It might be time for me to think about replacing the clutch in my car. It's an 04 Toyota Matrix XRS 6spd with almost 101000mi on the clock. It's intermittently slipping, which I find to be really odd. Some days I'm cruising along in 6th gear and it's holding RPMs fine as I accelerate (pedal to floor) and other days it slips up 400-600RPMS before it grabs. I can't find a rhyme or reason to it. Part of me wonders if the clutch is indeed the problem or if something else is the problem. I'll have to try to check the slave cylinder to see if it's leaking, and maybe even give bleeding it a shot.

I can't see going to the dealer for this.
AAA seems fine as long as their hourly rate is the same or close to the dealer.

I am suprised the third shop would let you source your own parts. you could get a decent replacement setup from rock auto.

BUT if you are not sure what else needs to be replace, you might see if they will source parts for you.

90 day warranty isn't that great btw but really good if you are sourcing the parts. most shops won't give you a warranty at all.

Replace it yourself, it really isn't hard.

Its only slipping in 6th?

honestly though, if you don't have the time to do it yourself I would definitely at start looking for an issue first.
The slave is a good place to start, 100k on a clutch, in a matrix, if If you didn't learn to drive stick on this car I would almost bet its something else in the system and not something that requires a replacement.

If you put the car in 6th while completely stopped and slowly come off the clutch with no gas and no brake does the car stall (like its supposed to) or does it continue to slip for a little?

If its something that seems to come and go or interiminnent I would start by looking for somethign simple and or stupid.

A leaking slave is a big problem in my car as well although I've never had to deal with it, Its about the easiest thing in the world to spot and its an 8 minute fix. If the slave is ok also check the cmc. Even if they both look good I would do a flush until its completely clear and then do a bleed and then go for a drive and see if anything has changed.

Your only using the specific break fluid that is required on the car correct? its not like oil, if the car calls for dot-3 then you can only use dot-3, dot-4 or 5 can cause problems.

definitely check the pedal make sure nothing is sticking and that the nut the gives you soem adjustment in the friction point for the clutch engagement didnt go spinning off into the sunset somewhere, that will definaltey make you think your crazy.


A couple months ago I was having really really bad tranny problems of some kind that I was sure was the beginning of a major nightmare. Before I even started anything I flushed the fluids and changed the diff and tranny fluids. I literally didn't even start to try to diagnose the problem other than that the car was not going into first at all without some serious double clutching or running it through the gate.

10 minutes after I replaced the trans fluid, everything was back to being beautiful, I don't know hwat happened and I don't care, always try the simple things first.

Same thing with my old cobalt. Started slipping dealer was 1k+ plus clutch. Local shop was 600+ clutch 8hrs labor. I did it myself with oem spec exedy clutch 240$ and about 7hr in garage with 2 buddies.