anybody know what this is? its on the passenger side and has a bleed screw on it but what is it for? any help would be great thanks
that's 1 of 3 clutch bleed points. On the NA you bleed from slave cylinder first, then the one pictured near headlight and finally from master cylinder.
Its the mysterious "Clutch line to nowhere" It add and additional meter or so of 8mm steel line to the clutch hydraulics and allegedly works as some kind of "damper". in reality, it does nothing but make life difficult if you have to bleed the system. Do yourself a big favour and loose it altogether and, either block off the junction with a blanking plug or simply have a braided line made from the end of the hardline to slave cylinder and clutch bleeding (if necessary) then becomes a very simple and quick exercise. E
I don't believe it's a "clutch line to nowhere", nor some kind of "damper". If a damper was required (which it isn't), an accumulator would be installed, that's what they use in hydraulic systems. A hydraulic accumulator is a shock absorber. If you look at the bleed points on the brake calipers for example, you'll notice they are positioned at the highest position of the caliper housing when installed on the vehicle. The reason being, entrapped air will rise in the brake fluid ending up in close proximity to the bleed nipples. The "clutch line to nowhere" is designed to work on the same principle. The bleed nipple is positioned at an elevated point above the slave cylinder. As far as bleeding the system, the process would be. Bleed the master cylinder if has a bleed nipple fitted, then the slave cylinder, then the "clutch line to nowhere". It may take several attempts to get all the air out if you don't have a pressure bleeder. Something that makes it really easy to bleed the clutch & also the brakes, is to replace all the OEM bleed nipples with 'Speed Bleeders". It then becomes a simple one man operation.
Well, believe what you like. Im pleased that you can see some benefit. Its called a clutch damper and its fitted to other Nissans as well. It functions exactly the same way as an accumulator but and despite whatever reason hydraulics R&D engineer Tojo decided to put it there in the first place, its functionally useless. It doesnt function as a high point in the entire system to make bleeding air out because its tapped from almost the lowest point in the system and off the side of a tee junction. Furthermore, you have to unbolt the fitting itself and bend the pipe upwards by several centimeters to release any air at all. The sheer diameter of the pipe itself almost precludes getting air out. Yer.... ripper of a design. Onya Tojo! If Tojo had wanted to include some dampening in the system to prevent pedal rattles then a well routed, and longer flexible hydraulic line between MC to SC would have achieve the exact same thing and do away with that idiotic and useless solid line and its stupid junction box that creates more trouble than its worth. E
Yeah, if it's to make bleeding easier they did zero testing, the fact that so many people go to help pages/forums unable to bleed the stock lines and nobody has any issue using a one piece. You do find these 'damper lines' on other nissans, I forget if it was an S or R chassis but at least one of them is at the absolute lowest point on the chassis so no argument for it being a bleed in that case. The ideal place to put a bleed line would be coming straight up past master where it would actually be the highest point in the system.
"Its called a clutch damper and its fitted to other Nissans as well. It functions exactly the same way as an accumulator but and despite whatever reason hydraulics R&D engineer Tojo decided to put it there in the first place, its functionally useless." Funny you say that, because NISSAN actually call it a "tube assy - clutch" under the part number 30852-40P01. It may come as a surprise, the line attached to the clutch master cylinder is also called a "tube assy - clutch" under the part number 30850-47P00. Both of the above lines terminate at the "connector - clutch tube" part number 15191-40P00. An additional "tube assy - clutch" part number 30851-40P00 attaches to the above connector. Attached to the "tube assy - clutch" part number 30851-40P00, is the "hose assy - clutch" part number 30855-30P01, which terminates at the clutch slave cylinder, or "operating cylinder" as NISSAN calls it. Could you please explain how a tube with a bleed nipple on the end is able to function exactly the same way as an accumulator? The procedure for bleeding air from the clutch operating cylinder is in the NISSAN Service Manual.
Nope. You can work it out for yourself. Bottom line is, is serves NO purpose whatsoever and is functionally useless. E
