Clutch pedal on the floor

ben652

Active Member
Dec 9, 2007
81
0
hartlepool
somthing on clutch pedal snapped sending the clutch pedal to the floor now the garage have ordered all the plastic clips and suff for the pedal but there said if this does nt work its inside the clutch itself where rthe problem is and that is a new clutch there think and any one else had the problem please
 
Last edited:

Avant4me

Active Member
Oct 13, 2005
359
0
Bristol
somthing on clutch pedal snapped sending the clutch pedal to the floor now the garage have ordered all the plastic clips and suff for the pedal but there said if this does nt work its inside the clutch itself where rthe problem is and that is a new clutch there think and any one else had the problem please

There is nothing to snap??? If the pedal is still intact, then it is going to be the clutch master cylinder which sits behind the clutch pedal and pushes hydraulic fluid through the system to separate the clutch. This is a common thing to go on the 6 speed box so the dealer will have the part in stock. From recollection its only about £45 for the part but about 4 hrs labour to fit.
 

Muttley

Catch that diesel!
Mar 17, 2006
4,987
31
North Kent
I posted on this elsewhere recently. Probably time I wrote this up as a starter for a sticky note. Cut-and-paste:



There is a known issue with sheet metal pedals where the little folded-and-spot-welded metal box fails, allowing the flap at the rear of the box to pop open under pressure from the master cylinder pushrod as you depress the clutch. The pushrod propels the little white plastic clip back through the now-open box, breaking it on its way out, and in bad cases also bending the pushrod. The pedal now can't operate the clutch master cylinder, so you are left without clutch control.

The clip is there to center the pushrod in the metal box on the pedal, but the incipient failure is of the spot welds on the little box. If you can see any movement of the flaps that make up the box, get it fixed before it fails.

A Seat dealer will replace the pedal, taking out the front seat to get enough room to work. If you have the facilities, the pedal can be repaired by redoing the welds, and making them good ones not little spots.


To sum up: The failure is of the sheet metal pedal construction itself. The plastic clip breaks as a side-effect but replacing the clip won't help on its own, the pedal must be made good or replaced.

EDIT: Downthread, Dre included a link to a good description, with photos, on the UK-MkIV's forum, so I've copied it here. hope he doesn't mind . . .

The impact of the clutch master cylinder piston hitting the back of the cylinder can cause the seals to fail, leading to hydraulic fluid leaking into the footwell, and a slow, repeated failure of the clutch due to lack of fluid - you fill it up thinking you've solved the problem only for it to leak away again. This can only be solved by a new master cylinder, I believe, as the seal kits aren't availabile?
 
Last edited:
Dec 6, 2008
612
0
Shropshire
I posted on this elsewhere recently. Probably time I wrote this up as a starter for a sticky note. Cut-and-paste:



There is a known issue with sheet metal pedals where the little folded-and-spot-welded metal box fails, allowing the flap at the rear of the box to pop open under pressure from the master cylinder pushrod as you depress the clutch. The pushrod propels the little white plastic clip back through the now-open box, breaking it on its way out, and in bad cases also bending the pushrod. The pedal now can't operate the clutch master cylinder, so you are left without clutch control.

The clip is there to center the pushrod in the metal box on the pedal, but the incipient failure is of the spot welds on the little box. If you can see any movement of the flaps that make up the box, get it fixed before it fails.

A Seat dealer will replace the pedal, taking out the front seat to get enough room to work. If you have the facilities, the pedal can be repaired by redoing the welds, and making them good ones not little spots.


To sum up: The failure is of the sheet metal pedal construction itself. The plastic clip breaks as a side-effect but replacing the clip won't help on its own, the pedal must be made good or replaced.

The impact of the clutch master cylinder piston hitting the back of the cylinder can cause the seals to fail, leading to hydraulic fluid leaking into the footwell, and a slow, repeated failure of the clutch due to lack of fluid - you fill it up thinking you've solved the problem only for it to leak away again. This can only be solved by a new master cylinder, I believe, as the seal kits aren't availabile?

Sort of irrelevant but this also happens on Vauxhall combo vans as had it a few weeks back on my bro's 05 plate van. Bloody swine to change the pedal in the baltic cold.
 

ben652

Active Member
Dec 9, 2007
81
0
hartlepool
thanks for the help lads it is currently at a garage not the dealer so i hope there can sort it without a new clutch or tak it to the sealers because there just take the piss have my eyes out cheers again
 

s20ty c

Active Member
Sep 5, 2008
138
0
lancaster
i cant belave this i was just comeing up the road to pull in my drive just now and bang clutch pedal goneto the floor and a plastic white clip on the floor! for f*** sake, anouther promblam that has started to nice is my brakes makeing a funny noise and my abs kicking in all the time! seats are SHITE!
 
Dec 6, 2008
612
0
Shropshire
i cant belave this i was just comeing up the road to pull in my drive just now and bang clutch pedal goneto the floor and a plastic white clip on the floor! for f*** sake, anouther promblam that has started to nice is my brakes makeing a funny noise and my abs kicking in all the time! seats are SHITE!

Unfortunately all cars break, sounds like you've got the clutch pedal fault described. As for the abs and brakes I'd guess at a possible sensor fault, get it on vagcom
 

ben652

Active Member
Dec 9, 2007
81
0
hartlepool
all fixed now he said he replace some plastic clip and welded somthing on padel that had broken but it spot on now thanks for all your help again lads hope to speak so on a good post i hope
 

rodenal

Guest
Yeah all the mkIV/A3/Leons seem to have this problem at some point, thankfully it's a relatively cheap and easy fix - but scary when it happens
 

sjr50

Guest
My pedal shot straight to the floor a couple of days ago and the garage I had it towed to won't even look at my car bacuase I had it converted to LPG and they say they'd have to dismantle some of this system to find the problem.
I'm having it towed to a garage that specialised in LPG cars tomorrow but would like to have some idea of what's wrong.

I have read loads about what I think you're talking about and about broken white plastic clips or something, but to throw a spanner in the works, there's been another prob...

For the past 2 months, my brake warning light has been coming on (red triangle thing with exclamation mark) and beeping at me. It sorts itself out after I top up the brake fluid- maybe the wrong thing to have done. I planned on having the hydraulics looked at the next time the car was serviced.

I'd love to think my clutch prob is just this clip thingy, but am worried it could be the slave/master cylinder just because of the probs I've had with the brakes (NB- brake performance was never a problem, just the light that kept coming on the dashboard)

I need to have a guesstimate of how much all this could cost.

HELP!!!!

Sarah (a forum newby)
 
Dec 6, 2008
612
0
Shropshire
My pedal shot straight to the floor a couple of days ago and the garage I had it towed to won't even look at my car bacuase I had it converted to LPG and they say they'd have to dismantle some of this system to find the problem.
I'm having it towed to a garage that specialised in LPG cars tomorrow but would like to have some idea of what's wrong.

I have read loads about what I think you're talking about and about broken white plastic clips or something, but to throw a spanner in the works, there's been another prob...

For the past 2 months, my brake warning light has been coming on (red triangle thing with exclamation mark) and beeping at me. It sorts itself out after I top up the brake fluid- maybe the wrong thing to have done. I planned on having the hydraulics looked at the next time the car was serviced.

I'd love to think my clutch prob is just this clip thingy, but am worried it could be the slave/master cylinder just because of the probs I've had with the brakes (NB- brake performance was never a problem, just the light that kept coming on the dashboard)

I need to have a guesstimate of how much all this could cost.

HELP!!!!

Sarah (a forum newby)

Whats your brake fluid level like now you have the pedal hitting the floor?

If its ok then theres still a good chance its the pedal, Can't imagine what having LPG has to do with it though, its only if a component of the system runs over where they need to get.

I'd say have a look at your clutch pedal to see if you can see if its that but if its being towed to another garage tomorrow then theres no point lol
 

sjr50

Guest
The brake fluid level was a tiny bit low, but only by about 10ml or something minimal. I poured a tad more fluid in, but it made no difference to the clutch. Do you think the brake and clutch probs in this case are two different issues?

I don't have the car at home with me at the moment, it's at the garage waiting for the mechanic to check it out tomorrow. If I phone him in the morning, is there somewhere specific I should ask him to look? Will the problem be obvious in the foot well where the pedals are, or does he need to get under the car or under the bonnet?

Thank you!
 

Muttley

Catch that diesel!
Mar 17, 2006
4,987
31
North Kent
sjr50 wrote

My pedal shot straight to the floor a couple of days ago and the garage I had it towed to won't even look at my car bacuase I had it converted to LPG and they say they'd have to dismantle some of this system to find the problem.

That sounds unlikely, but without seeing what the conversion involved I couldn't be sure. But I think that you're being fobbed off.

For the past 2 months, my brake warning light has been coming on (red triangle thing with exclamation mark) and beeping at me. It sorts itself out after I top up the brake fluid- maybe the wrong thing to have done. I planned on having the hydraulics looked at the next time the car was serviced.

Waitabit. Is that in the middle of the bottom row? That's the TCS/ESP warning light, indicating a problem with the Traction Control or Electronic Stability systems (depending on which one you have). This is unlikely to be associated with hydraulic fluid levels unless it's all gone.

The hydraulic fluid level warning is in the middle of the top row - a stylised brake drum with dashed blocks each side and an exclamation mark in the middle.

In any event, I'd not be happy to carry on using a car that was telling me something was wrong with the brakes. They are too important - if you had an accident because you'd ignored the warnings you would be at fault (and the warnings are logged in the ECU).

I'd love to think my clutch prob is just this clip thingy, but am worried it could be the slave/master cylinder just because of the probs I've had with the brakes (NB- brake performance was never a problem, just the light that kept coming on the dashboard)

The first step is to get the fault codes read and see what they say about the problems. Something is up with the TCS/ESP systems for a start. If the LPG specialist doesn't have VAG-com or a near equivalent, you need to find someone (a Seat dealer, an independent VAG specialist or maybe even someone from the forum willing to help with a VAG-com diagnosis) to read the codes.



Now, about the clutch pedal. Did the pedal go to the floor when you were trying to change gear? Was there a white plastic clip in two pieces on the floor? If so, then you have had the pedal failure I was talking about upthread. The garage will fix it by putting a new clutch pedal on. The clutch master cylinder seals may have been damaged as well - this would lead to brake fluid leaking from the seals, probably into the car and onto (and under) the carpet. That will need the master cylinder replacing.

It's really easy to tell if this is the problem, just bend down and take a look in the footwell. If the pedal has a rod sticking out of a folded-back tab of metal, you are looking at the failure.
 

sjr50

Guest
Thanks for getting back to me Muttley. I don't have the car here at home to check out what I can see on the floor so I phoned the LPG garage just now. They've just retrieved my car from the impossible Evans Halshaw garage.
The mechanic guy knows exactly what I'm talking about (thanks to you lot).

Fingers crossed it's just going to be a simple weld or cheap plastic clip!!

As for my brake warning light thing- I miss-typed it. It is an exclamation mark in square brackets on the top row of lights. I just found out the sensor wasn't wired to the filler cap thingy too well. Sorted.

Sarah
 

sjr50

Guest
Hmmmmm....

Well. Tony at the garage just got back to me. The whole pedal including the little white clip and the spot-welded box thingy is intact. He says it looks like the master cylinder is broken. He then cursed the design of the car because the cylinder is in the gear box or something. He then told me it looks like 1 1/2 days work. He's provisionally saying £250 plus parts (however much they are), but he thinks it'll be closer to £350-400+.
Ouch!

He's going to check out my clutch while he's in there too and see how much life it has left in it. I asked him to get in touch with me if it looks like it's going to be over £400.

The guy sounds like he knows what he's talking about. Do these prices sound right, or scary-high?

Sarah
 

marraa

Active Member
Oct 16, 2006
22
0
n e linccolnshire
Had the clutch problem after driving back from snetterton last year,went to the floor while parked up in garage overnight,first had master cylinder done behind the dashboard,bled the clutch and was ok for 3 days next day clutch on the floor gear box out -slave cylinder in the gearbox. £270 or there abouts at a performance garage.
 

Fallen Angel

Leon Cupra 1.8T 20v 180
I had the pedal failure before christmas too, i got a new pedal and white clip from Seat and fitted it ourselves.

However my other half broke the blue and black sensor above the pedal, it wouldn't rotate back in to place properly, it didn't seem to do anything to the driveability of the car so took it work, and on the way back the Engine Management light came on.
Have fitted a new sensor, not sure what it is, but the light is still on. Any ideas what that sensor is?
Also, having not driven the car for almost a month, i forgot what the clutch was like, is it normal for the pedal to wobble side to side a little??
 

marraa

Active Member
Oct 16, 2006
22
0
n e linccolnshire
dont really know much about cars.went to the local seat dealers and they didnt seem to know alot either.a mate of mine owns a performance garage.he went through everthing as he did it with me showed me the broken parts, which was the slave cylinder,as iwas worrried about being ripped off,he also gained a bit of experience on seats.i just thought iwould post what had happened to me and thought it might help if anyone else had this problem. jim
 
Dec 6, 2008
612
0
Shropshire
I had the pedal failure before christmas too, i got a new pedal and white clip from Seat and fitted it ourselves.

However my other half broke the blue and black sensor above the pedal, it wouldn't rotate back in to place properly, it didn't seem to do anything to the driveability of the car so took it work, and on the way back the Engine Management light came on.
Have fitted a new sensor, not sure what it is, but the light is still on. Any ideas what that sensor is?
Also, having not driven the car for almost a month, i forgot what the clutch was like, is it normal for the pedal to wobble side to side a little??

The sensor in question sounds like the clutch switch to me, was it mounted on the clutch assembly it self so that when the clutch is at rest state it presses the switch?

I don't think its normal for the pedal to wobble and it might be worth getting it looked at, you definitely did all the bolts up on it didnt you? It does of course depend how much its wobbling and if your feeling it with your foot or hand.