Really strange clutch issue

[risch]

Hi Everyone,

Probs not the best way to introduce myself, but i know pretty much nothing about cars. But my arosa has done me well over the last few years, so, massive fan of the car

I have just experienced something that defies logic as far as I can tell.

When i first bought the car, the clutch was pretty spongey, with a long travel. It has consistently remained this way, i guess by design, no mechanics etc had ever indicated there was a problem with this. Its been like that since i got it in Nov 2006.

Last night, driving home from work - clutch was the same as it had always been. I got home, left it for a couple of hours before taking it down to the supermarket. When i got in, i noticed, to my amazment, that the the travel on the clutch had halfed, literally - and was now really stiff when it reached the new end of its travel. Still drives fine, have driven it to work this morning and out last night too, about 30 miles or so. But, how does this happen, and is this bad? I need to take it on a long distance journey this weekend (200 miles round or so). Is this something i should be worried about, or do i have a magical, self tweaking car?!!!?

A little more info (might have left out some specifics, forgive me if there are huge gaps in my knowledge!) :
It's a 2000/W reg 1.0 model. Its done just over 38k.

Any help or advice MASSIVELY appreciated.

Cheers!
Chris

 

[Mr Biscuit]

sounds a bit like the infamous pedal box problem.
It may have broken away from the bulkhead.

Have a look & see if it looks ok.

 

[cardaft]

It does sound very much like a pedal box problem. It starts to break away and then eventually fails leaving you with the clutch pedal on the floor.

Its often brought on by a heavy clutch, as the clutch wears the pedal often becomes harder to press, so is putting more strain on the silly pedal box.

If i remember rightly, the pedal box is designed with inbuilt weaknesses, to save your legs in an accident, unfortunately these weaknesses show over time and wear and fail.

However, TDi Arosas & Lupos and the Lupo GTi do not suffer from this problem, as they have a hydraulic clutch.

 

[streetbuggy]

Did seat not do a recall/ free fix on these as vw did for the lupo?