Clutch problem?!!

A couple of days ago, my girlfriends Freelander wouldn't get into gear. Unfortunately for her this was 8.30 on a friday morning in a busy road in the middle of guildford.

She says that it wouldn't get into any gear and eventually she started pumping the clutch pedal and got it into first, and managed to park it round the corner.

We left it a couple of days, and I was about to tow it to the garage, and thought I'd give it a go, started the engine and put it into gear no problem!

The garage can't find a problem with it!

Does anybody know what it might have been. Aside from a blonde moment?!?! (although she's not blonde, sometimes she has them!)

Obviously worried it might happen again!!

could be yer master cylinder.. it may be that when its cold its fine but once it heats up it no longer pushes yer fluid to the slave.

is there any easy way to detect if that is the problem? As in, the garage didn't detect it, so how can I!?
Baring in mind it occured about 4 minutes down the road from home, the car wasn't very warm.

Should I take in on a long drive to see if it happens again?!

get it too happen then check in the clutch revovoir,..resevoir.. master cylinder for bubbles while getting someone else to pump pedal. assuming you can do so on a gaylander

ahhh, ooh, OK will give that a go! I'll let you know what happens! Thanks for your help!
Cheers

Bolted to your bulk head is the master cylinder which connects directly to your clutch pedal, if you look at the back of your engine its a little Black pot bolted to the bulkhead (Main Body) the lid sits inside a rubber boot, take this off and feel if there is any fluid in there, if not top up, pump the pedal and see how it goes.

They can leak (Normally inside down near to your pedals) and also are known to stick.

Not a major job just a bit fiddly.

Nice, thanks for that. I will have a good look later tonight! I've been driving it around without any problem so far. There was one occasion when the clutch only came up halfway a couple of times, but then slowly came back up. As I don't normally drive it I'm not sure if that is normal for it or not!

I had a similiar problem and following advice on here changed the master and slave cylinder myself, I'm no mechanic and it took me about an hour like the other lad says more fiddly than owt else, just look carefully at how you remove it.

If the pedal sticks down then comes up slowly the master cylinder has had it, it will fail completely eventually.

It takes around an hour to change, the replacement is around £60 and comes as a complete unit ready to fit.