[Slade]

Last night I took delivery of a 2008, 1.6lt diesel with the 5 speed and 166,000km on the odo. When I sat in the car for the very first time and pushed the clutch pedal it fell to the floor and would not come back up. I pulled it up with my hand and it became firmly stuck in the up position. The car could be shifted through all the gears smoothly with the motor running. I pushed the car into a parking space and left it till today. It was still firmly stuck this morning. I had it towed to a shop and after it was lowered off the truck I gave the key to the attendant, explained the issue, and he got in the car and immediately drove it into the shop no problem at all! Then their technician drove it a few blocks with no issues, put it on the lift and inspected for leaks or obviously broken parts, and explained to me that everything seemed perfectly fine. He said if it happened again they would change the master cylinder. Has anyone ever had a similar issue just go away and never return? (I doubt it but you never know).
I had an old cable-clutch civic get stuck in the down position but with the clutch engaged with the flywheel. Somehow it came unstuck, and ran many more thousands of miles and never had any other clutch/pedal problems. But a hydraulic clutch is totally uncharted territory for me.

[Dazzler]

Welcome Slade,

Sorry to hear of your problem.. Is there no consumer protection in Korea? Was it a private purchase or from a business. Seems suspicious to me this happened on first use as new owner. Questions need to be asked of the seller!

Good luck, I hope another member has some constructive advice. I'm stumped, sorry.

[Slade]

Yes there's pretty good consumer protection here. I bought it from a used car dealer and they've already promised to pay for any needed repairs but the problem is the car fixed itself on the way to the repair shop.  I just got back from driving it for about 40 minutes and everything feels totally fine so I'm a bit mystified. Now I just have the nagging feeling it will suddenly break itself again at the most inopportune moment. 

[Colboy209]

I had a similar problem with the clutch pedal movement which was  caused by a trapped drivers side carpet. Probably not the reason for your fault but worth mentioning I hope.

[Slade]

Yea that was the first thing I checked! After getting stuck at the top the pedal had about a centimeter of travel and then encountered hard resistance. Definitely felt like something would break if it was forced.

But as I said it's been functioning perfectly since its tow truck ride. I know master cylinders can fail in odd ways but I haven't found any stories quite like mine in my google searches.

[Lorian]

had the brake fluid been changed just before you go it?

[Dazzler]

Yea that was the first thing I checked! After getting stuck at the top the pedal had about a centimeter of travel and then encountered hard resistance. Definitely felt like something would break if it was forced.

But as I said it's been functioning perfectly since its tow truck ride. I know master cylinders can fail in odd ways but I haven't found any stories quite like mine in my google searches.

Oh ok. What a dilemma!

[Slade]

had the brake fluid been changed just before you go it?

No idea.

I'm just going to drive it until the issue returns (if it does). I'll keep you all posted.

[sundiz]

Sure sounds strange. Seems like the clutch locked itself out of contacts with flywheel, if you were able to change gears while engine running.

All the issues I have had and seen with hydraulic clutches have been with leaking liquid. Failed slave cylinder etc. They acted like clutch pedal was not pressed. Had to start the car with gear on and do the changes without the clutch till I reached my destination. After that it was tow truck to mechanic.

With the cars I've had, the hydraulic clutches have been much more reliable. With mechanic clutches I had all sorts of issues: broken cabes, broken tensioner sprockets etc.

[Lorian]

my guess would be the fluid had been changed and not bled fully. check the fluid level is ok.

[Slade]

I took the car for its first long distance drive since I got it last week and towards the end of the journey the clutch pedal started to stick down and slowly come back up. If I pumped it it would behave better for a minute or two. Whatever is going on is triggered by heat build-up.

I'm going to take it to a shop tomorrow and have both the master and slave cylinders changed and hopefully that'll be good for another 160,000 kilometers. 

[Dazzler]

I'm going to take it to a shop tomorrow and have both the master and slave cylinders changed and hopefully that'll be good for another 160,000 kilometers. 

Hope that sorts it! 

[Slade]

It does seem to have taken care of it! I doubted it would be anything else but you never know. 

[Oopster]

Hi, this is more for anyone experiencing this sort of clutch problem. My daughter has a 2009 i30, in November her car was getting stuck in first gear and at other times the clutch pedal would not return. I checked the clutch and clutch master, both were fine but we had fluid loss. I identified the problem as the clutch pedal dampener, when I removed it was apparent that it had a crack in the diaphragm. I rang a local dealer who said the unit was unserviceable and could only be replaced with new. He wanted an arm and a leg for something that looked like it should cost ten bucks. I thought of bypassing it but that entailed pipework. Necessity being the mother of invention I remove the valve (unscrews), I then dropped a blob of weld into the port essentially making it a plug and refitted it. Two months on the clutch is fine, thought it may be a bit heavier in the pedal but no, have to wonder why the car required this part in the first place. 

[Oopster]

BTW it takes less than 15mins to do this job

[sundiz]

Without the damper some have experienced little shaking when clutch starts to bite. Some oil plug fitted to the damper threads directly. There was info about that somewhere in the forum.

[Dazzler]

Hi, this is more for anyone experiencing this sort of clutch problem. My daughter has a 2009 i30, in November her car was getting stuck in first gear and at other times the clutch pedal would not return. I checked the clutch and clutch master, both were fine but we had fluid loss. I identified the problem as the clutch pedal dampener, when I removed it was apparent that it had a crack in the diaphragm. I rang a local dealer who said the unit was unserviceable and could only be replaced with new. He wanted an arm and a leg for something that looked like it should cost ten bucks. I thought of bypassing it but that entailed pipework. Necessity being the mother of invention I remove the valve (unscrews), I then dropped a blob of weld into the port essentially making it a plug and refitted it. Two months on the clutch is fine, thought it may be a bit heavier in the pedal but no, have to wonder why the car required this part in the first place.

Damn, more great info and feedback, thanks.  You can be member of the day, next time