RTP Stainless Steel Full Clutch Line Replacement

Well a week ago, I ran into more clutch troubles, I decided to cut my losses and replace the whole clutch line and remove the upper bleeder for the Maxima with the RTP Stainless Steel Full Clutch Line replacement.

The old silly straw line with the upper bleeder still attached (THIS IS NOT FUN TO GET OUT OF THE CAR)

The Stainless steel line is now installed, goes straight from the Master Cylinder to the Slave Cylinder.

I will take more detailed pictures tommorow.

I would write a how to, but it's really not that complicated, it's just unscrewing things and putting them back in....

-Here's a quick writeup- [Edited 3/15/08]

I removed the following:

1. Intake

2. Battery

3. Battery Tray (I left the wire relay box in the car, just pushed it over)

4. The main ground wire to the body and engine

5. The L shaped harness that holds the main ground wire to the engine (for slave cylinder removal)

6. Unplugged the wire harness that's in the far corner behind the driver side strut tower

Then I began unscrewing everything I could associated with the clutch line, sooner or later it became pretty loose then began the really hard part, removing the line out of the master cylinder, believe me this takes time and patience but eventually it will come out. After that, your second big challenge is to thread that sucker out of your car, I ended up bending a few lines so I can get the angle I wanted so I could get that sucker OUT!

Then installing the RTP line is simple, While the slave cylinder was removed from the car, I screwed in the slave end of the line. Then my next nightmare... I had to screw the master in of the line back in..... Ugh. After dealing with CTS (Carpel Tunnel Syndrome), I finally got it screwed it (It needs to be in nice and tight, not crazy tight, but secure because I tried pressurizing the line and it leaked @ the screw, so if that happens crank on it a little more).

RTP SS line at the master end of things (need to make sure nothing is leaking up here!!)

The SS Line going to the slave cylinder (now you see why I removed that L bracket for the ground wire)
EDIT: The hole in the screw does NOT need to line up with the hose, tighten it down without worrying about the alignment for the hole in the screw.

Do not reinstall the slave cylinder just yet... You can gravity bleed it while it's out of the car!!!

Bleeding The Clutch

If you've removed your slave cylinder and just installed a new clutch line then goto the bottom of this section.

Just google bleeding brakes or clutch, the systems work EXACTLY the same... Except when bleeding the clutch in Nissans w/ a Dual Bleeder system you do the lower bleeder first then the upper bleeder. 

Just from my experience, I have gotten lucky once and successfully bled my clutch using the dual bleeder system, but that was after MANY failures. Do not let the car get you down, if you keep messing up after trying to bleed the upper valve then don't even fool with it, just bleed it the best you can w/ the lower bleeder and if your clutch works, then leave it alone.

Just installed a clutch line? Well use my gravity bleeding trick below.

(The clutch is off of the floor/disengaged during this whole process) If you have removed your slave cylinder then well... Leave it dangling in your car (as low as it can go), then disassemble it by removing the rubber boot over it (be careful, the piston has a spring attached to it, it will fly out at you like an angry ninja!). After the boot removal you'll have hydraulic fluid leaking everywhere, it's cool just leave a tarp, cardboard or w/e below your car and watch it drain away as you refill the master cylinder with hydraulic fluid.

As you let the slave cylinder dangle w/ the boot and piston removed you'll see fluid trickle out of it, keep the master cylinder filled up to max line as you watch fluid drain away (I reused the fluid that drained out, cause at this point in time it was pretty clear and not dark). Eventually it will slow down to a very slow drip and you'll start adding less and less fluid, weird right? Whenever you get bored enough and the drip has slowed down to an almost non existent drip, re assemble the slave cylinder. After re-assembly, re-install it and give your clutch a try, if it works then you're good to go! If not then you should at least have some resistance and you've given yourself a good start to resume bleeding either the regular way or using gravity. No you don't have to take the slave cylinder off of the car again, just open the valve and watch it drip away and continue refilling the master cylinder until the dripping has come to a complete stop. If you haven't had any success gravity bleeding then you can check your lines for leaks and then try it the old fashion way, or just give me a message, I'll talk you through it.

Comments? Complaints? Don't be afraid to leave any, I'm trying to make this blog useful to somebody out there...


[EDIT! 03/08/10]
This did not solve my problem, even though it will prevent any further headaches and I can feel the engagement better. I would say if your Maxima is having any problems with clutch fluid leaking, replace the whole system with this SS steel line AND buy a slave cylinder rebuild kit along with a master rebuilt kit from courtesy nissan (When I originally made this post there was such a thing, I don't know if this still exist today). (The line + Rebuild kit will run you under $50), this will prevent allot of problems in the future and you won't have to remove things over and over like I did. If I would have taken some people's advice from Maxima.org I would not have any clutch hydraulic issues... Well I'm still ignoring some advice, they say that the Clutch Master Cylinder likes to go out after a certain amount of time too... I will just wait until it starts to give me trouble, then I'll attend to it.

Just face it, I have one of the youngest 4th gens out there, and I would say that if you haven't serviced your clutch line then you're lucky, and eventually you will have to get to replacing these parts, not nissan's fault, it's just that time does degrade parts. My car as of last month is now 11 years old, most likely your 4th gen is older than that, you're going to be replacing old parts, that's just true with any car.

Thank goodness this isn't much of a daunting task, if I knew what I was doing I could've had it done in a few hours instead of a long day.