I have an 04 V6 with manual tranny. Everything is basically stock. I just turned 30K, but am out of warranty due to the 3 year thing.
first thing in the morning my car is fine, clutch is smooth and easy, but about 15 min into my commute using the clutch becomes combersome. The pedal feels like it drags when pushing it in. and if you try to partially release the pedal then depress it, the pedal feels like it binds up and then pops and releases when you push hard enough. Very difficult in stop and go traffic as i am constantly fighting it to unbind and engage. After I get off of work it is fine again for 10 or 15 minutes.
One serviceman told me it was probably a worn out cable. I pulled the cable off and it is smooth and almost looks new.
The clutch doesn't slip or grab or anything like a failing clutch does.

Any ideas???

(moderators, please leave this in the general section, so I can get the V8 guys looking at this, Thanks!)

 

My first thought was cable as well. Did you pull the cable entirely off the car?

Secondly get on your back and look up under the dash at teh clutch quadrant and make sure everything is free with it and nothing is catching or broken. Its where the cable attaches to the pedal.

I also wonder if your clutch is somehow getting overheated and binding itself together... not something ive experienced, but its a total possibility i suppose. I know a guy that works for Spec, Ill see if he can give any input.

 

You can try adjusting the clutch by pulling up on the clutch pedal with until you hear the ratchet mechanism on the stock quadrant click.
Sometimes you can't get enough adjustment that way and you can reach up under the dash and push the on the spring loaded ratch pawl so that the teeth disengage then you tighten up the slack like you want it then release it so that it engages the teeth.

I did this on my '98 when I started getting funny popping sounds in my clutch pedal although clutch assembly itself was fine.

 

Got this from my friend.

"His car sounds like the adjustable quadrant and ratchet are trash...they are made out of nylon and just are weak to begin with. Another culprit, especially on the 99+ cars (for some reason) seems to be the clutch fork behaving funny after the car gets warm. Had a friend who replaced everything and nothing fixed his issue until he bought a new clutch fork. Somehow, his was twisting or binding up when the car got up to operating temperature.

But my first guess is the quadrant...it may be adjusted out from a worn clutch.

Tell him to get an aluminum quadrant, adjustable cable, new fork and a new clutch. It will fix the issue."

 

i dont know for sure if mustang clutches are hydraulic or manual, but i have a new ford pick that has a hydraulic clutch, and i had the same problems you are having and i found that it was the slave cylinder bad. the only bad part about the slave cylinder is that some are in the bell housing on the tranny and some are in the dash, but thats my experience with that particular problem you are having, good luck with it.

 

mustang = manual.

 

Well, my clutch died tuesday night in the middle of rush hour traffic. The clutch popped when I pushed in on the pedal and then the pedal went limp ( i hate it when that happens)

Turns out my throw out bearing was all tore up. I don't know a whole lot about T/O bearings but I was surprised at the result. Anyway I had them replace the clutch and pressure plate while they were in there.

Thanks for all the help guys