Why does the clutch pedal stay down and feel soft?
When a clutch pedal is held down, it can fail to spring back and feel unusually soft, making it difficult to shift gears. This often happens shortly after a clutch replacement, sometimes causing the car to stall or making screeching noises when the pedal is pressed.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Bleed the clutch by pumping the pedal and adding fluid
- 2Replace the master clutch cylinder
- 3Replace the slave cylinder
- 4pulling the clutch pedal back out by hand
- 5giving it a lot of gas to prevent stalling while driving
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“One week after replacing the clutch set, the clutch pedal didn't spring back as it should.”source ↗
“Usualy the clutch pedal doesn't sping back when I keep the pedal pressed for a longer period, for example, when parking.”source ↗
“The pedal also feels weirdly soft, and engages only at the bottom.”source ↗
“as I shifted into third the clutch got stuck in, I couldn’t shift into gear, and my power steering turned off probably bc the car turned off.”source ↗
“every time I put the clutch in it made a screeching noise and would almost stall so I had to give a lot of gas.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 4Brake pedal still sinks to the floor after master cylinder replacement
- 4Why is my brake pedal mushy after a service?
- 3Why does my engine stall when engaging the clutch?
- 3Why do brakes still fail after replacing calipers and bleeding?
- 3Brake parts missing or falling off after service
- 3Key fob stops working after the car sits parked