Clutch Pedal or Clutch and Pressure Plate Issue?

[steamship]

Just been to see my brother who drives a 2011 2.0tdi BlueMotion 6-speed manual Passat estate with roughly 95k miles on the clock.

He said he was out yesterday for a drive, and just after joining a main road, he shifted into second gear and heard what he described as something snapping. The clutch pedal went to the floor, but he was able to lift it with his foot, and somehow managed to get it home.

I did some searching last night and came across a couple of possible scenarios as to the cause. The expensive one seems to be issues with the pressure plate falling apart, resulting in a new clutch and pressure plate being needed. There are comments about this making a ticking sound, but he made no mention of it. There also seems to be issues with Sachs clutches as opposed to the Luk clutches. Is there any way of identifying which is fitted to the car (before it's stripped down)?

The second scenario was to do with the actual clutch pedal, and something that retains a spring in place breaking. I had a look at this and can't see any broken pieces lying in the footwell, or anything that looks broken. I did look to see how the pedal mechanism worked, and I thought it was odd, and am wondering if this might be the problem. Pressing the clutch in with my hand, I was able to see the visible part of the spring at the top move upwards by about half an inch, and then return again when the pedal was pulled out again. I took a short video of it in action, which I've attached. Not the best quality, but you can see what the spring is doing.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/MDcLVY1vpDFHqgpp9

[f927]

From experience clutch peddle dropping, is due to loss of clutch fluid.As for clutch itself,when removed it can be matched to existing one.

[steamship]

So just been speaking ti brother again about the car, and he told me about another symptom which may or may not help. Despite the clutch pedal not coming out again, he is able to go up through the gears fine. His only problem is that he can't go down the gears again. Does that help in identifying the problem?

[f927]

How can he change gears while the peddle dropped??.Does the car not cut out when he is at traffic lights??.
You cannot change down in gears while the peddle dropped in order to do so, the peddle need to be in up right position, so you can exerts pressure on it to disengage the clutch thus change gears.

[steamship]

How can he change gears while the peddle dropped??.Does the car not cut out when he is at traffic lights??.
You cannot change down in gears while the peddle dropped in order to do so, the peddle need to be in up right position, so you can exerts pressure on it to disengage the clutch thus change gears.

As stated in my initial post, he was able to change gear by pulling the clutch pedal up with his foot. However, despite being able to change up gear, it wouldn't allow him to change down. As for junctions, he basically knocked it out of gear, put on his hazards, got it stopped, put it back into first gear to move off and then continued.

[f927]

Renew clutch slave cylinder,probably will need gearbox removing.