Clutch Fluid Question...
 

Some weeks back local Ford service test drove our 2014 GT and implied our clutch felt like we "might be burning it" by driving improperly. After ripping them a new one with details on how many manual shift cars we've had over the years...including a 2012 Mustang...they backed off and said "Bring it in and let's see what's up."

They called and said "Well, the service tech tells me that the clutch actually has a little storage area filled with essentially brake fluid, and...it was a low. Soon as we filled it back to proper levels, clutch felt fine. We checked for leaks but didn't find any. Could have accidentally come a little low from the factory."

We picked up the car, and while the clutch DID feel SLIGHTLY (and I mean slightly) different, we noticed nothing new.

Not being technical my wife and I thought we should ask up here...does this sound legit, or like they didn't feel like taking the whole clutch apart to find out what was really wrong? If anything?

Thanks for any input
Tom

I think I remember your story from a few weeks ago...no?

Funny you should bring it up again, as I had my car tuned by AED a couple weeks ago (dyno tune). All that week leading up to the appointment, my clutch felt soft and/or slow to return. I asked Shaun about it and we both inspected the brake fluid reservoir, which had signs of boiling over. He suggested a full fluid swap - I guess when the brake fluid boils, it shears, which gives the mushy clutch pedal feel. It's not on my list of things to do.

The fluid the clutch uses is the same as the brakes, this "storage area" they talked about is the brake fluid reservoir.

a little low wouldn't make any difference, it would have to be low enough for an air bubble to get into the clutch line, which is near about the bottom third of the reservoir. I would call that extremely low.

the tech probably pumped the pedal 100 times or maybe vacuum bled the reservoir.