Vauxhall Meriva vauxhall meriva 2010 1.7 diesel, running as it should on local journeys but if its been on a motorway run for a couple of hours cannot change into gear until the car is left standing for 20 minutes, any information will be greatly appreciated.

Check your clutch fluid reservoir level , check for any signs of fluid leaks at master cyl. underneath at pedal , but may be general wear on clutch assembly / sticking and needing replaced

Hi thank you very much for your super quick response, I've taken it to a garage Halfords and said everything is hydraulically self adjusting and the other local garage which only deals with clutchs and gearboxs checked clutch oil levels , any leaks , etc and there advise was run it till it breaks down as they could be investigating and stripping the clutch out and it may not necessarily cure the problem, I brought the car recently from a private seller, and they had it serviced every time it needed ( I know that's not clutch related but anything needed doing on the car ie new tyres it was done, it had done 62k and the recommended clutch change is 60k? but I will take your advice on your other recommendations, fingers crossed. Thanks

Most cars nowadays have had hydraulically self adjusting clutches for a good few years now and yours is no exception . I have never known manufacturers to give a recommended clutch change as there are so many variables dependent on driver / usage etc . I have had customers burn out a clutch on brand new cars in 2000mls and many , many to exceed 100,000+ . You usually get further warnings clutch is needing replaced with signs of clutch slip under load or noisy clutch release bearing . Another possible cause is clutch centre plate sometimes sticking on spigot shaft splines caused by clutch dust . But if it doesn't get worse or improves , you may decide to live with it meanwhile .But understandable if you decide to get it replaced .

Hi whittingehame,
Thank you once again for the priceless information, I've learnt more from your two messages than I gained from two different garages , I know that this problem could have a few scenarios and
nobody has a crystal ball because it's basically a suck it and see, anyhow for the time being I'm going to have to live with the annoying problem, it's annoying that I haven't had this used car for long because the last car was brought from a car dealer and that is on our drive and undriveable due to the fact that the main drive belt snapped and was sucked into the engine and now its going through Trading Standards system to sort things out ?

Hi there, I see this was around 9 months ago now but I've been having the same problem for around a year but at present only doing short journeys as had a broken leg. Doing a long journey in a few weeks and was wondering when you had to fix the problem? Thankyou

Been no updates since posting (9 months ago)