I'm not sure what's going on but my Fiero doesn't like cold weather. The clutch is having two issues:

The first happened last year too. Overnight one night when it was really cold, the Fiero decided to dump it's clutch fluid. When I tried to start the car the gears were engaging at the bottom of the pedal. Eventually getting to the point where even fully depressed, first would lurch the car forward. Had it bled and it worked fine until today.
So this morning I go out to get to work. Get in the Fiero (that I drove to Mcdonalds at about 11pm last night with no problems) and start it. When I try and take off, it lunges me forward at the bottom of the pedal. Sure enough the reservoir is empty. I put in more fluid and pump the clutch which seems to alleviate this the problem.

Now on to the second problem. Recently the clutch has been doing something else worrying. When I start out in first gear, it seems to be slipping. Or something. When it starts out, especially cold, I need to give the car a lot of gas when first engaging or the car will die. Like it's not catching. Then all of a sudden it will catch and then I'm over-revving. Once the car has warmed up a little this seems to dissipate little but basically, from a stop, the clutch goes from feeling heavy and needing a lot of power to not kill the engine, to suddlenly waking up going. It has made driving the car smoothly impossible. 2nd,3rd and 4th all do just fine though. I have also noticed what seems like a reduction in power in the car overall. And since now the air is much colder here, if anything I would think it might feel zippier. I never smell burning clutch when I get out of the car and I'm pretty busy / broke right now so I haven't taken it anywhere.

Any ideas what this might be? For reference, this clutch was replaced 2 years ago and has about 7k miles on it.

Last thing: sometimes when starting from first and the clutch goes from feeling heavy to go-time I hear a semi loud clang / bang / something that was caught up is now not..

[This message has been edited by rmbrown09 (edited 11-15-2012).]

My 88 formula just did this this morning (17ºF). Dumped the clutch fluid, puddles in the driveway under the rear and front of the car. Under the slave & master I am presuming. Too damn cold to mess with it right now. If it's not one thing it's another. When I get it figured out I will post it up. Can only speculate bad fittings/lines at this time. Installed a new RD slave a couple of months ago.

Brian

[This message has been edited by BHall71 (edited 01-14-2013).]

I don't have all your answers. My best guess is there are a couple issues going on. My '84 is always rough cold, naturally worse in the winter. I presume that this is something between the temp sensor and the ecm.

As for your clutch dropping fluid, that is definitely mechanical. Rubber is stiffer when colder and liable to shrink. Theoretically an old master seal could shrink in the cold enough to leak fluid. Looks like whichever Spokane you're in, it gets well below freezing most of the day. This is my theory, not sure if it's actually probable. I suggest opening the front hood and pulling back the boot on the master cylinder to see if there's fluid in there. On a properly working master this is pretty much dry. You could do the same on the slave. Come to think of it, are you parking on an incline?

Hopefully someone else will respond w/ better answers. I'm just giving some brainstorming ideas.

Good luck finding you problem.

All the best,
Michael

Well it was the master. It was actually leaking inside the car. The two spots on the ground were antifreeze. (As stated earlier, if it's not one thing it's another!) The drivers side coolant line is leaking at both ends at the hose clamps. Have a RD master on the way. Now the question that I have now is this.....is the hard line fitting at the master going to come out OK? or is it going to be jacked up like the purge screw was on the original slave cylinder? At that time the slave was the original piece and the purge screw came out with all the threads. The master looks to be the same material as the original slave was (some black covered, almost brass looking material). Guess if it does mess up I could cut the hard line, install a new fitting and re-flare? Sounds easier than it probably is without a flaring tool.

Brian

It's hard to flare steel w/o a very good flaring tool. Granted, I've never successfully done it. I would start spraying it right away with some penetrating oil and keep reapplying. Also, a propane torch can work wonders on frozen threads. If the master is aluminum, it should expand at a faster rate than steel line, and since it's bad, it doesn't matter so much if it gets damaged.

Good luck,
-Michael