no clutch effect

Hello, this morning as jesus 2000 years ago went to the cross, my clutch decided to follow in his steps.... Drove to the store (everything was fine), parked, and came back a quarter later with a bunch of eggs to go home. As i turned the engine on, I couldn't put the gears in, so I turned off the engine, put the car into 1:st gear, pressed the clutch and turned the key, and away we went! Clutch pedal=no effect The wire is just fine, and connected to the pedal and that fork-thaing on the motor. Just don't get it, when i accellerate fast (in 1:st gear), I notice a slight difference: Clutch up: accellerates fine Clutch down: accellerates and the drops as the engine runs high. Thankful for any hint here, the clutch worn out? Broken part? Missing oil? Thanks and happy easter,

Could either be the clutch release bearing or a hydraulic problem.... I had the same problem in my mini earlier on this week, and that's what it turned out to be.. HTH Mick

Ha de ha 

I too have had this with a 240 on different occassions for different reasons. I don't know what model you have so I am not offering specific advise, but I'll outline my problems and their cause. First time car was about eigt years old and did extactly what you said, down to the slight engine pick up if I depressed the clutch. Problem was that the clutch pilot bearing/spigot bearing had cracked the retainer. This bearing is in the end of the crankshaft and supports the front of the gearbox input shaft if the cluch is depressed. The cracked retainer let one of the 9 ball bearings escape and it wedged in the clutch mechanism. Result, clutch released, similar to normal operation, clutch depressed, ball wedged in clutch maintained most of the drive but allowed 5 to 10% slip hence slight increase in engine speed. Second time round a couple of years ago, gearbox/clutch untouched for 200,000+ Km, the clutch was fine at one set of lights, very grabby taking off from the next, then the pedal totally collapsed changing up from 2nd to 3rd. The problem was that the ball that the clutch fork pivoted on had worn into the fork at the pivot point and finally punched right through the metal if the fork. Visual examination, everything looked fine, but touch the fork and it could move anywhere you pushed it as it was totally unsupported. Only solution in either case was to remove gearbox and driveshafts etc to replace failed components. Once again, general comments about similar problems rather than specific advice as I don't know about your model, but most likely to be expensive, 3+ hrs labour plus some parts. Mal

Thank You guys 

Thank You for fast replies, what can I say... sigh... I was about to sell the car last week, now stuck with this... BTW There is a plastic box approx 1x1 inch above the clutch, with a removable lid. The box itself is also removable and it looks like some kind of oil-fill-compartment. Is it possible that I've run out of clutch oil and that the clutch has melted or anything, or does the clutch share the gearbox-oil? The car is a 460 2.0i SE, manual gearbox (obviously).

Back again 

Have had some more thoughts and sent you a personal message Mal

That kind of defeats the point of a forum... Anyone searching for clutch failure could come across this only for the cure to be missing as it's all in PMs!