Hi, I am looking for a bit of help with my octavia vrs tdi 2012, I have tried 2 different garages and both give me car back saying its fixed but a day or 2 later its back to same,, the bite of the clutch is as soon as it leaves floor and the pedel sticks half way up and sometimes hard to get a gear,,, the clutch was changed last year,, we now have changed master cylinder, slave cylinder, pipes and fluid bottle,, if its bled, its OK for a day or 2 then same again, the both garages don't know what else it could be and as everything is changed haven't got a clue 

Was the issue present before the clutch change or did it happen after?

 

Concentric slave cylinder? - Do you know for sure that it was really replaced?

 

I'll wait for your answer before explaining further, suffice to say been there, done that, got the T shirt.

 

I was having to bleed the clutch every 3 miles on urban journeys.

1 hour ago, MATT0693 said:

Was the issue present before the clutch change or did it happen after?

 

Nope never had an issue until recently. Clutch was done last year as it was noisy. 

41 minutes ago, J.R. said:

Concentric slave cylinder? - Do you know for sure that it was really replaced?

 

I'll wait for your answer before explaining further, suffice to say been there, done that, got the T shirt.

 

I was having to bleed the clutch every 3 miles on urban journeys.

Well garage had it for 3 days as had to strip it all down,, well I can only take their word 

Concentric slave cylinder? Please confirm

 

That means internal to the bellhousing, gearbox has to be removed to replace, the external type is visible and will act on a pivot arm that protrudes from the bellhousing. Usually fitted to the 6 speed boxes but not limited to them I believe.

1 hour ago, J.R. said:

Concentric slave cylinder? Please confirm

 

That means internal to the bellhousing, gearbox has to be removed to replace, the external type is visible and will act on a pivot arm that protrudes from the bellhousing. Usually fitted to the 6 speed boxes but not limited to them I believe.

Yes, the gear box had to be taken out 

That still has not answered my question as the gearbox was removed to replace the clutch but as we are not getting any further forward to identifying whether your vehicle has a concentric (internal) clutch slave cylinder I will proceed on the assumption that it does but you really should know this for sure before confronting the garage that did the work.

 

In which case the problem is an air leak into the system at the O ring joint joining the two halves of the concentric slave cylinder, I doubt that you will be able to prove it but they most certainly will not have replaced it to gain them some money and a little time judging it to be good for future service as there were no fluid leaks, air is drawn in but fluid does not leak out.

 

There is a slight possibility that air may be being drawn in past one of the 2 'O' ring joints on the clutch bleed block AKA Clutch Torque limiter, as these are external and easy to access they should be replaced to rule out the possibility.

 

If the problem remains and I am fairly sure that it will then the only solution is to remove the gearbox to replace the concentric slave cylinder, whoever does the job will be sceptical and with good reason because it will appear to be in good working condition with no leaks but I am 100% certain that it will be the later 2 piece plastic bodied type, it will only be the joining 'O' ring that needs replacing but would be false economy not to replace the whole thing after incurring all the labour charges for a second time.

There are two hydraulic cylinders on the clutch system.

One is located at the clutch pedal end and the other is inside the gearbox.

 

Neither are changed as part of a standard clutch replacement, but if either fails you get poor clutch performance and odd bite points.

 

I would suggest in this order

 

1) get the cutch bled (It can be and trapped air causes problems)

2) change the clutch hydraulic cylinder behind the clutch pedal (This is cheaper to get to)

3) if this doesn't work, then it's a gearbox off time for a check of everything in the clutch is in to make sure it's in good condition and to replace the slave cylinder whilst it's off. There is no point not changing the slave cylinder unless it's 100% known good due to labour costs. TBH if you're in there, you might even want to do another clutch kit as the cost of the labour will be as much or more than the cost of the clutch and clutch slave cylinder.

 

Further suggestion to add to point 3, would be have you had the DMF checked, as whilst it doesn't cause clutch issues directly, it can cause some other issues which can cause odd behaviour with clutch parts.

 

You say you've changed the cylinders, but if you bleed it and then air gets in, either you have a faulty cylinder, an air leak in a hydraulic line or you've just not bled all the air out.  New cylinders can be faulty as I've been there and had the t-shirt luckily under warranty.

Edited 21 March, 20224 yr by cheezemonkhai

35 minutes ago, cheezemonkhai said:

I would suggest in this order

 

1) get the cutch bled (It can be and trapped air causes problems)

2) change the clutch hydraulic cylinder behind the clutch pedal (This is cheaper to get to)

OP stated that the system needs bleeding every 2 days hence it will have been bled multiple times.

 

Also stated that both master & slave cylinder were replaced, it's easy to check visually that the master cylinder has been done so I reckon it has (but he should check anyway) if its a concentric slave cylinder then you cannot really check visually & hence why I suspect it was not actually changed, it my have been and could as you say have been faulty or developed the fault subsequently.