Hi,

My V40 was fine one minute then the clutch pedal has suddenly got much harder to press down (about 5-10x harder). I can still change gear ok, there are no strange noises and the hydraulic levels look normal. You can really feel the heaviness and springiness of the release bearing. Pedal itself is not springy like as if it had air in it in that way though. Feels almost as if it was not hydraulically assisted anymore - but as far as i can see a hydraulic problem would normally cause a soft pedal, or inability to change gear. As i say this has happened all of a sudden and not gradually. car is 1998, 120k miles, no indications of transmission probs b4 this.

Any advice much appreciated

Shaun

Could be sign of the slave cylinder getting stuck.

You may require a new clutch to fix and if it has a conentric slave cylinder this would be done at the same time for 100% fix. (should always replace a concentric slave when doing a clutch as houses the release bearing).
Would let a tech drive and experience the prob as expensive job but is most likely cause.

i feel it must be either someting in the main clutch, or one of the cylinders - do you know is the master cylinder accessible without taking the clutch apart?

if its more than 50% likely to be cylinder related i would have a go at that b4 putting it in for a new clutch, as the clutch seem[ed] fine and i am assuming there would be big difference in £££'s cost

anyone care to hazard a guess?

Braydon Motors did mine recently, new clutch and slave cylinder for 600gbp, bearing in mind they need to drop the transmission for either I asked them to do both rather that having to pay for the labour twice.
Just to let you know that the slave cylinder is no longer part of the clutch kit, it's now a 75gbp part.

If you leave in or close to London they are great and very helpful.