[badgerfruit]

Well, as the title suggests, my clutch has gone. When I say "gone", there is no resistance on the pedal and it doesn't pop back up when depressed (I can hook my foot behind it and it pops back up).  The car won't go into gear and is sitting on the driveway looking very sorry for itself.

I'm not going to attempt a fix as this is so far beyond my capabilities,  experience and tool set.  I'm just here for some advice in what could be the problem and likely cost if possible.

I don't know if the above info is enough for any kind of guesstimate on the actual problem or not but I'm happy to answer any question to the best of my ability.

Here's a nice picture, just because...

[badgerfruit]

I've looked in the owners manual and it suggests there is a brake/clutch fluid reservoir under the bonnet.  I've had a look at its hard to say for sure, but it looks pretty empty; thing is, I'm not 100% certain I'm.looking at the right thing so am a tad reluctant to pour clutch fluid in if its the brake reservoir or vice versa. 

Am I best just waiting until tomorrow and calling a garage?  There's one around the corner and I'm almost sure they could tow me if need be but would feel so dumb if it's just a bit of liquid that'd fix it

If the fluids gone you may have a leak somewhere in the system, if you're not comfortable/competent diagnosing the problem I would call a garage, just filling the system may not resolve the issue and it will need bleeding as well.

[badgerfruit]

Thanks.  That's pretty much my thought but would a lack of fluid cause the issue (ie. No resistance at all in the pedal?

I found luks guide to clutch problems and mine wasn't described there so am still in the dark!  I just don't want to be ripped off "oh yeah matr we had to replace the entire clutch" when all they did was top up a tank

[badgerfruit]

Well, it's on the back of a recovery van heading to the garage now   ... fingers crossed for an inexpensive repair please!

[BrendanP]

I had the clutch on my old 2011 1.6 diesel replaced last year, cost about £650 including a new slave cylinder, and new oil in the gearbox. It had done 245,000 miles. If it's not working because the fluid has leaked out, a decent garage should find the leak first, which should be pretty obvious.  My current car is a 2015 GD version which has only one fluid reservoir for both brakes and clutch. The fluid is the same type. I found there was a leak where the clutch flexible hose joins the connection to the concentric slave cylinder buried away inside the clutch bell-housing. Again, this was obvious from the puddle of fluid on the tray under the engine.  Fixed it myself for about £5.

I created a post describing this, and another one showing what my clutch looked like after removal. If you can search through my posts you should find them

[badgerfruit]

Wow, what a difference... I've no idea but all Google searches on having a clutch that has no resistance does point to fluid rather than hardware (if that makes sense).  I thunk mine is a GD as well (I'll look through my post history as I discovered that one day) and also 2015 (65 plate).  The owners book says "clutch/brake fluid" so it could well be the same "pot" but this doesn't address the root cause ....   fingers crossed for a leak though, £5 sounds just about affordable these days! Hahahaha (cries)

[badgerfruit]

Confirm it is a GD

[badgerfruit]

So I just phoned the garage and they can't see the leak/problem with a cursory look so they're lifting it up tomorrow and think it's the slave cylinder but won't know for sure until then.

They're going to advise before doing anything and we trust the garage to a certain degree but it'd be useful to hear from the community an idea on ££ so we know if they're asking a reasonable figure or not.  TIA as always

[BrendanP]

On my GD diesel the clutch slave cylinder is a concentric one buried away in the bell-housing. If that's leaking I'd expect to see fluid seeping out of the joint where the bell-housing bolts onto the engine. This would be evident after getting under the car and removing the plastic under-tray. Replacing the slave cylinder means taking the gearbox off, and as most of the cost is labour you may as well have the clutch replaced at the same time. Here is a link to a video I posted showing where fluid was leaking from where the flexible hydraulic hose connects to the plastic spigot which pokes out of the bell-housing.

Hyundai i30 clutch hydraulic connection - YouTube

It's just a push-fit with a spring to hold it on, but the spring was broken so it was not tight enough to stop fluid leaking out. I replaced an o-ring and strapped it on with cable ties and it's been fine since. I don't know if all GD variants have a concentric slave cylinder. If it's an external cylinder it's far easier and cheaper to replace.

[badgerfruit]

Quoted just under 400 but that includes a new clutch and the recovery so all on all not too bad as was expecting a lot more financial pain!

Thanks for reading and brendanp for their replies

On my GD diesel the clutch slave cylinder is a concentric one buried away in the bell-housing. If that's leaking I'd expect to see fluid seeping out of the joint where the bell-housing bolts onto the engine. This would be evident after getting under the car and removing the plastic under-tray. Replacing the slave cylinder means taking the gearbox off, and as most of the cost is labour you may as well have the clutch replaced at the same time. Here is a link to a video I posted showing where fluid was leaking from where the flexible hydraulic hose connects to the plastic spigot which pokes out of the bell-housing.

Hyundai i30 clutch hydraulic connection - YouTube

It's just a push-fit with a spring to hold it on, but the spring was broken so it was not tight enough to stop fluid leaking out. I replaced an o-ring and strapped it on with cable ties and it's been fine since. I don't know if all GD variants have a concentric slave cylinder. If it's an external cylinder it's far easier and cheaper to replace.

Mine has an external slave, I wonder why some are and some aren't on GD's, is it year dependant?

Quoted just under 400 but that includes a new clutch and the recovery so all on all not too bad as was expecting a lot more financial pain!

Thanks for reading and brendanp for their replies

Did they say what the problem was?

[badgerfruit]

Quoted just under 400 but that includes a new clutch and the recovery so all on all not too bad as was expecting a lot more financial pain!

Thanks for reading and brendanp for their replies

Did they say what the problem was?

No.  To be honest, I just called them to ask how much extra replacing the clutch would be.  I'll ask when I pick the thing up. 

As for year dependent, dunno.  Mone is 65 reg 2015 GD ... maybe depends on who was on shift that day in the factory hahaha

[badgerfruit]

Got the car back, leaking slave cylinder.  Turns out the clutch has a spring in the plate which was also out of whack and had smashed away bits of the metal plate whoops