406 2.0 diesel, clutch problem

[RobertSweden]

Hi

Got a question about my mothers car. She just bought a 406 diesel and I tried it when she came home. The strut bearings was bad but thats no surprise on 406 if they havent been changed. No biggie. I could feel the clutch bearing wasnt all that great... a little noise when holding down the clutch... no biggie either... yet I thought. Well... when she was going out of an underground parking garage the clutch said "peooiiing" and the pedal dropped to the floor... she pulled it back up but now its rock hard. I just went over to check if its a hydraulic clutch on it as I suspected and it was (I wished it was as simple as a broken clutch cable). Can it be something simpler than a wasted clutch bearing? Can I disconnect the clutch slave cylinder and rule out whats wrong and not?

Excuse my english... from Sweden

[lozz]

Have you checked the brake fluid level or sighns of anyleaks,

some system are all looped so if theres a leak the clutch wouid fail before the Brakes if you know what imean,
hence coment on checking fluid levels.

You couid try bleeding the clutch slave, some are a sealed unit ,youve not mentioned year of car,so its hard to guess,

[RobertSweden]

havent had time to check the clutch since last time but i doubt the hydraulics would give that symptoms. on an earlier mercedes she had with hydraulic clutch in too the pedal went to the floor but could be pulled back. water in the system corroded the master and slave cylinders around the internal gaskets. Because the pedal is hard as a rock in this car I would guess some kind of mecanical fault. can the clutch bearing lock it self in some way? Is there some way to check it without taking the gear cage out? I read in some thread you can take the slave cylinder out and check the fork... but before I do that I want to be sure there isnt anything I can break by doing it.

[grasmere59]

The car i have got now had the same problem according to the previous owner,it turned out to be the thrust bearing had siezed on the shaft,it had to have the gearbox out and the shaft cleaned up and a new thrust fitted,he fitted a new clutch at the same time.

[RobertSweden]

removed the slave cylinder and there dont seem to be any problem with the hydraulics. the pedal works again and I can push the slave cylinder back and forth (brak fluid all over the place). the release fork (or what its called) can be pushed easily to both ends which, I guess, means somethings broken in the bell house? I cant feel anything like a spring pushing back when moving the release fork. I have neither worked with a hydraulic clutch or pulling clutch earlier so please tell me if Im wrong in my assumtion.

edit: been looking around a little on a couple of xantia pages to... can it be the release bearing that has jumped out of the preassure plate? gonna go out now and see if I can snap it back using the trick showed in hayned for fitting the bearing when changing it.

[RobertSweden]

I used a screwdeiver to look down between the relase fork and the preassure plate and it looks like its broken (pic taken with smart phone) or what do you think? I just have Haynes to compare with but I think it looks like a part of the springs have come loose and the retaining clip is gone.