and the vac is applied to the reservoir cap, not the fluid reservoir return hole. See this link picture of the pin style fittings below, they and the new style clutch QD's will not hold a powerful vacuum, Cheers. image.superchevy.com/f/9588795+w640+h426+q80+re0+cr1+ar0+st0/p100233_image_large.jpg From this article that covers all clutch slave types and has good info: www.superchevy.com/how-to/39021/

Holy Crap! I saw the comments and thank god it wasn't just me! There's no fkn way he pulled that much air out of a clutch system! The fluid shoulda dropped completely, and there's no way in hell the clutch coulda worked at all!

about a year ago,i saw him driving around,he stopped at a red light and i could hear a thump,thump popping sound,this was the other day,its 2020 now.

Jesus how much wine does your clutch have you had about half a liter of air in that line

You should have just put a clamp on the slave cylinder and compress it then bleed it untill you get no air. Then let go of the slave and reinstall it. Easy way to bleed your clutch

bleed from the bleeder valve at the bottom

Clutch popping!?!? Is this a real technique

Now i've seen it all. Dude delete this video your are embarrassing yourself

give the guy a break,I also tried this one time and it actually worked on a tilted master on ranger

Where's the second video🤣 Oooh the suspense! Is he ok???

Lol that air is coming from that fitting you’re using 😂

Spoiler alert The reason hydraulics seem to improve as you drive the car is when you clutch with the car facing up hill air in the master escapes to reservoir

air is coming in through the elbow, you're not getting any air out.

He might clean the crap floating around in the fluid out.fresh fluid with no dirt

No holes in line. Master cylinder is dry on outside. Bleeder is closed , clutch is nearly new.... still no pressure

wow

Don't know any

Might as well disconnect the line because uou filled it with air again