I apologize upfront as I know this has been discussed before but had a mishap today. Went to take off on a hill and the clutch pedal stuck. The rpms shot high. After a few seconds it released. Followed by a lovely smell. Checked the fluid. The level is fine the color however is not. It's dark. How can I diagnose if it's the csc? 2009 35k Thanks!

 

That is the wretched stench of failure (and clutch disc). Many of us have smelled it at one time or another.

If it's working fine now you might be fine. The fluid's dark color is likely actually from particles of rubber from the master cylinder seal. Bleed all of the fluid out and replace with fresh clean fluid. Be sure to bleed all of the air out of the system. This takes a little work. It may be perfectly fine after that for a long time.

 

Well I got the rest of the way home! I'm going to avoid hills as much as possible for now. It seems the permanent solution would be to replace with a Z1 HD slave cylinder. I sent the vendor a PM with some questions. I might be fine like you said but I could have easily hit or got hit today.

 

make sure if you replace the CSC to replace the MC at the same time, and of course get some fresh fluid in there. good luck.