The Mechanic features some technical talk every issue and welcomes member submissions.
This issue, The Mechanic takes a look at a very common problem for the T4 Transporter and how to fix or prevent it from occurring.

A common problem that T4’s and their owners’ suffer from is the clutch pedal mounting bracket cracking.
This in turn then causes the clutch master cylinder to become loose and move. This may not be a huge problem in the beginning, but it will eventually break away completely, leaving you without a working clutch in your T4 van. As well as the damaged pedal, it can also damage the master cylinder beyond repair and/or crack the pipe work, covering your foot well and footwear in corrosive brake/clutch fluid.

There is a quick and affordable repair/prevention method by fitting an additional angled bracket that strengthens the existing pedal bracket. The kits are readily available online and can be found with a quick
search. The kits contain an angled bracket, three M8 bolts (one longer than the other two), an M8 nyloc nut and four washers (one larger than the other three).

Fitting Guide
1 Start off under the bonnet and locate your brake servo unit. It is the big round unit below the brake master cylinder and brake fluid reservoir.
2 Remove the M8 bolt (13mm head) from the lower right side of your brake servo and replace it with the longest of the three M8 bolts supplied in the kit, along with the largest M8 washer.
3 Now move inside the car and into the driver’s foot well. Locate your clutch master cylinder, located between the clutch and brake pedals and remove the two M8 mounting bolts (13mm heads).
4 Place the new clutch pedal support bracket into position, ensuring that it goes over the protruding bulkhead bolt you first fitted. Now loosely fit the bracket to the clutch master cylinder using the two remaining M8 bolts and small M8 washers supplied in the kit with your support bracket.
5 Now fit the other small M8 washer and M8 nyloc nut to the longer bulkhead bolt you fitted earlier and tighten.
6 Now tighten the two clutch master cylinder bolts you fitted loosely earlier.
7 Job complete. Enjoy a strong clutch pedal and relax knowing that this failure has been repaired or prevented.