Skoda Octavia clutch pedal sticking

snowmen

Hi,

I have a 2016 Octavia and recently my clutch pedal has started sticking.
Thought it was my driving at first (!) - the car would sometimes jolt after a gear change and sometimes stall completely.
Realised that the clutch pedal was in fact staying on the floor and then springing back up a few seconds later causing the problem.

Today I pulled off and the clutch stayed on the floor completely. Managed to get it back up by pulling it up with my foot.
Doesn't seem to do it all the time but noticeable when it does.

Any ideas what could be causing this? Anyone else also have come across this problem?

gould300

I had this in a Seat Leon some years ago - chances are the clutch master cylinder has gone and will need replacing.

Stubod

..as above, I had exactly the same problem on a Yeti, (same year). Tried spraying a bit of lube around the pedal area, but this only seemed to work for a bit and then the problem returned. Ended up getting a new master cylinder fitted. NB May be worth posting / looking on the "Briskoda" forum...?

fred990

Common fault on VW Transporters (same manufacturer). Bleeding/flushing the clutch circuit might fix it or a new master cylinder as mentioned before. 

Any sign of leaks under the clutch pedal?

snowmen

Any sign of leaks under the clutch pedal?

No none that I can see/feel.

snowmen

Update - I took it to a garage who said it could be the master cylinder.
Had it changed and drove it for 2 days and seemed fixed.
However after this time although the clutch pedal has not fully stuck  completely in the down position, it has started to stick again part-way up.
The mechanic did tell me at the time that if changing the master cylinder did not fix the problem, the car might need a new clutch which would be a lot more expensive. 🙁

plantlife

We are having the same problem with our Skoda superbe. Clutch stuck down when I stopped suddenly (at slow speed). Had to manually raise it. Spent loads at Skoda garage on new clutch. Now has happened again (one year later). Chatting to a friend. Her daughter had exactly same problem in their Skoda Octavia. We don’t know what to do as latest (non Skoda) garage couldn’t reproduce this intermittent problem. I don’t trust the car any more

Stubod

..found this piece of advice on a Skoda forum regarding thsi issue...:-

"......There is a control loading spring and cam that not only assists the pedal in the 2nd half of the return stroke but which will push and hold it to the floor on the downstroke, it is the opposing hydraulic pressure from the clutch springs via the slave cylinder, the hydraulic fluid and finally the master cylinder that lifts the pedal to the midpoint at which point the spring assistance works with that pressure instead of against it.

The fault will be air in the system, the cause, and I would bet my house this vehicle has a concentric slave cylinder, will be air being drawn in around the O ring seal in the joint between the two plastic mouldings making up the feed pipe and the cylinder.

Bleeding the system will bring some respite but the problem will swiftly reoccur, lifting the pedal makes things worse as it draws more air in, replacement will cure the problem but the replacement cylinder will have the same weakness and will fail in the same way in time...."

...you can bet, being VAG, it deffinately won't be a "design or manufacturing problem"....which it clearly is as there are quite a few reports regarding this on 'tinternet across similar models in the group using the same basic platform.

Shedman

I have had a similar issue with a 2015 Ford Focus.  Clutch pedal would occasionally not come all the way back up but clutch still engaging fine.  No indication of fluid in footwell so garage reckon it was slave cylinder.  However,  on a Focus that requires as much work to access as changing clutch so last May, as the car had done 60k,  I got clutch and DMF done at same time.  £1000 later the problem seemed to be sorted and was fine for 6 months then very occasionally started happening again and over last few months has got more frequent (seems mainly to occur when clutch is held in for a while as in reversing or in stop start traffic).  

Mechanic thinks maybe the master cylinder now also needs changing.  Interestingly in this hotter weather though it's stopped being anywhere near as frequent (mechanic thinks the seals might have swelled a bit due to warmth and stopping any leaks a bit) plus I've learnt how to cope/avoid it so not sure I'm ready to pay £300 for master cylinder change that might not solve anything.  From looking at various car forums it seems to be one of those annoying problems that is not easy to replicate and no certainty over what will fix it.   

chris_n

Stubod said:

..found this piece of advice on a Skoda forum regarding thsi issue...:-

"......There is a control loading spring and cam that not only assists the pedal in the 2nd half of the return stroke but which will push and hold it to the floor on the downstroke, it is the opposing hydraulic pressure from the clutch springs via the slave cylinder, the hydraulic fluid and finally the master cylinder that lifts the pedal to the midpoint at which point the spring assistance works with that pressure instead of against it.

The fault will be air in the system, the cause, and I would bet my house this vehicle has a concentric slave cylinder, will be air being drawn in around the O ring seal in the joint between the two plastic mouldings making up the feed pipe and the cylinder.

Bleeding the system will bring some respite but the problem will swiftly reoccur, lifting the pedal makes things worse as it draws more air in, replacement will cure the problem but the replacement cylinder will have the same weakness and will fail in the same way in time...."

...you can bet, being VAG, it deffinately won't be a "design or manufacturing problem"....which it clearly is as there are quite a few reports regarding this on 'tinternet across similar models in the group using the same basic platform.

It's an even bigger problem when the concentric slave cylinder has been replaced. I can't remember the failure mechanism but a friend of mine had a motor factors and I remember Valeo (OEM) issuing instructions with all VAG concentric clutch kits on the correct way to assemble these systems. I know after that if any garages tried to claim under warranty they were asked how they had fitted it and all of the failures hadn't followed the instructions.