Hi all,

My missus was driving here 1.3 multijet to work this morning and she said that went she went to change gear the clutch pedal went to the floor and didnt return. She is currently waiting for the aa to pick her up but I wanted to see what could be wrong before she takes it to a garage. I drove the car yesterday and it all seemed fine with no clutch slip or anything. I did notice some patches of oil on the wet road these last few days but we park in different places so I couldnt be sure but I checked the engine oil to be sure. Does anyone have any ideas what this could be? I originally thought it would be a clutch cable but I can see on other posts that its hydraulic.

she has said (now :bang: ) that a warning light has been coming on that looks like a spring but I am not sure what this is?

Cheers for any advice

Could be the master cylinder, if its a similair design to the one on the 1.9 multijet.
They have a ball joint that connects to the clutch pedal, the socket wears and they come apart, making the clutch go straight to the floor when its pressed.

Is that an expensive part to change, I know the part itself is around £20-30 but I'm not sure on how big a job it is? Will it take a garage long to fix it?

The engine in her car is tiny (compared to the 1.8tddi lump in my focus) ... so I cant see there being any space issues.

Cheers for the fast reply

No, space isn't an issue as the part is in the drivers footwell, attached to the clutch pedal. If i remember correctly it took the garage less than an hour to do it on my sisters bravo.
But this is only if its a similair design, it sounds like the same problem, and i hope that it is!

I did just have a look at the part on shop4parts and it looks as though it might be bolted to the pedal rather than a ball joint.
I can't be sure, let us know what the AA man says.

Well so far all I have heard back is that he's been looking at it for about 20mins and that something has snapped. Waiting to hear back with any more detail.

Oh and he is looking under the bonnet so that narrows is down a bit more lol.

surfamakikomi said:

Well so far all I have heard back is that he's been looking at it for about 20mins and that something has snapped. Waiting to hear back with any more detail.

Oh and he is looking under the bonnet so that narrows is down a bit more lol.

Click to expand...

Oh, well that is strange. Im not sure what it could be then!
Hopefully its not going to be too expensive!

Well here is the comments from the aa man

" removed broken part of rod and refitted bled slave cylinder. New rod\slave cylinder required."

doesnt sound to expensive..... Its just down to me to get this fixed now.

Cheers for all the advice.

surfamakikomi said:

Well here is the comments from the aa man

" removed broken part of rod and refitted bled slave cylinder. New rod\slave cylinder required."

doesnt sound to expensive..... Its just down to me to get this fixed now.

Cheers for all the advice.

Click to expand...

Well, i think the slave is jusy a normal slave and not concentric, which will save you a heap load of money! Im glad it sounds relatively cheap.

I have looked at findapart and the part is £36 or £49 full price. So its not too bad. I have also booked the car into a garage near my office so I have to take her fiat tomorrow and give her my focus.

Its not quite a fair swap though my focus is only the 90bhp version and has done 228k so far so its not quite showroom condition . Her car has only done around 70k miles and is 70bhp but more refined than the focus.

Next fault to fix on her car is the boost pressure sensor / maf thing as it sometimes kicks fault codes out when you try to give it the beans.

Cheers for the help guys

surfamakikomi said:

I have looked at findapart and the part is £36 or £49 full price. So its not too bad. I have also booked the car into a garage near my office so I have to take her fiat tomorrow and give her my focus.

Its not quite a fair swap though my focus is only the 90bhp version and has done 228k so far so its not quite showroom condition . Her car has only done around 70k miles and is 70bhp but more refined than the focus.

Next fault to fix on her car is the boost pressure sensor / maf thing as it sometimes kicks fault codes out when you try to give it the beans.

Cheers for the help guys

Click to expand...

http://www.shop4parts.co.uk/?name=store&op=Details&ProdID=1004&sku=32923


looks like 2 bolts and a reblead of the clutch

something that would take a home mechanic 30 mins to an hour to do depending on access i know the 1.2 and 1.4 8v engined gp's can be done in about half an hour start to finish

with a bottle of dot 4 brake fluid about £6 a litre and a one man bleed kit £5 - £10 ish and ideally some brake cleaner...


unbolt the old slave using spanner (13mm iirc)

undo hose into old slave (a hose clamp can save leaking too much fluid) but ive done a panda and didnt loose too much fluid without ((dont get DOT on the paintwork))

(Release metal clip by using a flat screwdriver no need to fully remove just pull it up till it stops then pull on the hose to remove it..... )

push hose into to new slave a smear of dot in the new slave will lube the o-ring..

bolt slave in place ensuring the end goes into the gear box clutch lever

top up brake fluid bottle to max...

fit one man bleeder to new slave and open nipple and bleed as per instructions. on bleed kit

(basicly slowly pump clutch ideally with a friend watching the one man bleeder till no more air comes out.) and keeping the brake fluid bottle topped up... (the clutch take off is higher than both brake outputs on the bottle so the brakes should be fine and not need touching...


sometimes on the final couple of presses push the piston back into the slave slightly in-case there is any air trapped inside it...... then close the nipple and check the clutch is working ok....



Even if you dont want to DIY it you now know what the garage should be doing

Cheers for the info andy,

If it was my car then I would probably do the job myself but she needs the car daily and I dont have the time today to sort it out. The car has just gone into a garage near where I work so hopefully the bill will be around £90. If so the car is going to have new glow plugs as well as the light was flashing this morning so I think its wise to sort this now.

Is it true that diesels only need the glow plugs in the winter/when its very cold?

Well just been over to the garage and the part has been swapped and he just needs to bleed the system again and I can pick it up. He says it will be £80 - 85 cash.