Hi all,

Having a mysterious problem with my clutch.

Well, Its not me thats having a problem with it actually, but it seems every time my mother drives it, the clutch drops to the floor and wont return up, or go into gear. It can be solved By gettung your foot under the clutch and flicking it back into position. and if you turn the car off,get into gear and start it, you can drive,but only in that gear. I checked the slave and its bone dry and I cant see any leaks from the master either. I've been told this could be due to her keeping her foot on the clutch,which is entirely possible. 

Yet,whenever I drive it the car drives fine, I know it actually is an issue because she has come home with the clutch on the floor and I just flick it back up and I can drive it fine again. Anyone know what could cause it?

its my 2012 1.6tdi fabia Monte Carlo just incase its a problem specific to my car / gearbox

Try bleeding the clutch, there is a dwell mechanism built into the clutch pedal which reduces the pressure from the foot needed hold the pedal flat to the floor, it's possible your muvver holds the clutch down much longer than you do rather than putting the car in neutral at traffic lights etc.

Clutch slave cylinder 

16 hours ago, sepulchrave said:

Try bleeding the clutch, there is a dwell mechanism built into the clutch pedal which reduces the pressure from the foot needed hold the pedal flat to the floor, it's possible your muvver holds the clutch down much longer than you do rather than putting the car in neutral at traffic lights etc.

Probably the case on her last car she actually ended up wrecking the clutch due to her riding it.

 

15 hours ago, AMD87 said:

Clutch slave cylinder 

I was thinking it is the slave cylinder but I wrote it off because looked bone dry. I'll have to check it again.

Come to think of it I never checked how the clutch fluid looked,If its gone brown its probably bringing air into the system.

1 hour ago, DieselMonte said:

Probably the case on her last car she actually ended up wrecking the clutch due to her riding it.

 

I was thinking it is the slave cylinder but I wrote it off because looked bone dry. I'll have to check it again.

Get a breaker bar and jam it in for a few hours 

1 hour ago, DieselMonte said:

If its gone brown its probably bringing air into the system.

Can you explain your thinking there, please? Don't see the mechanism for that, but interested to learn.

Me too.

2 hours ago, Wino said:

Can you explain your thinking there, please? Don't see the mechanism for that, but interested to learn.

I just was thinking back to another car. The clutch was giving trouble,letting air into the system and when I checked the reservoir it was coffee coloured. It had a fresh clutch and all and what should have been fresh enough dot (4?) fluid it was dark coloured like coffee. Seemingly it was bringing air and contaminates into the system and that was what caused the colour change,atleast that was what I took it to mean.

 

2 hours ago, AMD87 said:

Get a breaker bar and jam it in for a few hours 

Will try that, are slaves known to go bad on these cars?

56 minutes ago, DieselMonte said:

I just was thinking back to another car. The clutch was giving trouble,letting air into the system and when I checked the reservoir it was coffee coloured. It had a fresh clutch and all and what should have been fresh enough dot (4?) fluid it was dark coloured like coffee. Seemingly it was bringing air and contaminates into the system and that was what caused the colour change,atleast that was what I took it to mean.

 

Will try that, are slaves known to go bad on these cars?

Don’t think so thankfully it’s external so not a hard job 

18 hours ago, AMD87 said:

Don’t think so thankfully it’s external so not a hard job 

Yeah, I see it only sits on top of the transmission. The only thing thats bugging me is that its never once done it while I was driving it.

Air not likely to enter the system via the slave cylinder, its under positive pressure, if it did then fluid would be leaking out and obvious on a visible inspection.

 

The discolouration spoken of will have been the seals breaking down before subsequently leaking.

 

I had a slave cylinder leak on my MK1 Octavia (the same external cylinder) which would cause the clutch to drag if you held the pedal down more than a few seconds and would leak away the fluid, not good as it shared the reservoir with the brakes, caused by either the seal being missing or damaged by the robber incompetent French garagiste who held me to ransom on a clutch & DPF replacement, terminal failure in my first week here, no tools, no roof over my head and the only time in my life a garage has worked on my car.

 

The leakage was visible and maybe some clip was missing or damaged because all it needed to seal was for the pipe to be pushed with no effort a little further into engagement in the cylinder, probably an O ring seal.

 

As a bodge to keep me running I pushed it in and encased the joint with epoxy putty from my backpack emergency & survival stuff & it never leaked again in 14 years.