VW Clutch Problems

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Discussion

DUBS73P

Original Poster:

111 posts

141 months

Wednesday 31st July
quotequote all
Looking for some advice if possible

Picked up a 2018 VW Tiguan 1.4 a week ago and have been having a few clutch problems ever since the drive home.

It seems to be when stationary and with your foot left on the clutch (fully depressed) for an amount of time, say 30 seconds to a minute when sat in traffic, 1 of 2 things can happen;
-It will release half way then stop, still allow you to engage a gear and you can just hook your foot under the pedal to pop it the rest of the way
-While the pedal is still depressed, you can audibly hear the clutch trying to engage and strain, then you are unable to take the car out of gear even though the clutch is depressed, this also means that if you have auto-hold on, you cant actually move the car so you end up having to turn the car off, manually lift the pedal and depress again to allow you to flick it back in to neutral

I've had a Mk1 Tiguan before and also had Clutch problems but they were more extreme as the pedal just worked like an on/off switch where it flicked up/down with force, that one turned out to be a very expensive Slave Cylinder replacement.

With this new one still having pedal feel all the time, I'm hoping it's not exactly the same fate but wondered what steps to go through to try and diagnose the issue further.

I have ordered some brake fluid and a bleed kit to make sure it's not just air in the system, but beyond that I've just seen conflicting views on how to determine whether the issue is with the master or slave beyond one or the other visibly leaking fluid

Cheers

Drive Blind

5,206 posts

183 months

Wednesday 31st July
quotequote all
on my last car - 2016 Golf GTD - the clutch pedal went spongy and a few times the pedal stuck halfway.

Trying to get anybody to look at it was a nightmare. 1 place simply quoted master + slave + full clutch kit at around £1400 without even looking at it but was booked solid for the next few months. Another sucked in his teeth and said well we could try the master first cos its cheaper but i'm booked solid for the next 6 weeks. 2 places sat in the car, pumped the pedal and simply said 'drive it until it fails'. Great help.

Dunno if its a 'mare of a job or black magic involved but nobody wanted to know.

Not much help, sorry, but I hope you have more joy than me.

rottenegg

713 posts

69 months

Saturday 3rd August
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Try bleeding the clutch slave cylinder in the first instance. Bleeding the clutch fluid is supposed to be done alongside a brake fluid flush service, but dealers seldom do that unless specifically instructed to do so.

If the clutch pedal stays down, or is lazy to return, that can be either clutch cylinder. Look for oil sweating on the pedal master cylinder. It can also be input shaft bearing wear in the gearbox, but start with the cheapest and easiest things first.


normalbloke

7,622 posts

225 months

Saturday 3rd August
quotequote all
Take it back.