Hi

Was driving yesterday when clutch fell to floor, I was able to lift it back up and drive the car in 2nd gear back home.

For a few days I have found it difficult to get the car in the high gears.

Can anyone tell me what the problem is likely to be?

Many thanks

Clutch master cylinder maybe.

When I had my clutch replaced, I then had to subsequently have the master cyclinder replaced. Sometimes when changing gear, the pedal would remain in the depressed position. I needed a new master cyclinder, as Lummox suggest. However I did not have any issues actually engaging any gears.

Might be worth checking the level of your brake fluid, as it is shared between the clutch and brakes.

Hi

Thanks for that is the clutch likely to be ok and how much is a Master Cylinder usually??

Thanks

In my case the clutch needed to be replaced, but that was though general wear and tear of the previous owners. Apparently I have heard it is quite common that once the clutch has been replaced, then the master cyclinder also needs to be done Maybe as when the clutch is out the clutch slave cylinder allows too much fluid out of the master cylinder and it damages a seal or something? Mind you that is only speculation.

I think the master cylinder was around the £30, but my (non-skoda) dealer did this as part of the clutch job and did not charge me - fortunately!

Thanks alot for this sorry for being vague but im a woman haha.

Whats the chances of me needing a new Clutch entirely??

Thanks

Thanks alot for this sorry for being vague but im a woman haha.

Whats the chances of me needing a new Clutch entirely??

Thanks

Probably quite unlikely.

The problem is dirt and moisture being absorbed into the brake fluid. This then causes the master cylinder and slave cylinder to fail to retract properly on occasion. It's far more of an annoyance than serious, and picking the pedal up usually restores it to normal.

I'd change the fluid first, and if that doesn't cure it you might have to consider changing the master and slave cylinders. This is not an uncommon problem on many cars with hydraulically operated clutches......

Hi

Thanks railroad for the reply, is changing the fluid a garage job?

The master cylinders have been modified, the internal cylinder sticks especially in cold weather.

Hi

Thanks for all your replies we have had the Mechanic round this afternoon who tells me it needs a complete new clutch, anyone know how much I am looking at for this it is a Skoda Octavia 1.9sdi.

Thanks

I don't believe that based on what you said about it being difficult to select high gears. If the clutch was spinning it'd be more difficult to select first gear, and most definitely reverse. Maybe the gear linkage is out of adjustment which may well make it hard to select high gears.

Hi

The car drove home in 2nd gear plus you can do the gear changes no problem when engine is off, Mechanic said its quite rare that you can move the car at all when Clutch goes.

Would like to think I trust the mechnic being a family friend but i'm a woman and know no different i suppose, do you think it is something else and if not how much am I looking at for a new one??

Many thanks for this.

Well it depends what's wrong with it. If the clutch was slipping then he'd be right. In that case it would have to be replaced, and the symptoms would be a loss of drive either partially or completely. In other words you'd let the clutch up and go nowhere, or you'd drive uphill and the car's speed would not increase in line with the engine's speed. If you were at this point the clutch would fail completely very soon.

If the clutch is spinning it would be difficult to engage gears, but the hardest gear to engage would be first, because it's the lowest ratio forward gear. Reverse would be very difficult too, but because that is a spur gear and had no synchromesh it would crunch. This makes me think you haven't got a clutch problem. The higher the gear the easier they are to engage, especially when on the move.

All modern cars have synchromesh on forward gears, and some do have it on reverse too. You cannot engage gears that are rotating at different speeds, so the synchromesh mechanism makes sure that they are not, immediately before you engage. Sorry about the very simplified explanation but I'm trying to explain in a way you'd understand.

The pedal sticking is almost certainly due to reasons already explained in this thread, and not the clutch itself......

I have a 1.9 SDI and when my clutch went i had real trouble getting it in to gear (Gind every gear) and when it finally gave up, trying to move it any further just caused masses of blue smoke.

Had to be towed back. :thumbdwn:

I also had Master cylinder fail (Not at same time) from GSF (German swedish and french Motor fatcors) IIRC the cylinder was About £120.

The clutch was around £90 - £100 Without fitting. Took about a day to do both.

Try The fluid and maybe worth getting someone to see if there is air in master cylinder.

Hope you get it sorted

However the SDi uses the 02K gearbox. Its the same basically as the 020 fitted in my MK2 Golf its that old. It uses a bizzare backwards clutch arangement with a pushrod that goes through the centre of the gearbox transmitting clutch operation from the release bearing at the very end of the box. The pawl at the end of the box can split which means it slips when you apply the clutch.