I was pulling into work in manual car and all of a sudden I couldn’t get it to go into the gear i wanted nor would it return to the gear it had been in. i saw that my clutch fluid was empty so I tried to put some in but it wouldn’t let me add much at all. there has been no other problems before this day
Bummer time for your hydraulic clutch to fail, but they do wear out.
If the fluid has contaminated the clutch, you now need a new clutch too.
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1st thing, it is best to have your vehicle towed to a shop that does clutch work…
Sounds like you have lost your clutch hydraulic pressure, either the clutch master is bypassing or the slave cylinder has failed… Don’t think you have a leak as the clutch master cylinder reservoir is the brake master cylinder reservoir and it was the brake fluid that you were trying to add fluid to…
Also looks like your slave cylinder is external (meaning outside the transmission) so with the help of a friend you can watch to see if the slave cylinder rod is moving… you just have to locate it, normally on the radiator side of the transmission… It is normally best, in my experience anyway, to replace both the clutch master and the clutch slave cylinders at the same time…
You can also open the bleeder screw to see if any pressure when pushing on the clutch pedal (like bleeding brakes, you never open the bleeder screw when releasing the pedal), hint, the pedal may stay on the floor when the bleeder is opened…
As long as nothing close you can run into, people included, you can start the car in gear, meaning put it in gear 1st, if the car tries to accelerate while starting then your clutch is probably good and you just lost the hydraulic pressure, BE PREPARED to turn the ignition key off as the car, again, could lunge forward while starting, if you are skilled sometimes you can drive the vehicle to another location, just remember that you can not stop the car or get to slow with out stalling the engine, so PROBABLY BEST to have the vehicle towed to a shop that does clutch work…
I don’t know your automotive skill level nor experience, so it is always better to be safe than sorry!!! Have it towed…
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Did replenishing the clutch fluid reservoir have any effect?