CDV Valve Delete (Part 3 of 3)
Next part is the actual reason we're here...to do like they do on the Discovery Channel...I used a 3.5 decking screw and stuck it in the moist hole where the CDV lives, cue the soft Jazz
:
Then coitus
...you can feel around with the tip of your screw for the hole of the rubber grommet, and when you feel it screw in until resistance. Then pull out:
Money shot
...there's the grommet. The actual CDV valve is a metal thing. I put my screw in a second time and it was right there. The video shows a mirror which would have been helpful if I couldn't find the metal part of the valve in there...it was one of those things where I know I have one of those automotive mirror dealies, even with an extendable magnet (heard the collective ooohhh from the audience there), but I have no idea which toolbox or bin its sitting at the bottom of, so decided that laziness pays off now, and it did.
Here are the 2 things you should have removed:
Next put the hydraulic line back into the slave and push the spring lock down. OK to remove clamps and prepare for bleeding. Remove the rubber nipple cover, and hook your breast pump—-err collection bottle—-up to it:
I then pressurized the reservoir bottle and opened the bleeder valve with an 11 mm crescent wrench. It takes more turns than you think to open this, probably 2 full turns of the nut, but its about 10 replacements of the wrench as space in there is limited. You will get an initial dribble of fluid then one more turn it will come out quickly, be prepared for that and be ready to close it a bit. Also keep an eye on your bottle. Once you get to an ounce of fluid close the valve and go add more fluid to your reservoir so that air doesn’t get into your system and flush your clutch line with air like mine did the first time (I didn’t top off my reservoir first). Don’t worry about leaving excess fluid in the reservoir when you are done bleeding, you can remove the excess with a 5 cc syringe from a kids liquid Tylenol bottle (clean of course), they won’t miss it. You can see some of the air bubbles coming out but up top no more air coming out near the nipple:
Bleeding Issues I had: So my bleeding was going great, and I was ready to close the valve but a bubble came out, so I decided to bleed just a couple seconds longer. Then a big whoosh of air came through. I had bled about 1.5 ounces of fluid and then the reservoir level got below the hydraulic line takeoff and a bunch of air went through the system. So shut it all down, added fluid to 1/2 way up the neck of the reservoir, and had to bleed it again. Obviously a bunch of air and bubbles came out. When I got to about 1.5 ounces I topped off the reservoir again, recharged the pressure bleeder and did this 3 times. No more air coming out but I might have Mr. Hankey'ed myself a bit.
Went and pushed the clutch about 50 times to be safe (bleeder valve closed, reservoir closed, not pressurized). Bled 2 more times. No air came out. Clutch felt normal. Closed up shop and took the car for a drive. No issues.
One way around this would be to use a vacuum bleeder on the lower nipple to suck the fluid through the system rather than a pressure bleeder that pushes the fluid down from the reservoir. With a vacuum bleeder you’d just need to stay up by the reservoir and add fluid as the system sucked from below….somehow that just sounds more fun—err wrong—but you get what I mean.
Initial Impressions: I will say the clutch feels more linear, including the bite point. Feels more like my NA Miata clutch in terms of grab. When just driving around slowly it really doesn't feel much different than stock. You still have to "feather" at the bite point in 1 and 2 to be smooth, and I need to re-train my muscle memory here because it is different, I don't need to lag as long...When driving or shifting faster, yes there is a definite improvement for sure, subtle-ish, but it's there, and it's better. Exactly as everyone advertises it, not transformative, but better.
I'd like to thank everyone who posted about this on here, definitely glad I did it. Maybe a vacuum bleeder would have been better, but I think I got greedy initially and clearly bled a little too much the first time. If you're getting up to an ounce of fluid. Shut the valve and go top off your reservoir then continue....don't be a dolt like Mr. Hankey!
