Intermittent clutch problem

[Bluesy]

Hi all,
Newbie here. I've looked all over the place to find a solution for my clutch problem.
I live in the countryside in the north of the Netherlands. When I drive locally in my 2007, 1.2 petrol, manual Yaris (2) it seems to drive perfectly. There are very few stoplights and literally no traffic jams. But when I drive to the provincial capital some 40 km away, things start to change. If I get into some stop/start traffic there or especially a series of stoplights. The clutch begins to act up, it begins to get very jerky on the take up. Its as if I can't let the pedal up slowly enough for it to drive away smoothly, I have to keep dipping it again and play around with the gas pedal to get away from the lights at all.
Who can help me fix this Jekyll and Hyde Yaris.
Thanks in advance

Bluesy

[komichal]

How many kilometers already done? Still on the first clutch?

[Bluesy]

Hi komichal,

Thanks for your reply.

The car has 243,000 on the clock. I don't know if the clutch has been done, I've only had the car for 3 years.
Though I do see remnants of red mastic like sealant around the gearbox housing where it meets the engine

[komichal]

if the brake fluid has been done during your ownership times (same reservoir as for the clutch) and the clutch has been bled properly then I would say the only safe way is to get inside the clutch housing to see what happened.
I had similar problem - everything was working fine but when I was driving long distance, the clutch started to slip. No problem on short routes. I had the whole clutch set replaced and the problem was gone. 400€ gone but once you do all the work to see the clutch intestines then it makes sense to get them replaced straightaway. It was quite strange - there was still material on the clutch but was very polished from all the slipping.

[Bluesy]

Thanks for getting back to me again.

I seem to have a different problem from what you had.
Mine is not slipping, its more like it wants to stall when
I'm trying to get away from a standing start. Once I'm moving
again there's no problem with acceleration or shifting gears
up or down. I have changed the brake/clutch fluid and went through
the normal procedure to get the air out of the system.
Though I didn't do the more thorough method of manipulating
the clutch actuator while I was doing it, that I read about on this site.
I'll try that method before I go any further.

Thanks again komichal