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How common is this fault?
Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 9:33 am
by Weegilly
My girlfriends 1.4 16V has been a good little car until the other day when depressing the clutch and bang! The pedal went to the floor. Pedal didn't come back up.
Upon looking, the metal bracket that holds the clutch cable in place which should be an attached part of the pedal box has litteraly snapped off. Oh joy!
A friend said this actually happend to his 2001/Y Golf GTi (Ours is also 2001/Y) and a garage I spoke to reckons they have seen it before on Polo's. So has anyone else had this problem? If so I wonder if it's a known fault maybe I could approach VW with some strength in the case?
It'll probably cost us around £2-300 to fix by the sounds of it so any help/advise would be greatly appreciated.
And then we'll sell it! (it's flippin clean by the way!!!)
Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 10:05 am
by alexperkins
Very very common buddy. Its a known fault on polos. Moan at your dealer and request 100% goodwill - they may honour it and do the repair free of charge

Its happened to me too, and was done for free.
Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 10:20 am
by kipper
me 2. only a couple of months ago as well. it wont cost u that much to fix it. however it u take it to a garage to fix it will cost at least, im guessing a coupl eof hundred as they have to remove the steering column. my god father did mine with the aid of the haynes manual. by the way i got a x reg 2000. if thats all u had your lucky.
so far in the last 2 years or so ive had:
engine rebuild
gearbox rebuild
new clutch
new battery
new pedal box
new break sensor
think thats it actually............
Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 10:56 am
by Weegilly
Cheers for that fella's.
Kipper, From what you've been through I most certainly think it'll be time to change!
HOWEVER! Due to your confirmation of this being known I spoke to a VERY helpfull chap at a local dealers who did his bit and hey presto, 100% warranty covered. So now gonna drive it there without clutch. This will be interesting! can practice my clutchless gear changes I guess?
Thanks again.
Ps, Polo 16V for sale!
Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 12:02 pm
by Tim_GTi
Can you not get it towed? Don't want to shod the gearbox up aswell!
Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 4:58 pm
by alexperkins
you wont be able to drive it anywhere lol i tried and failed
Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 5:33 pm
by Ian_R
Its easy to drive with the clutch pedal being f****d.
Start it in first and it'll go - get some speed up knock it to netural rev engine to 2k i believe and throw it into 3rd and away you go - i manged to do this from my house to the garage-which is 25 miles away lol
Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 7:46 pm
by bbspolo
it is a recall on the polo gtis! thats how i know how many there are in my arear because ive worked on all 11 off them!
if u push ur case hard enougth u will proberly get 50% goodwill as alex said!
Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 10:33 am
by Weegilly
Gentlemen!
We're all good, Clutchless driving is no problem if you're relaxed about it.
The only thing that can make it difficult is if you have to keep stopping/starting etc and other drivers get arsie/impatient. Although I found it quite comical, they think your probably 107 yrs old!
No really though, I had a good journey. Went quite smoothly with I'd say only a couple of very minor crunches mainly into third, all others slipped in nicley when the gearbox/engine speeds matched up. was about 10 miles I reckon.
Anyway it's comfortably settled at the dealers now and I'm very much looking forwards to my bill of £0.00! or at least the missus is!
Cheers again and all the best.
Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 10:34 am
by Weegilly
Gentlemen!
We're all good, Clutchless driving is no problem if you're relaxed about it.
The only thing that can make it difficult is if you have to keep stopping/starting etc and other drivers get arsie/impatient. Although I found it quite comical, they think your probably 107 yrs old!
No really though, I had a good journey. Went quite smoothly with I'd say only a couple of very minor crunches mainly into third, all others slipped in nicley when the gearbox/engine speeds matched up. was about 10 miles I reckon.
Anyway it's comfortably settled at the dealers now and I'm very much looking forwards to my bill of £0.00! or at least the missus is!
Cheers again and all the best.
Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 8:47 am
by alexperkins
I think the reason behind my clutchless driving failing, was the fact that my clutch itself had almost turned to dust from wear and tear haha!
You gotta love 100% goodwill!