think the clutch has gone!! how do i tell?

[iain 325isport]

just had to be recovered (on a fooking bank holiday), and its a suspected clutch failure.

wondering if you guys can help diagnose it as obviously cant get it into seat until tuesday. basically the clips underneath the steering column have snapped where the housing is and when i push the clutch pedal down it just stays on the floor and has to be pulled up manually. i am hoping that it is just the housing and the cable hasnt snapped. is there any test to perform that can tell me this? i was going max 5mph over a speed bump and when i pushed the clutch down it popped and stayed down.

best way i can explain it. please help asap

cheers in advance

 

[JoeV]

Is the car stuck in gear or in neutral?

if the cable had snapped and it was in gear, then u depressed the clutch surely it would stay in gear so it would stall? so if you were to put the car in neutral, pressed the clutch, selected 1st and gradually brought the clutch up (manually) it would work fine. I am not quite sure on what ur are saying has or hasnt broke.

 

[iain 325isport]

the car is stuck in neutral.

ive read up on the posts for the pedal box going on the ibiza cupra's. is it the same for leon cupra's? the pedal moves freely by hand up and down.

any ideas anyone?

 

[CupraMVR]

they are on a fluid clutch pedal and its normally the slave cylinder that pops in the gearbox,you can still drive the car but its harder to do so.
Not something i would recommend.

Check for fluid round the pedal and under the car coming from the gearbox.check the level of brake fluid aswell if its dropped loads can be showing the problem

 

[iain 325isport]

they are on a fluid clutch pedal and its normally the slave cylinder that pops in the gearbox,you can still drive the car but its harder to do so.
Not something i would recommend.

Check for fluid round the pedal and under the car coming from the gearbox.check the level of brake fluid aswell if its dropped loads can be showing the problem

how could i drive the car? you mean force it into each gear with no clutch?

just checked for fluid.....doesnt seem to be any around. i have a white clip and a bit of plastic thats snapped from underneath the steering column with a tiny bit of metal that has sheered off about a cm long. i can also see a metal rod a few inches long with a small ball on the end of it thats loose.

 

[leontdi130]

Sounds like the pressure plate has collapsed to me. So the release bearing isn't pushing against anything so it doesn't push back. ie the pedal doesn't return to the top. If your release bearing had gone you'd have clutch fluid dripping out of the box. They don't have cables they are a hydrolic clutch.

 

[leontdi130]

maybe not the pressure plate then. something under the dash sounds very faverable

 

[iain 325isport]

do you want me to put up pictures of the bits i have that have snapped/sheered off?

how much is a pressure plate to buy/repair roughly? its not returning to the top no - you can pull it back up manually but it just goes straight back down again. like a spring has gone sort of thing. sorry if im not very good at explaining this. i dont really know much about seat's

 

[iain 325isport]

maybe not the pressure plate then. something under the dash sounds very faverable

what do you mean by that mate?

 

[CupraMVR]

you can match the gearbox speed with the engine speed and change gear like that without a clutch but you need to start the car up in gear

 

[leontdi130]

A pressure plate is the other half of the clutch. you'd put a full clutch in but from what you've just said its something from the pedal itself which will be alot less expensive to fix.

 

[iain 325isport]

A pressure plate is the other half of the clutch. you'd put a full clutch in but from what you've just said its something from the pedal itself which will be alot less expensive to fix.

i hope so mate

 

[iain 325isport]

here are some pics of the bits that have snapped/sheered off.....

as you can see the plastic bit has snapped off thats laying down

the next bit is a piece of metal that has been sheered off - its just over 1cm long

the white clip is where the rod with the small ball on the end of it slots into. it looks to have melted a little bit. its about an inch and a half long.

and a top view

sorry for crap quality photos just trying to give you an idea of what im on about.

cheers

 

[Muttley]

This sounds like a problem which usually afflicts Ibiza's. The pedal has failed, allowing the master cylinder pushrod to snap back through the broken pedal. There's no connection between the pedal and the master cylinder any more

The little spot-welded box on the clutch pedal has failed, and the white plastic clip that sits in there and bears on the master cylinder pushrod has broken as it was pushed back through.

You'll have to perform some gymnastics to get your head down into the footwell and get a close look at the clutch pedal to confirm this. You should see the master cylinder pushrod coming out of the firewall: this comes out of the clutch master cylinder that is fixed to the other side of the bulkhead, in the engine compartment. The pedal should, obviously, push on this to operate the hydraulic clutch. If you can move the pedal without affecting this pushrod, that's pretty clearly where the problem lies.

The pedal can be welded, but needs to come off the pivot rod to do so, unless you are prepared to take the drivers seat out (careful of the airbags) and you are a skilled welder. A dealer will just replace the pedal, probably taking the seat out to do so.

When this happened to my Ibiza some years ago I ended up having to replace the clutch master cylinder as well. The force of the piston snapping back against the end of the cylinder, unrestrained by the pedal, blew the seals at the inward end and slowly leaked all the hydraulic fluid away into the drivers footwell.

So, probably not a clutch problem so much as a control pedal problem. Much cheaper than fixing anything at the gearbox end of things

 

[iain 325isport]

This sounds like a problem which usually afflicts Ibiza's. The pedal has failed, allowing the master cylinder pushrod to snap back through the broken pedal. There's no connection between the pedal and the master cylinder any more

The little spot-welded box on the clutch pedal has failed, and the white plastic clip that sits in there and bears on the master cylinder pushrod has broken as it was pushed back through.

You'll have to perform some gymnastics to get your head down into the footwell and get a close look at the clutch pedal to confirm this. You should see the master cylinder pushrod coming out of the firewall: this comes out of the clutch master cylinder that is fixed to the other side of the bulkhead, in the engine compartment. The pedal should, obviously, push on this to operate the hydraulic clutch. If you can move the pedal without affecting this pushrod, that's pretty clearly where the problem lies.

The pedal can be welded, but needs to come off the pivot rod to do so, unless you are prepared to take the drivers seat out (careful of the airbags) and you are a skilled welder. A dealer will just replace the pedal, probably taking the seat out to do so.

When this happened to my Ibiza some years ago I ended up having to replace the clutch master cylinder as well. The force of the piston snapping back against the end of the cylinder, unrestrained by the pedal, blew the seals at the inward end and slowly leaked all the hydraulic fluid away into the drivers footwell.

So, probably not a clutch problem so much as a control pedal problem. Much cheaper than fixing anything at the gearbox end of things

thanks for all advice, it got taken into seat this morning for diagnosis etc and predictions were correct. it was the clutch clip that had snapped and sheered off part holding it to the pedal so got a new pedal on order etc for tomorrow and they're charging me £117+ vat so wasnt as bad as i was expecting.

thanks for all the advice

 

[Exocet]

Exactly the same parts broke on my car the other day, i've ordered the clutch pedal box from Seat dealers and should get it saturday, is this something a local mechanic will be ale to fix?

 

[iain 325isport]

yeah he should be able to mate, i only took it to seat because i got it recovered there and they had to order the parts in. will probably be cheaper at a normal garage, less labour etc, just have a call about!

let me know how much you get charged mate

 

[Stu_pot]

The plastic clips are less than £2 in total, weld the top of the pedal, it will be stronger than before.

Total of an hour's job, quite easy to do DIY, just fiddly.

It's a common problem on a lot of VAG cars.

 

[Exocet]

yeah he should be able to mate, i only took it to seat because i got it recovered there and they had to order the parts in. will probably be cheaper at a normal garage, less labour etc, just have a call about!

let me know how much you get charged mate

Will do, the mechanic is one of those self-employed guys but is reliable. I'm just thinking that if there is any welding involved there might be some complications

 

[robdf2]

Hi M8 ,

Di you have any symptoms before it went?
the reason i ask is my cluctch pedal feels weird it feels like biting point has raised to the top , i remember there used to be a bit of free play if u rested ur foot on clutch pedal while u were driving instead of on the footrest (i know bad habbitt) and now that free play not there , feels stiffer.
Just feels weird through my foot.