2004 Fiesta 1.4tdci.

My sister 'broke down' about 12 miles away a few days ago and left the car there. She says the clucth pedal has gone all floppy.

Me and my brother drove to where the car was today with a tow rope. I was hoping it was just the usual clutch master cylinder rod coming off the clutch pedal peg.

Alas there was no problem there. But no pressure on the pedal , like no fluid in it. I pushed the pedal up and down a few times and suddenly (not gradually) the pressure was back as normal with the right amount of free play. 

My brother drove it home and the clutch was fine until about half mile from home where the pressure went and he had to stall it at a roundabout. He started off again by having the car in gear whilst using starter motor. but then the pedal was OK again a minute later.

So there is an intermittent problem. The fluid level has not gone down, I know this because fairly recently I changed the front discs/pads and knew the level.It is easily higher than it needs to be.

I can't see any fluid leaks anywhere.

So- could it be slave cylinder? if the slave cylinder was the problem I think it would lose fluid? does that sound right? (I know the salve cylinder is inside the bellhousing)

So- could it be something like dirt in the master cylinder preventing the seal from sealing properly on the cylinder walls when pushing pedal down? does any reckon there is chance that bleeding it through with fresh fluid might help?

Or has anyone had a similar problem and found it was a faulty master cylinder and replacement fixed it?

It looks quite easy to replace the master cylinder and they seem quite cheap (although I have heard people say they are hard to bleed on this car)

Thoughts please

It sounds like a bad case of an airlock. Before you start stripping anything down try wedging the clutch pedal fully down with an old piece of wood jammed between the pedal and the seat frame and leave it for several hours.

That trick worked for me with a Rover 400 whose pedal started getting a bit soft. I had the car for several years  after that without the problem coming back, I didn't even  bleed it. It may not work in this case, but it is worth a try.

Sounds like the fairly well documented issue, I had the same issue with my works Fiesta van. Check this thread out: -

 

Hi Nick T , No it's not that simple, sadly. I mentioned that in the 2nd and 3rd line.

The car has already had a hole drilled and split pin put through in previous ownership just like in the picture on the post you refer to. 

Ahhh sorry my bad, missed that!