Clutch play & dealership trust issue

[suobs]

My 1994 Nissan Hardbody 4x4 King Cab manual transmission is experiencing additional play in the clutch pedal. For a while about a week ago it was having trouble engaging until I pumped the pedal a bit. Now it's working OK once pumped a bit but it still has a sort of mushy feel near the floor and the additional play. Brought it to the usually reliable dealership and they want to replace the clutch, around $2,000. Normally I would just go for it but I'm having trust issues with these guys in that they misdiagnosed something else (unrelated electrical problem - $600 quote to rebuild rear wiring harness) about a year ago that I fixed myself for a few bucks (with help from you guys).

I need to have another mechanic look at it for a second opinion, but I'd like some advice on how to approach this. Don't have time for a lot of work myself and I don't know a lot about clutches, but if it's a pedal, cylinder, or other adjustment or something else needless to say I don't want to pay more than I need to. Should I just ask another mechanic for another diagnosis from scratch? Or is there a simple way I can diagnose the problem myself (adjustment vs. replacement) without using up a whole weekend?

[longtooth]

I would replace your clutch master and slave cylinders then bleed the snot out of it. If your feeling adventurous you can remove your dampener.

[Q451990]

Ditto on that advice. The pumping making it better sounds more like master/slave cylinder issues. I'd try that first, since it's relatively inexpensive and then go from there.

Heath

[suobs]

Thanks. Let me rephrase a little - what symptoms would I expect if the clutch were gone to the point that it needed to be completely replaced?

Don't clutches have pads that can be replaced? Dumb question I know.

[suobs]

Thanks all. Just trying one more time - what symptoms would you expect if the clutch needed to be completely replaced?

Problem seems to have stabilized. Pedal still feels a tad weak but not so much. Haven't pumped it in a week or so but it seems to be staying OK anyway.

The really strange thing about all this is there was no problem until I picked it up from the dealership after an oil change, which is when I noticed the change in the pedal. Don't know what they could have done accidentally during an oil change to cause that to happen.

[Q451990]

I doubt there's any cross over between the oil change and your clutch issue...

Usually a bad clutch will slip when you're lugging the engine - say you're going up a hill in 4th and maybe you should have downshifted to 3rd. You'll hear the engine rev up a bit, as if you pushed in on the clutch pedal - even though you didn't.

There are no pads to replace on a clutch system... the clutch is the wear item.

This guy does a pretty good job of explaining clutches.
http://youtu.be/6BaECAbapRg

Heath