Sc300 Clutch Master Cylinder DIY
 

rejoined this forum a few weeks ago. After my car started to have some start up issues and sticky clutch pedal issues. I searched Hi and low for a write up on the Clutch Master Cylinder replacement. Found nothing. I have never done one of these before so i was starting to Panic. Well after about 15 mins of inspecting i realized how simple it is and wish to pass my findings on.
In this thread you will learn to disconnect the clutch master cylinder and remove/ replace it.
Note: Preform and your own risk
Tools needed
1/4 drive wrench
12mm socket for 1/4 drive prefer deep
14mm wrench
Needle nose
paper towel
small pry bar

Step one:
Locate clutch master cylinder next to brake booster. Pry the lid off the res and remove plastic float. Carefully place paper towel around the master. Next insert a wad of paper towel into the res to help soak up the fluid. Be careful not to spill the fluid is highly corrosive.
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Step 2: Move the driver seat as far back as possible. Next Crawl under the dash and locate clutch pedal. Follow it to the bracket where you should see a 12 Mm Nut. reach over the peddle bracket right next to the 12 Mm nut to locate the second one. Both these will need to be removed with your 1/4 drive. The Nut on the back side of the bracket is pain. My advice break it loose and carefully back it out with your hands.
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Step 3
Next while under dash locate the push pin connecting the piston to the pedal. Gently grab the end and remove push pin from bracket pin. Next pull bracket pin out and place some where you will not loose it
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Step 4
Return to the engine bay. Locate slave cylinder pressure line. Place paper towel around and under the line. Next using the 14mm wrench back out the bolt holding the line down. Note: be careful not to loose the crush washer. Remove bolt and gently slide the line over.
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Step 5
Gently take the pry bar and put pressure behind the master. IT should slide right now. Remove from engine bay clean area and reverse order with the new part.
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tools
http://i1328.photobucket.com/albums/...ps1f4b9218.jpg
Hope this helps :)

Hey! Thanks for this write up.
About to do the clutch, pressure plate, slave cylinder and master cylinder this weekend and this will help for sure!

nice write-up. you should either go with a new oem master cylinder or the aftermarket one, I tried the toyota master cylinder rebuild kit but it didn't work just wasted $30 and a bunch of time. I picked up the one made by Centric and it is working well for me as I needed one in a hurry after it went out and the rebuild didn't work.

Thanks for this! I just got a new OEM from Toyota a few weeks ago. I'll go ahead and install it soon thanks to your writeup, edsel.

good job, mate!

Bumping this up. Need help.

My car recently became immobile due to it not disengaging the clutch when pressing in the pedal. The brakes feel fine though so I'm currently assuming its the SLAVE CYLINDER and not my master cylinder and also the pedal pops back up just fine but over all has a much weirder hard sticky feel like theres pressure built up behind it especially towards the last 1/2 or 1/4 of travel.

How difficult is the install on a slave cylinder? I think I can do it myself after finding the part itself it did not seem too complex..

Just for reference I'll describe the symptoms and what happened.

I'm rolling in 4th around 40mph, gonna downshift so I press the pedal, the shifter will not come out of the 4th so I just brake to the red light, finally after a ton of force I get it out of 4th before it felt like it was about to die from having come to such a slow speed and it being engaged. The light turns green and I have to go so I jam it in 1st which made it grind and whine horribly. Went into second with a ton of forcing and grinding and whining, and I limped home in second the entire way with my hazards on. Today the car will not enter any gear at all and I forced it so hard it felt like it was going to break before entering a gear. So I let the car roll down a small incline it was parked on and the brakes feel perfectly normal with the car on and at operating temp, not rock hard or anything like that just smooth normal brakes. I visually inspected the master cylinder and it did not appear to be leaking but I'll check again tomorrow just to be double sure. I'll also check the fluid level.

Any tips?

Thanks in advance.

P.S. I miiiiiiight just get rid of the car because slowly tons of little things have been going broke on it and I can't keep renting cars and towing cars and fixing cars and ordering parts and deciding where to get it fixed if I won't be doing the work due to school so yeah...It might SADLY be up for sale soon for pennies since thats what it seems to be worth. I've also noticed...I have not been able to enjoy the car on a nice weather day because something keeps braking or dying on it and it's ironic the only time I get to drive it...it's raining or freezing. Thankfully the end of winter is here it seems so lets see...

EDIT: Just checked the master cylinder in the cabin and in the bay and not a single leak ANYWHERE. It all looks clean and brand new even. I checked the fluid and that thing was topped off perfectly. It was dirty in color though...what color should that fluid be? This was like a dark A$$ brown color it seemed.

Double edit: Just went ahead and purchased both parts for peace of mind.

I wouldn't let it discourage you the master/slave is a pretty easy job, just get a new part and it wont be a pain, dont try the rebuild kit it didnt work for me all it did was cause me to have to install uninstall it like 3 times in a row. I had a similar problem and the pedal was on the floor. I Thought it might be the slave so I changed that and it did not fix it, rebuilt master did not fix it, replaced master totally fixed it. I only mention it because there were no leaks anywhere on the master or slave cylinders, so its not that easy to diagnose which one it is. turns out the master was internally leaking pressure, so there was no external fluid leak but it would not build any pressure.

I would check both for external leaks first, and if you spot one try changing that one (most people say the slave will leak if its bad, after all those years my original slave cylinder was sill good). if you spot no leaks then I would suspect the master but really it could be either one, the slave cylinder is so inexpensive its worth changing anyways, but the master is more expensive, I went with an aftermarket Centric replacement part cause it was like half the cost and its been working fine for me so far.

hi everyone. i saw your thread and it is really helpful. i wonder do you know or any else might know what is the cause to my SC clutch if anyone know the problem please answer or PM me. THANKS

Here is the problem i got on the SC: when I pressing the clutch pedal and pedal is not popping back all the way i might say it just pops back about half of where it support to be. everytime i shift i have to use my feet to help to pull it to where it is.

i did the the breed on the clutch but it didnt make any change.
i want to know what it's causing the problem..
im not sure it's causing by slave cylinder, master cylinder, pressure plate or else..

please help... thanks have a nice day everyone.

did you ever get this fixed? I'm having this issue.

Okay, so maybe I'm blind, but I don't see ANY mention of the bleeding procedure here. Previously on non-Toyotas I just replaced everything, let gravity start the bleeding process until both have fluid, then pick if you want to suck fluid from the screw, bleed with the clutch pedal, or push the slave in and out a bunch.

Is there a right or wrong way to bleed new parts? Some cars have a bench bleed start. I don't want to damage the internals on the new cylinders.