Cupra 300: Sticking Clutch

MCD42

Active Member
Dec 26, 2018
8
0
Just over 3500 miles and noticed a sticking clutch. At first I thought the pedal might be stuck under a mat as this is how it felt, however the pedal is unobstructed and sticks to the floor momentarily and doesn’t rise with my foot. It also feels lighter to press than usual, but that may be a placebo. I’ve searched and found threads discussing slave/master cylinder which I hope isn’t true of a car with so few miles! It is a lease vehicle so I will be taking to a main dealer tomorrow when they are open.

I’m posting to see if anyone has had this issue with a manual 300, and also to see if anyone would recommend a dealer in Nottingham to take a look. I leased through Lookers Stockport (who were superb), but this is a long way to go to deal with a service rather than sales team.

Thanks.
 

zedlor

Active Member
Aug 24, 2017
298
123
Warrington
Just go to your local Seat dealer, don't go out of your way to deal with Lookers Stockport. I've dealt with them a few times since I got my Cupra, can't say it's been "positive".

My Cupra 280 had the same though,14,500 miles, needed a new master and slave cylinder, clutch and thermostat housing. I don't know how many others have got lucky with it just being the hydraulics of the pedal itself...
 
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MCD42

Active Member
Dec 26, 2018
8
0
Thanks. Were the symptoms of yours any different to what I’ve described? I will take it to a Seat garage tomorrow.
 

zedlor

Active Member
Aug 24, 2017
298
123
Warrington
Thanks. Were the symptoms of yours any different to what I’ve described? I will take it to a Seat garage tomorrow.
Nope exactly the same, kept sticking to the floor and not coming back up and the bite point seemed a bit higher too.

It's pretty common with these and Golf R's to be honest, just be thankful that it's still within warranty!
 
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MCD42

Active Member
Dec 26, 2018
8
0
Thanks for your response. I can imagine the bill outside of warranty is very steep.
 

zedlor

Active Member
Aug 24, 2017
298
123
Warrington
Thanks for your response. I can imagine the bill outside of warranty is very steep.
~£1500 I believe, maybe a bit more, clutch on its own is close to £1100 plus the extra bits that needed replacing on mine. Took them about a week to have it all done.
 
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MCD42

Active Member
Dec 26, 2018
8
0
Update: Booked in for January as the master technician is not in during the festive break. Suggested it may be the release bearing, but either way the gearbox will be out to inspect.

I also remembered that there is a creaking sound from the clutch (not the pedal assembly, but from behind the bulkhead), which is most noticeable when the engine is under load when pulling away in 1st. I don’t know if this is related, but it will be inspected too.

I will update for anyone else having this issue.
 

Pedrocks

Active Member
Feb 2, 2018
27
7
Just over 3500 miles and noticed a sticking clutch. At first I thought the pedal might be stuck under a mat as this is how it felt, however the pedal is unobstructed and sticks to the floor momentarily and doesn’t rise with my foot. It also feels lighter to press than usual, but that may be a placebo. I’ve searched and found threads discussing slave/master cylinder which I hope isn’t true of a car with so few miles! It is a lease vehicle so I will be taking to a main dealer tomorrow when they are open.

I’m posting to see if anyone has had this issue with a manual 300, and also to see if anyone would recommend a dealer in Nottingham to take a look. I leased through Lookers Stockport (who were superb), but this is a long way to go to deal with a service rather than sales team.

Thanks.

I had the same syptoms as yours at 6K on my 300 and had flywheel and various other bits replaced. It was in the garage 4 days total.

On the upside, it drives better than when I got the car new!
 

MCD42

Active Member
Dec 26, 2018
8
0
Thanks for your reply. 6k is very low miles too. The garage have suggested two days to repair, but obviously this is dependant upon the inspection! They are however insisting that a courtesy car will cost £10 per day (for insurance, otherwise it is ‘free’) whilst the work is carried out. I wondered if anyone else had faced this before as I haven’t.
 

zedlor

Active Member
Aug 24, 2017
298
123
Warrington
Thanks for your reply. 6k is very low miles too. The garage have suggested two days to repair, but obviously this is dependant upon the inspection! They are however insisting that a courtesy car will cost £10 per day (for insurance, otherwise it is ‘free’) whilst the work is carried out. I wondered if anyone else had faced this before as I haven’t.
No you shouldn't have to pay that if it's under warranty. They tried to say the same to me, and I was ready to argue with them when I dropped it off, but when I brought it up they just told me that it's free.

You shouldn't be paying for anything whilst the car is with them. The fault is with the car, it's warranty work, therefore you shouldn't be penalised whilst they fix it.
 
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Pedrocks

Active Member
Feb 2, 2018
27
7
Good to hear what I thought reaffirmed. Thanks.
My dealer involved seat UK who spoke to me on the phone to sort insurance for free on the hire car. The dealer had no cars available so the run around came from 'enterprise'. I didn't have to push them for all this which was good.
 

MCD42

Active Member
Dec 26, 2018
8
0
Update: The car has not been driven for 7 days. I started it this morning to take to the garage and the clutch pedal had returned to normal. I thought that I should take it regardless as the issue had not been intermittent up to this point (and I had checked the obvious ‘is it trapped under a mat’ etc!).

The sticking clutch issue didn’t reappear when the engine was warm and all was fine when I got to the garage. There was an issue with a courtesy car not being available so I decided to take the car home with the issue not being present. The creaking from the clutch (which was intermittent) was also on a good day. The garage offered to put the car on a ramp to check if any of the creaking was suspension related, which showed no issues.

All in all very confusing! Perhaps air which has self-bled in the week of standing still? Other than that or a self-adjusting clutch then I’m unsure.

Issue has been logged in case it reappears. Did anyone else find a clutch issue was an intermittent problem?
 

KXL

KXL
Dec 15, 2016
1,581
197
London, UK
I found Volvo dealers (now that my Seat is gone and have a V40) to be better. I brought it in (pre booked) for some warranty work to check a boot light not working and a error message that won't go away at Volvo, and they already arranged a XC60 courtesy car the day I booked it. Wow...sadly the warranty work took 10 mins, instead of 'an entire afternoon' as they said, so no XC60 for me!
 

Pedrocks

Active Member
Feb 2, 2018
27
7
Update: The car has not been driven for 7 days. I started it this morning to take to the garage and the clutch pedal had returned to normal. I thought that I should take it regardless as the issue had not been intermittent up to this point (and I had checked the obvious ‘is it trapped under a mat’ etc!).

The sticking clutch issue didn’t reappear when the engine was warm and all was fine when I got to the garage. There was an issue with a courtesy car not being available so I decided to take the car home with the issue not being present. The creaking from the clutch (which was intermittent) was also on a good day. The garage offered to put the car on a ramp to check if any of the creaking was suspension related, which showed no issues.

All in all very confusing! Perhaps air which has self-bled in the week of standing still? Other than that or a self-adjusting clutch then I’m unsure.

Issue has been logged in case it reappears. Did anyone else find a clutch issue was an intermittent problem?

Again I had the same experience. It was fine one day, but then the next it would play up. This went on for 2 weeks until i decided it had to take it in. When i got it to the garage they had a tech come down and I explained it was intermittent and they agreed to take it and take it for a test. They then rang back later and agreed it needed work.

I suppose my point would be, its an important part of the car, if something is wrong with it, it not going to fix itself, its just going to get worse and you don't want that happening longer term.
 
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MCD42

Active Member
Dec 26, 2018
8
0
You’re right - and I asked the garage to keep the case open so I intend to drop it back in when it happens again.

In the meantime I won’t worry about it and I’ll enjoy the car as it’s intended, but it’s good to hear that it can be intermittent and I’m not just going crazy!
 

Justin82

Active Member
Jun 12, 2022
17
4
Any update on this? Just went to park on my drive and my clutch pedal dropped to the floor. Was stranded for 5 minutes trying to pump the pedal in vain, eventually it sprang back up on its own and now it drives again!! Never happened before....
 
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