hey, guys -

as some of you know, my transportation situation at the moment is unbelieveably ridiculous. after several years of faithful service, our 1996 dodge grand caravan gave up the ghost over the winter. my parents have been a big help first by letting me borrow one of their cars, and now they are going to sign it over to me. considering that i commute 20 miles to work and 20 miles home each day, i want to do everything i can to keep this car in top condition - it has beenv ery well taken care of since they bought it, and i want to keep it that way, especially since our only other transportation at the moment is a 1988 buick lesabre with 313k miles on it.....

anyway, this car is a 1996 pontiac sunfire:

and the current problem i am having is that the clutch pedal is sticking. i push it in, it sticks a little and when i let off of it, it feels like it only comes back halfway, then it comes back all the way a second later.

AS FAR AS I CAN TELL the clutch itself is working fine, so it seems to me the problem is just the pedal itself, but other than this vehicle, i have no real experience with stick shifts, so this is a new one for me.

i was wondering if anyone has any ideas on this and might have some suggestons?

thanks -

ron

Tough to diagnose.  the sunfire has a hydraulic clutch system. Your pedal moves the master cylinder; and a hyd fluid line connects to a slave cylinder at the clutch plate.  NO real mechanical linkage, except right at the pedal.

It could be  a sticking throw-out bearing ( the clutch plate moves on the throw-out bearing into and out of engagement with the pressure plate and the flywheel.

It could also be a warped clutch plate, broken spring on the pressure plate.  Or a leaking line from the master to slave.

So.....unless you really know what you are doing (I doubt this as you asked for help) it is nothing easy that you can solve.  I'd just suggest you take it to a Midas or other large chain and ask for an estimate (usually free).  I'd avoid transmission places as they are notorious for saying you need major rebuild. 

How many miles on it??

hey, bear - thanks for the quick reply, your suggestion pretty much goes with what i was fearing.

it's got 217k miles on it, nearly all highway miles, and has been very well maintained since they bought it - but at that age with that mileage, things are going to start happening for sure....

with front wheel drive getting the clutch out of the transaxle assembly can be expensive.  Might call  a dealer and just ask  "wht is a new clutch/throw out/pressure plate cluth job cost??   might be more than the car is worth?  But you also need to ask your self--what is it worth to me?

Remember you can always just run them into the ground, then donate to the  National Kidney Foundation.

Ron

I would check the brake fluid in clutch "master" cylinder, if it's dark colored, you may get some more miles out of it, by just having it flushed out and new fluid put in.  The fluid absorbs water from the air with time and get's "sticky" and "gunky" and it's cheaper to rebuild master and slave cylinders, if needed, than to replace clutch.  You may unfortunately be looking at more clutch work than just this though.

I seem to remember, that we have at least one GM certifiable mechanic in our midst, I bet he could give you a better "best" guess.

lol - hey guys, i forgot all about this ~ the problem never was the clutch at all. for some reason the most obvious solution eluded me.

the whole time it was going on, it ke4pt feeling like it was catching on the floor mat, but i would look down and it looked jst fine. so not long after my last post i said what the hell and actually took the floor mat out. problem solved! somehow it was riding up too far under the clutch pedal and sticking, evn though i couldn't see it. now, when it does it, i just slide the floor mat down a little and things are just fine.

mike - we got the problem solved but i never actually figured out why. we took it to copenhaver and he tried everything he could think of and couldn't get it to work right. finally got rid of the new bosch platinum plugs (which had been working for 10 years before that and were relaced with identical plugs) and put standard delco plugs in. problem solved, but no explanation. go figure!