Aygo clutch problem

[CLP]

Hello. I have a Toyota Aygo 09 plate car. I've had the car for almost 3 years without any issues, up until a few weeks ago. I was stopped in stationary traffic on a slight hill. I put the handbrake on and put car into nuteral, untill traffic was ready to move again. I put the car into first gear, set the gas then started to lift the clutch to bitting point. The car struggled to move. I tried again, as I thought I'd put it in the wrong gear by mistake, but I hadn't. The car took ages to accelerate and get up to speed. This has never happen before, and I've done a hill start on a much steeper hill than this and had no problems.

Today I took the car into the garage and they can't find anything wrong with it. They told me that it must be the way that I'm driving it and that I need to listen to the engine for a gear change. I've only been driving 3 years and never had an issue untill now. I live in a area where there are lots of hills, so I'm driving up one and sometimes stopping on one and pulling away every day and had no issues. 

So far, since it happened a few weeks ago, it hasn't happened, but it doesn't stop me from feeling a bit nervous about doing a hill start, if it happens again.

Has this happend to anyone else? My Mom said that it sounds like the clutch was slipping. 

Thank you. 

[Catlover]

How many miles has the car done?

Does the service history show the clutch has been changed before?

[CLP]

The car has done just over 60 thousand miles. As far as I know, it's never been replaced. 

[Catlover]

As you live in an area that is hilly, can you find one that is not busy, in fact very quiet, and test it again. I say not a busy one so if you can’t go forward you can reverse safely into side road and turn around and go down hill. Doesn’t have to be at a junction, just a road on a hill, perhaps immediately past a side road so you can reverse into that to turn back.

Or, another way to check the clutch. Keeping a slower speed then normal in a higher gear, say 4th, even if on an incline, go to accelerate quiet hard. If engine revs increase a lot, but the car speed doesn’t, then you probably have a slipping clutch due to wear.

My wife had a Citroen C1 (which is an Aygo with a different badge-as is Peugeot 107). It was a 2006. Common fault was clutch wear (showed by clutch slip) at around 30,000 miles. Problem was identified as a clutch that was not beefy enough for the car. Toyotas official solution was to fit a clutch made for the larger car, the Yaris. That sorted it, at customer expense! I doubt you car, 3 year younger, has the smaller clutch (I would hope by 2009 Toyota would be fitting larger clutch as standard), but just telling the story for you info. 

Depending how your car has been driven over the 10 years, at 60,000 miles clutch wear could well be the problem, especially if the car has spent its life in a hilly area. If it had spent 60k mole in Lincolnshire or Norfolk (flattish area) and treated well then possibly expect lot more miles the 60k.

Give the quiet hill start a go, and/or accelerate hard in higher gear at lower speed.

[CLP]

Thank you! I'll have to give it s go and see what happens.