Difficult to get it in to 3rd gear..
 

I have about 171k on my Scion and bought it brand new, but recently have been having issues. One day I woke up and was driving to work and it was extremely difficult to get it in to 3rd gear. After car got warmed it seemed a bit better.
But I needed a truck anyways so I bought a truck, but I want to fix the Scion now, and not sure where to start. I'm not sure if its a clutch or master cylinder? Can anyone give me any guidance?! PLEASE.
Love my Scion compared to my 12 mpg truck.

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"One day I woke up and was driving to work"

Asleep at the wheel alert! Just kidding.

Do your brakes work ok? If so, it's probably not the master cylinder. The tC's brake master cylinder is also the clutch master cylinder.

Your clutch slave cylinder has a bleeder valve. You can open the valve and bleed air that (may) have accumulated from a previous brake fluid change.

Unfortunately it doesn't sound like your clutch at all man. Just sounds like your transmission is getting a little worn out. Had a Jetta like that a few years back and a couple of quarts of Royal Purple helped quite a bit (think I had Mobil one in there before that).

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The reason I believe it was the clutch was that it was not only happening in third gear. I first encountered the problem when I was driving and tried to put it into third gear, but then I noticed it was difficult to shift into any gear. But I went into the car today, and it went into gear easily but the battery is dead (which may need to be replaced); So I could test it. But, last i remember it was having a hard time going forward after putting it into first gear. That's what led me to believe it was the clutch.

So what are the steps I should start with? should I open the bleeder valve on the slave cylinder, because I did have the brakes service prior to this issue! @62Fender @RyanL

What do you guys suggest to start with first besides getting the battery started LOL?

Royal Purple oil??

Here's a link on bleeding the clutch slave cylinder. If you don't want to do it yourself, ask your brake service person to do it.

https://www.wikihow.com/Bleed-a-Slave-Cylinder

Well you should have started off with that. All you mentioned that it was hard to get into 3rd until it warmed up a bit. Either way, it still sounds more like a transmission problem because when the clutch doesn't disengage fully you would grind pretty bad trying to put it into 1st or reverse. It wouldn't hurt to see if the hydrolic fluid level is low for your clutch and then try and see if there's a leak somewhere. Also checkout the shifter and shifter linkage to see if something is going on there.

"It wouldn't hurt to see if the hydrolic fluid level is low"

tC doesn't have a dedicated clutch master cylinder. If it was fluid, tcdays123 would likely have brake issues.

Speaking of fluid, are you seriously recommending motor oil (Royal Purple, Mobil 1) for the gearbox?

Why would someone put motor oil into a gearbox?