What are the usual causes of clutch pedal stuck to the floor (intermittent)

johna

2006 V50 2.4i 5 cylinder petrol non-turbo (B5244S4) manual.

My clutch pedal stuck to the floor today. I had driven for about 15 minutes and stopped for a short while, and then went to drive away and the car went into first gear but the clutch stuck to the floor but the clutch was partially engaged (hard to pull out of gear, not wanting to roll backwards when in first gear with clutch in).

I don't think I could pull the pedal back up but I was a bit confused at the time so might be wrong.

After a few minutes I was able to pull the pedal up and it felt ok so I restarted and tried again and the clutch worked fine, and then I drove 10 minutes and it was still ok.

Checked brake fluid level and it is above min. It was an unusually cold morning (4 degrees) and I was uphill at the time if they are contributing factors.

I've Googled the problem and there is talk of bleeding, master cylinder, slave cylinder, and putting a 1" block of wood under the pedal. Any advice for working out what it is?

timbo

It's common for the return spring to break on the earlier manual pedal setups.

I would also be expecting to replace the clutch master cylinder soon as that's also an early sign of it starting to fail. (This is not a fun job and you really need a special tool to remove the cylinder from the pedal assembly)

You'll probably find that once the car has sat overnight, if you press the pedal to the floor quickly and firmly it will stick to the floor. You can then pull the pedal up yourself and it probably won't do it again while your driving.

johna

Thanks very much, @timbo. If the spring breaks would it be intermittent like this?

timbo

Based on my experience I would be planning to replace the clutch master cyl and just replace the spring while you're there.

I don't know if spring itself contributes to failure.

Obviously check if it's loosing fluid as it's fed from master cylinder but feed port is high enough so it doesnt entirely drain brake fluid if there's a leak in clutch hydraulics

nh2868

Is there a clutch delay valve in the system somewhere ? Our C30 sometimes doesn't engage gears fully, but poking the clutch briefly always cures it. Will only do it once a month or so. Issumed if there's a delay valve it could be sticking...

johna

The problem hasn't reoccurred on the last couple of short drives. I pulled off the interior panel and had a look at the pedal today.The big spring is intact and the little spring and the plastic bucket thing look ok to me.

johna

I think I may have just been low on fluid.

nh2868

It looks to me as though your clutch master cylinder has the plastic pushrod still between the cylinder and the clutch pedal.

I believe there was a recall to replace the master cylinder and rod with an updated metal one...

http://www.volvohowto.com/volvo-clutch-pedal-mechanism-may-fail-recall-c30-s40-v50-c70/