unable to change gears, no clutch pedal pressure

[govman333]

Hello I am new to this forum but have owned two Seat Alhambras Tdi and now a Ford Galaxy Tdi all manuals. The Seats have had  a few issues mainly electrical headaches....all related to broken wiring in the door or tail gate shuts, the tail gate being the most annoying until it was found...1could use the car one minute then flat battery the next, the electric feed cable in the tailgate had broken and touched other cables also broken by the constant opening and closing, all broke in the rubber hinge cover. This also explains when i firsdt had the car the rear brake lights did not work fo a week then started to work.
My new problem (Galaxy) is after a recentl holiday in France we travelled back 280mile in France to the tunnel then a further 120 miles before breaking down. The issue was stop start traffic and after awhile i could not engage any gears beacause there was no clutch pedal pressure. By turning the engine off and starting in gear again it was ok for a short while but then on more congestion on the motorway the stop and start of the engine was no good so got towed home. After a three hour journey the car was released off the transporter and I started the car in gear again and put it on the drive way. The next day we tried the car and all seems fine the clutch pedal had pressure again and have been ok with no problems using it. Can the clutch fluid get too hot to loose the pedal pressure?

[Mirez]

The clutch fluid is tied with the brake fluid so whilst it is possible to overheat it, just on the clutch is highly unlikely. Its possible you have an air lock in the clutch system, especially at the slave end. When was the fluid last changed? First course of action would be to replace the fluid and bleed the system out.

[govman333]

thanks for the reply, i have only had the car just over a year, i will check the previous history to see if its had any clutch fluid change, it has 135k on the clock. Its strange this has only happened once and on a long run, i have been using it as normal since....could the air have made its way to the reservoir or can it only stay trapped in the system?

[Mirez]

It'a often not but the fluid SHOULD be changed every two years! Generally air will stay in the system so needs to be bled out, there is a bleed nipple on the gearbox for this