No different to many other modern cars I'm afraid. The clutch slave cylinders are made with plastic bodies and parts and can be prone to failure. Several post on here from owners who have had a failure. Mine has just gone at 17K miles and 7 years. The new component is a modified part, but as far as I can see externally the only difference appears to be a gaiter around the return spring and cylinder. Whether that's to stop dirt getting into the piston or clutch fluid leaking out, who knows

It's not a cheap repair, as the gearbox has to be removed to access it, and depending on the damage, may also require a new clutch and perhaps flywheel if they've been contaminated. The Ford Focus also suffers similarly and shares parts with the V40, but I've seen the same issues with other brands such as VAG.

 

Thanks for the reply. No horror stories then. More to do with luck and how the car was treated. With that mileage I just hope the previous owner was an elderly couple or a lady and didn't drive it too harsh.

 

had a 2017 2.0 petrol in the family, did 3 years with no issues, but as above the slaves are made of chocolate or cheese and will fail even at low miles.

 

I drive 2011 c30 right now and these have similar slave cylinders afaik. Had absolutely no issues with gearbox during 9 years of owning the car. It seems all I can have is hope Will be carefully listening to any funny noises from transmission. Thanks.

 

Don't think it is neccessarily leaking fluid. Piston surface gets contaminated so badly that it just gets stuck. Mine wasn't leaking, just too much added friction that return spring couldn't reset it.

I think updated cylinder also has stronger spring but can't verify. Remember reading about it at the time I had the issue (2019). Been solid since repair, no other issues. Have driven around 110k kms since then.

 

That's probably the reason for the bellows gaiter on the new cylinder then. Having stripped mine down, it's been leaking very slowly from the end of the piston bore by the release bearing. I could see where fluid had been sprayed around the inside of the bell housing by the rotation of the bearing, but the clutch disc and pressure plate don't appear to have been contaminated. I've changed them anyway. Dust from the friction plate material was stuck to the leaking fluid on the slave cylinder body under the release bearing and around the bell housing, so it could have been a combination of increased friction and loss of pressure I suppose, the latter perhaps also caused by dust from the friction material contaminating the seal in the cylinder bore. Either way, if the return pressure is inadequate when the pedal spring has pivoted to help depress the pedal, it will stick anywhere between about half way to fully depressed.

You can see the dark band of fluid and dust particles around the inside of the bell housing in the photo.

 

Ultimately I decided to get a cross country version with 1.5t T3 engine and geartronic

Thanks all for valuable input. Great to see some internet forums in their glory still alive

 

Awesome. So your bones wont be shaken too much with the CC 😊 Hope you enjoy the car, keep us posted with the journey!