Sticky clutch pedal

[GTIBug]

Hiya,
I love my car but I’ve owned my 15 reg Golf GTI MK7 from new and it’s starting to cost a bit to maintain at the moment 😭 Financials aside, not yet ready to part with it as can’t afford to replace or get anything that will give me the same joy.

Anyway, the clutch pedal suddenly failed to return past halfway without me using my toe to lift it up on a recent drive, so had breakdown take it to my local garage. No leaks and garage can’t confirm whether it’s the master or slave. Obviously a massive price difference and quoted £450 and £1100 respectively master or slave replacement.
Unfortunately, the decision falls with me to replace one or the other, sod’s law it’ll be the other at the time and I end up replacing both. I’m not able to do any of it myself. VW quoting a few hundred more over the local garage quote.

Low mileage so not going to touch the flywheel. I’ve asked the garage to test it today and see if there’s any other signs it’s master/slave but I’m not optimistic he’ll have any clarity so inclined to go for slave.

Always grateful for your opinions. Which repair option would you go for first? Thank you in advance.

[rowlers]

My golf was on 45kish when I changed the clutch, flywheel was toast so needed done.. something to consider...

[clubsport]

Have you bled the clutch slave cylinder?

The fluid rarely gets changed wheb the brake fluid is changed.

It may not be the answer, but is a relatively cheap potential fix to try before spending more serious money.
Good luck.

[seanaodh]

I had the same issue intermittendly with my MK7.

Eventually I was about to trade in my car so I wanted to keep a full service history so ended up paying for a master, slave and clutch kit which was north of €1000

[symonh2000]

Our GTI suffered from an occasional sticky clutch pedal for a couple of months, then one morning Mrs S went to drive it and the pedal was stuck on the floor.

Slave cylinder had failed (Split bellows) and fluid leaking from the box.

It seems quite a common. Ours had done 47,000 miles-ish. sh!te quality part.

A good time to fit an uprated clutch whilst it is in bits.

[GTIBug]

Thanks guys. I’ll bet it’s the slave. Let’s see what the garage says…

Also, why don’t they build cars so you can diagnose or change parts easily/without ripping the rest of it apart.

[GTIBug]

Have you bled the clutch slave cylinder?

The fluid rarely gets changed wheb the brake fluid is changed.

It may not be the answer, but is a relatively cheap potential fix to try before spending more serious money.
Good luck.

The car is already at the garage and mentioned it - I didn’t get a conclusive answer, but thank you for the suggestion.

[GTIBug]

I had the same issue intermittendly with my MK7.

Eventually I was about to trade in my car so I wanted to keep a full service history so ended up paying for a master, slave and clutch kit which was north of €1000

Woah I’m very envious - just seen you’re getting a new MK8.5     

[seanaodh]

Woah I’m very envious - just seen you’re getting a new MK8.5   

It's on the boat on the way over now so I'm impatiently waiting for it. There's no clutch pedal in this one so it can never get sticky! 

[GTIBug]

Have changed out the master cylinder and so far so good since leaving garage! Got half an eye on it as expecting the slave cylinder to go at any minute  but will start saving up now for it!