Heavy clutch causing knee pain

I have been bothered by a seemingly heavy clutch for the last two months causing knee pain, severe enough that at times, I have been having difficulties walking and climbing stairs . Went to the doctor, got diagnosed as chondromalacia patella femoral syndrome. Did physio a couple times and at home continuously since mid Jan but not a great deal of improvement.

I did have the brake fluid flushed just after the new year. I know in this car, the clutch fluids and brake fluids are one system. Could replacing the fluid have caused the clutch to turn heavy? Or something inside the clutch/flywheel assembly that is starting to worn out could be causing this issue.

The car has almost 160,000 km, still original clutch and the engagement works just fine as far as I can tell, no slipping even at high load, no odd noises at idle. In both normal and heavy braking the brake pedal also feels good. But somehow, I don't remember the clutch pressure in this car being so stiff.

Ive always found my clutch to be nice and light, but then I don't have any knee problems (left anyhow) the clutch pedal has an over center spring that helps lighten the throw after the first inch or two of pedal travel, mounted up by the pedal pivot, yours may be worn out or broken, it does have plastic parts... appears to be pretty cheap and fairly easy to swap out, might make all the difference. You may also have cruddy or worn pedal bushings, would not take much to cause binding and a heavy pedal.

Got a friend over with a performance BMW to test my clutch, saying my clutch is "VERY light". So it must have been my bad knee....

fastalan said:

Got a friend over with a performance BMW to test my clutch, saying my clutch is "VERY light". So it must have been my bad knee....

Click to expand...

A bad left knee is one of the main reasons why I bought a car with an automatic transmission for the first time in my life. In over 50 years of driving I have owned only 4 speed, 5 speed, and 6 speed manual gear boxes - until a few months ago. Old knees just don't work quite as well an young ones.
Have fun!

Don

The clutch in my old JSW was super light and engaged very low. You should try driving some other cars or trucks. This is nothing.

iamatt said:

The clutch in my old JSW was super light and engaged very low. You should try driving some other cars or trucks. This is nothing.

Click to expand...

It is nothing....until it becomes painful. The clutch may be nothing, but the pain is definitely something.

Have Fun!

Don

I must say, the physio I did was in the right direction in order to strengthen my patella and quad muscle. But I think I really need to just stop driving the manual for say three months to allow the soft tissues around the knee a chance to recover. I would stop driving for say 3 days, taking the bus or walk as much as can, do the physio exercise, ice it and rest the knee. Then as soon as I drive the car for a day, especially the stop and go traffic in Vancouver, this knee discomfort + nerve pain returns.

I find it unbelievable that I am dealing with this situation, having to consider temporarily give up driving a manual, due to bad knee. I am close to my mid 40s, not exactly young nor exactly too old, played lots of basketball in the past. Everything was fine as late as last November then after a winter wearing the same pair of shoes, I have this knee pain. I've read some thread in the past mostly on Bimmer forum, on some people experiencing knee pain driving manual. I never thought this would happen on a light clutched VW, but it is happening...

JSWTDI09 said:

It is nothing....until it becomes painful. The clutch may be nothing, but the pain is definitely something.

Have Fun!

Don

Click to expand...

I know about pain, colon cancer and multiple disc fusions. Easy fix is to get rid of the car i would think.