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no clutch pressure

60K views 71 replies 30 participants last post by  sparkyb91 
#1 ·
I was driving along last week and my clutch dropped, after 8 hours of recovery we got to a Vuaxhall dealer and left it over the bank holiday weekend. 5 days later, got the car back, they'd replaced pretty much everything to do with the clutch system.

It was great for 150 miles, when I felt the clutch go again as I was driving around a roundabout. Got the car back home and dropped at my local Vauxhall as clutch pressure has definitely gone again. pretty gutting after not having the day for over 7 days!

Today the dealer tells me they are inundated and vauxhall do not have a solution that is holding!!! They also tell me they had a fleet of new police cars all with the same issue! sounds pretty widespread.

My astra is a 1.6 Diesel SRi 66 plate
 
#54 ·
Hi, I can tell you a tale of woe about my wife's Astra 1'6tdci. After 30k miles she phoned me to say the clutch pedal had gone about a mile away. I came out in my van, looked underneath and saw fluid dribbling out. I swapped vehicles and drove it home. So, car taken in to Tony Levoi Romford. As you can guess form my username clutches are my business. I was very surprised at this failure after such a short time (specially as she does mainly motorway miles. About 9 months later she was complaining of a spongy pedal, back it went to the dealer. it came back with them saying they'd changed the dmf. I was surprised they hadn't done this the first time as I always change Dmfs on diesels if the clutch goes. Fast forward another 3 months, the car is in for routine service. When the man brings the car round to the front the pedal goes! Car stays in dealers 'awaiting parts from germany' A week later the car suddenly reappears. I have checked under bonnet and can see a new pipe has been fitted. I've looked at the master cylinder and can't be 100% if it has been changed or not. Come on another 6 weeks, my wife has stopped at the lights about 2 miles from home, No clutch pedal. RAC recover it to the garage (Vauxhall dealers) opposite where it sits for a week while Tony Levoi fail to collect it. Eventually the lease company give authorisation for Toomeys (the garage it is in now) to carry out any work. I have dealt with clutch problems on many Vauxhalls and never, ever known anything like this. The story about the clutch pipe material contaminating the fluid is laughable. I work on cars sometime 10-15 years old where the fluid comes out black, it still works. The pipe change will be for a different reason. As far as I can see, air must somehow be entering the system. Clutch hydraulic systems are all designed and made by the same companies (sachs, LUK, Valeo) so it really shouldn't be a model specific problem. At a quick glance there appears nothing radically different about the setup to any other Vauxhall, so I'm at a loss to explain this. My wife is at her wits end with this, her concern being if it fails out in Norfolk where she has to travel to most days. Her bos seems to think it's her fault of course!
 
#56 ·
Ivanzu said:
Yup, strangely petrol engines are not affected as much as diesel ones.
That leads me to think the problem may lay with the slave cylinder rather than the master. On Renault Trafic/vauxhall vivaro I've had several cases of people losing their clutch pedal presure after a motorway drive. Bleed it and it will work again. Use it all day round town, no problem. Half-hour up the M11 no pedal. This isn't happening at low miles or anything but the cure is to change the slave cylinder (and clutch). My theory has always been that when the bearing on the cylinder is spinning under no pressure it somehow draws in a small amount of air. This is only a theory of mine with no proof, but whever people tell me they have a trafic /vivaro with no pedal I always say 'slave cylinder'. So far it's always worked The point being the greater vibration of the diesel v the petrol could encourage this process. DMFs on petrol cars last the life of the engine, on diesels only the life of the clutch.
 
#62 ·
Refresh of the topic.

Mine is just being collected from the front of my house. Last Friday arrived home on 3rd gear as clutch was down to the floor. Leak under engine. It was failing slowly over few days. But worst start happening after long motorway drive, but pumping made it OK for a while. Last Friday no amount of pumping would do anything.
Dealers agreed to fix it for free, car just come out of warranty a week ago, with 26k miles, 65 plate. Now waiting if they can get me a hire car.
 
#64 ·
thequick said:
Refresh of the topic.

Mine is just being collected from the front of my house. Last Friday arrived home on 3rd gear as clutch was down to the floor. Leak under engine. It was failing slowly over few days. But worst start happening after long motorway drive, but pumping made it OK for a while. Last Friday no amount of pumping would do anything.
Dealers agreed to fix it for free, car just come out of warranty a week ago, with 26k miles, 65 plate. Now waiting if they can get me a hire car.
Did you have the recall carried out. If so, had you had step 2 of recall of carried out?
 
#65 ·
oops, forgot to reply here, as I'm not regular visitor to this forum.

Yes, step 2 was carried out, car was at dealership for around a week, as they waited for parts. They gave me replacement astra from Europecar - delivered to my house and collected the same. Was really impressed with quality of service. Didn't cost me a penny.
 
#66 ·
Fear I've had a similar issue to this in a 1.6 petrol turbo today. Short drive and fine. Collected something and back to the car ten minutes later and it wouldn't go in gear with the engine on.

Managed to get going (needed to reverse first) by putting in reverse then starting the engine, turning off, into first and limping home. Mechanic neighbour suggested the slave plate?

It's 18 months old and has done just 8000 miles. Is this something they'll try and squirm out of? From what I can see the talk in here is mostly of diesels not petrols.
 
#67 ·
Astra200 said:
Fear I've had a similar issue to this in a 1.6 petrol turbo today. Short drive and fine. Collected something and back to the car ten minutes later and it wouldn't go in gear with the engine on.

Managed to get going (needed to reverse first) by putting in reverse then starting the engine, turning off, into first and limping home. Mechanic neighbour suggested the slave plate?

It's 18 months old and has done just 8000 miles. Is this something they'll try and squirm out of? From what I can see the talk in here is mostly of diesels not petrols.
Being 18 months old i can not see how they would realisticly squirm their way out of this.

Not saying they wont try, it is vauxhall after all.

Maybe if you have been thrashing the car doing fast shifting or ridden the clutch like an old lady, but other than that i can not see how.
 
#68 ·
Thanks for the reply. Thrashing days are long behind me! I've not had a single issue at all while owning it and I'm gutted it's happened as the majority of posts about the 1.6t are positive with few issues reported.

Local dealer wants cash just to look at it so I've gone up the chain and I'm waiting for a response.
 
#69 ·
Astra200 said:
Thanks for the reply. Thrashing days are long behind me! I've not had a single issue at all while owning it and I'm gutted it's happened as the majority of posts about the 1.6t are positive with few issues reported.

Local dealer wants cash just to look at it so I've gone up the chain and I'm waiting for a response.
I guess they are covering their behind, wanting money to look at it. In case it is clearly user error or someone clearly broke the car themselves, they want to be sure that it was made clear that it would cost the owner.

That said, almost no matter what, the clutch should not die after 18 months.
 
#71 ·
Paul123 said:
New slave cylinder and pipe fitted to my girlfriends Nov 2018 1.4 sri. 2000 miles on the clock. Shocking !!
Also new anti roll bar fitted last month and suspension parts from knocking at front of car. Who designs these cars ???
When designing they were saving every gram of weight....Everything is smaller, thinner and lighter....Some parts lasted in simulation, but not in real life.
 
#72 ·
I picked up a 66 plate 1.0 Turbo Ecoflex yesterday afternoon. 52,000 miles on the clock. 3 hour trip to my parents and about an hour in the clutch started to lose pressure. Forced to pull over as I was having difficulty getting into and through gears. After about 20 minutes with the engine off, the clutch pressure had returned to normal so pulled away. 10 minutes later, back to same issue. Was too far into journey to turn back so after a couple more stops I made slow progress. Eventually arrived and parked up.

Upon checking the vehicle this morning, the clutch pedal is completely back to normal. I haven't taken out for a drive yet but now need to get it back to garage I got it from as I have warranty.

Sound familiar to anyone?
 
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