On the way to work I noticed that the clutch pedal was not returning fully up. The clutch still fully disengaged and engaged but was very abrupt biting as soon as the pedal came off the floor and was either on or off there was no progression to it. After work the clutch pedal was still sitting much lower then normal and even with it pressed against the floor I could not select any gears with the engine running. Pumping the clutch made no difference.

I first thought that it maybe the slave cylinder leaking but there is no sign of any fluid leaking.

It has been suggested that it could be the pressure plate that has failed and I know that this was the case with one of my brothers cars with similar symptoms.

Any thoughts as to whether this is likely? The car is standard has only done 63k and I don't abuse the clutch. Its a 2002 Octavia VRS.

might just need bleeding? when was the fluid last change? When this happened on mine (pedal would get stuck down after a gear change), it needed a new master cylinder.

Many thanks for your suggestion. I had been thinking it was the mechanical part of the clutch but this led me to look at the hydraulics. Having looked it up on an internet search it seems that it is fairly common to have problems with a hydraulic clutch in cold weather.

It seems that it was just the cold effecting mine. Went back to the car earlier on. Clutch pedal was still on the floor. Pulled the pedal back up and it is working perfectly again now and I have got the car home. Very relieved as I was expecting a big bill.