Xsara hdi clutch not disengaging fully

[smoker]

Hi all. The latest failure on my 110 Xsara happened during a long drive this week. I noticed I was grinding the gears a bit when changing, then realised that the clutch was not fully disengaging. Struggled on and got home, but the clutch pedal barely has any travel in it at all. Unless I change gear while moving, matching engine and road speed, it's impossible to get into gear. There is no clutch slip (like you'd expect with worn / broken friction material), nor any untoward noises. I'm guessing there's a hydraulic fluid leak at either the master or slave cylinder. Does anyone have any experience of these jobs - which one tends to fail, how easy to repair etc?

Many thanks

[wheeler]

Don’t think ive ever seen a master cylinder fail on a Xsara so most likley the slave cylinder. Good news is its an external cylinder & is only about 20 mins to change it including bleeding the system.

[smoker]

Many thanks wheeler. It's a strange one. I got in the car and pulled the pedal up by hand. After that, everything seemed back to normal. I bled the system anyway, and it drove fine over a 10 mile journey. Not sure what to do now as I'm sure it will fail again - not a believer in "one-off" failures like this! The slave cylinder does indeed look simple and cheap. I can't even see the master cylinder, but suspect it's hidden beneath the brake servo (which I've previously changed changed and it was a pig of a job). The car has a 700 mile week coming up - we'll see what that brings.