Clutch pedal sticking

[Tigerwallis]

He'll guys and girls I have a G plate guards red s2cab and recently I have noticed that the clutch pedal sticks from time to time which is very annoying !!! It only gets stuck down about a third of the way and you can lift it back up by putting your foot under it and lifting , i have only had the car for about 3 month and don't use it much as I bought it as an investment. Yesterday I went to drive it and the pedal seems worse !! It gets stuck right down and is harder to get it back up as there isn't room under the pedal to get my foot under it to return it ?? has anyone else had this problem and if so is it an expensive fix ???. Also it only gets stuck down when the car is running and the ignition is on , any help or advice would me much appreciated !! Regards Gary.

 

[PSH]

hydraulics....check master and slave cylinders plus hose from the master cylinder. If there is no loss of fluid, check the hose for signs of damage (usually heat) as it's possible that the inner hose has failed and the fluid is leaking out to the outer hose thus loosing pressure. If the fluid is old it may be contaminated , may have overheated and caused air bubbles. There is another possibility, one which I have experienced twice in my 17+ years ownership and as it happens one that I have right now and hope to fix later today. This is uneven wear in the master cylinder bore, in my case, this is caused by a very slight misalignment between pedal movement ( bad pedal box repair by an indie when I first bought the car) and master cylinder pin which results over time in the piston wearing the cylinder unevenly causing a score resulting in the symptoms you describe.
Regards

Pete

 

[Tigerwallis]

Thanks Pete good advice , unfortunately I'm not machanicly minded so would have to get a machanicly to look at it !! Is it an expensive job either way ?? Thanks

 

[PSH]

Not expensive if using parts from Euro Car parts, I haven't checked what the cost is from Porsche as my son has a trade account with ECP and in the main, they are OEM parts anyway. Each of the 3 possible parts from ECP are less than £100 per item retail. There is always the outside possibility of a clutch failure but you would have noticed other symptoms prior to the sticking pedal such as slipping and very high bite point, I doubt it's the clutch without these other symptoms and thus would be sure that the hydraulics are working properly first.
Labour shouldn't be more than an hour (if just a hydraulic fault), the job can be done in half that time but 1 hour may be the lowest rate charged.
I would choose your mechanic carefully as some may just say 'it's the clutch', charge you for such when not really needed of worse still only fix the hydraulic fault, yet charge you for a new clutch. If they say it's the clutch be sure to state that you want the old clutch back( a good garage would do this anyway), at least that way you have some guarantee of the clutch actually being changed. If they were trying to scam you you'd probably get a later report saying 'lucky you, we found it was only the hydraulics' especially as these things are at least a days Labour, 2 if Turbo......

Pete

 

[Tigerwallis]

Thanks Pete ;-)) I can confirm that the car has already had a new clutch and including the original clutch it's only done 92000 miles in total and I've not experienced any other symptoms , so I think one of the other faults could be the cause !! Or at least I hope so ??

 

[PSH]

Hi Gary

Just to let you know mine is now fixed, master cylinder as suspected, there were signs just showing, of a very small leak developing , nothing that had shown as a loss in fluid yet..took my son 20 mins, allow double for average mechanic .

good luck

Pete

 

[robwright]

+1 for Pete's post. Check master and slave for leaks and check reservoir level. I had to replace both if mine in quick succession.

 

[wolfie308]

As above, had exactly the same symptoms on my S.2 and also had both master and slave cylinders changed at the same time by the Indie I was then using. That was at about 140k and both items were original.

 

[bmnelsc]

I had problems with my S2 - clutch sticking although not as bad as you describe at 80k (50k miles). The disc measured near new but the release bearing was very noisy as well as sticky operation. Upon clutch replacement we found a spring center clutch (so it had been replaced) but the release bearing was virtually packed with wheel bearing (or similar very heavy) grease and was binding on the guide tube. So - whoever replaced the clutch screwed it up royally. New clutch, bearing and guide tube solved the problem although I really could have reused the disc and pressure plate (but once you're in there ...).