Can't shift on a slope AND....

[eWock]

my clutch feels different. Ok, breakdown on my car: 2000 S4, stock. I have about 115K on the odometer still running on KO3s.
Just today I was in Chinatown, I'm in San Francisco, and ofcourse I was parked on a slope facing downhill and when I went to back out of the spot I could not shift into any gear for the life of me!!!
I stopped and tried to start the car in reverse but I couldn't even shift into any gear with the car off!!!!! What the?!?!!?!
Then, with the car off, I rolled down the hill a couple of inches while pumping the clutch to see if that would help (I had a Honda Accord a few years ago and the clutch started doing somewhat similar things and rolling a bit worked) but that didn't go.
After like literally 5 mins of constantly working the clutch and trying to shift with the car off or on it magically dropped into reverse gear and I got out.
Afterwards I was leaving a friend's house in So. San Francisco and since I parked out on a slope I simply rolled back out of the driveway. I ended on even ground and easily shifted into 1st but with a really weak almost "soft" feel to the clutch upon catching the gear. It caught dang near the very top of the pedal travel and I couldn't even feel the catch!!!
SO now whenever I drive I feel like the gear isn't completely engaged and the clutch feels "soft", different.
I'm worried now. I've searched the forum and apparently it may be either a slave or master cylinder or the clutch pressure plate. Can someone hook me up with some info?
Tanks.
Oh and Happy New Year!

[eWock]

Anybody???

[yung turbo]

usually from what i know and have seen people do, if you park on a slope or hill you should park in gear.

[alosh]

check your shift linkage

[jaybquick@JHM]

I received your email regarding this thread. Here is my response.

When these cars have failing pressure plates MOST of the time the pedal feels stiffer due to the SAC mechanism binding up. However it still could be the pressure plate. But most likely it is the slave cylinder or master cylinder. When those go the pedal is soft. 90% of the time it is the slave cylinder out of the two. But since you say it disengages high that makes it lean more towards the pressure plate since a bad slave will usually not release the clutch enough and cause the clutch to engage really low to the floor.

I am an hour or so east of you if you could drive it by. We keep slave cylinders and master cylinders in stock. -> http://www.jhmotorsports.com/shop/ca..._56_60_102_204 But it seems to me that it is very likely your clutch.

Hard to diagnose via the net, if I drove it I would know right away.

[eWock]

Thanks. I plan to head out there probably this friday or sat. If I need work to be done, like a new slave cylinder, is it possible to get it worked on right there? I was thinking this friday after work, I get off @ 4:30.
Thanks for the response!

[jaybquick@JHM]

Thanks. I plan to head out there probably this friday or sat. If I need work to be done, like a new slave cylinder, is it possible to get it worked on right there? I was thinking this friday after work, I get off @ 4:30.
Thanks for the response!

Unfortunately we won't be hear that late this Friday. And this Saturday we should most likely be at the track.

If the slave was bad and needed replacing it is located near one of the downpipes so we would have to wait a while for it to cool down after a test drive.

We are actually around the corner from the ACE commuter train that goes to the bay area every morning. So if you wanted to bring it in and didn't have time to wait or wanted to just leav it without needing a ride, the last train leaves at 9:47 a.m. We are near the lathrop/manteca station. http://www.acerail.com/schedules/train-schedule.htm This also goes right by the Pleasanton bart station if you wanted to get all the way to SF.