Today, in London, I've just pulled up to the first of a multi-drop of about
45 drops that I'd just collected from another driver who had broken down. Picked them up from his van outside his house in Tooting, then up to Fulham to start off. I pull up to the first address, back up to the building and *thud*, clutch pedal hits the floor, and I slam the brakes on to stall the car to avoid going into a wall.Bugger, clutch cable's snapped, I think. Oh well, I can drive a car using clutchless gearchanges. Deliver item 1, then proceed to next address, which is only about 200m away. Then I get to thinking, while this is theoretically possible, it could be a really complete and utter PITA, not to mention the undue strain put on the battery and starter motor, particularly if there are many 3-point turns required (tend to be a bit battery-intense when you ain't got a clutch, not to mention slightly awkward), so I phone up work and get them to get another driver to pick the van load of stuff from me!!
Not wanting to admit defeat, I think "I don't need to call out breakdown, I'll get home ok". I was near the Harbour Club by the new Imperial Wharf development between Chelsea Harbour and Wandsworth Bridge, and home is in Bracknell (near Reading). No problems. Kept the number of times I needed to turn the engine off so as to start the van in gear to a minimum, and made it home no problems.
Having found clutch cables a complete PITA to change in the past I phoned up a couple of fast fit garages for quotes - Kwik-fit don't do 'em, Nationwide autocentres said they'd phone me back in the morning with a price (it was around 5:30pm by then), and Mr Clutch quoted me £85, of which about £24 was for the part. Told me it was an hour and 20 minutes' job. Yeah right, for a clutch cable!! I'm prepared to pay around £20 or so in labour for doing a clutch cable, but that's taking the piss.
So I have a look under the bonnet to see where the clutch release arm is - can't see it. I disconnect a few plastic panels underneath the dash to try and find the end of the cable to see if it's just unhooked from the pedal or snapped, and there's something that feels very un-cable-like, and a loose plastic thing. This looks suspiciously like a hydraulic clutch (and I'd have been surprised if it wasn't, as most are hydraulic these days).
Anyway, on further inspection, this plastic bit pushes into part of the clutch cable and contains a sort of socket that the end of the push-rod that connects to the clutch slave cylinder (I'm guessing a bit here) sits in and pushes against.
It looks like what's happened is that some welding's come undone (crap welding, obviously), and the end of this section of the clutch pedal has come undone (sort of hinged open). Imagine a box with a rectangular cross-section and a hinged lid at the top, but a hollow bottom (pointless box, but anyway) - well the force on the clutch pedal is in the direction from the top to the bottom of the box, and the hinged lid is welded shut. The plastic bit that allows the clutch push-rod thingy to seat is inserted from the bottom of the box, and is held in place, against the force of the foot on the clutch, by the welded-shut hinged lid. It's this welded-shut hinged lid that's come undone. I tried bending it back, but it didn't work - just bent straight back again.
So what I basically need is either a replacement clutch pedal, or someone to very strongly weld this thing together properly.
The thing is, is this likely to be the subject of a recall? Does anyone know if any VAG clutch pedals have had a similar problem. The van is just over 3 years old, and has nearly 80k on the clock, so probably out of warranty, but surely something like this shouldn't be considered a wearing part?? If this was ever recalled for this, should it be possible that I could still get it done (aren't recalls a separate thing to warranties?). I don't have a service history for the car, but surely that shouldn't affect something like a clutch pedal, should it (wouldn't have thought "check clutch pedal isn't falling apart at the welding seams" would be a standard item on a service checklist)?
So, am I likely to be able to get Seat to fix this for nout?
Peter