Problem with my clutch pedal?

Hi everyone.. Not sure if anyone has heard of this problem...

I have a Combo van (same as a Corsa) which has performed brilliantly until last week. I was turning into a friends house and when changing gear the clutch pedal went straight to the floor and stayed there!.. had a quick look at it and found the pedal was stuck down and wouldn't budge so decided it had to be a job for the RAC.

Chap came out and took one look at it and said the "never heard of this on a Combo before but it does happen on VW's... The clutch pedal has a location box welded to the side of the clutch pedal for the hydraulic bar that operates the clutch to locate into. The box is closed off at one end and open the other to allow the bar to fit into it. Anyway, the bar had bent the blanking off plate at the rear of the box under pressure... This means the bar had come through the box and allowed the pedal to be pressed to the floor. The blanking plate had in fact bent backwards.

As the chap from the RAC had seen this before he did know how to fix a "get you home repair".. After he pulled the pedal back into position (by pulling the rod back through the box) he managed to knock back the plate (hitting it with a hammer and screwdriver), then used a small length of cable secured with a cable clamp to try and hold the plate in place until I got home. It worked a treat and full credit to him.

Anyway, I phoned several garages, even the main dealer to try and find out if this is a common fault.. all said they had never heard of it before. One mentioned it is a faulty clutch that caused the problem and would cost upwards of £400.00 to fix!.. load of rubbish as the clutch works perfectly. My local garage had heard of the same problem on VW's ans said it was because the back plate is not welded to the pedal.. over time, and usually above 50K they start to bend and the clutch gives the feeling it needs adjusting as the rod is slowly coming through the box and decreasing the pedal length..

So, if anyone out there is having clutch problems and keeps adjusting it but over a period of time it happens again.. look at the clutch pedal.. it could save you a fortune in avoiding a costly new clutch repair you don't need.

It's a pig of a job to get into the foot-well to fix so take it to a local garage.. ask them to remove the pedal and weld the back plate in place.. total cost about £100.00.

Dusty Rhodes
May 2008