[tharapita]

Writing this message in hope to help someone. I have a Volvo 40 D2 2.0 diesel 66 plate 50k miles on the clock. Intermittently the clutch pedal would stick, it won't come all the way back up, it would sit halfway, i'll then have to put my foot under the clutch and pull it back up. (it was becoming more frequent day by day. Spoke to many garages that claim to be Volvo specialists, they all said its the slave cylinder thats the problem. Once you change the slave cylinder, you also have to change the clutch kit, if you change the clutch kit you also have to change the flywheel, all in all its a big job costing around £1600 - £1700. Spoke to my dad and we went to the local mechanic my dad has been going to for years (not a volvo specialist). After 5-8 minutes of diagnosis the mechanic said the issue is with the brake fluid (its old). The clutch uses the same fluid as the brake fluid. They flushed out the fluid and replaced it with a new 500ml bottle of dot4. it's been 3 weeks now and the issue hasn't reappeared.

Should only replace all clutch parts and flywheel if a) cylinder leaked fluid and contaminated them or b) if your milage is already so high that clutch stands up on one leg anyway.

I did not replace clutch nor flywheel, 110k kms later everything still holds up perfectly. Replacing fluid and bleeding helped my case for about half a day. So, lucky you if that worked for your car but those slave cylinders are failure points no doubt.