Fitting lower clutch switch

[MikeFish]

Ages ago I thought it would be a good idea t orepalce both clutch switches as a pre-emptive move before either of them failed.

I had no problems putting the top one in but the lower one didn't seem to twist properly once in it's slot. I thought I had it turned enough and tried to press the pedal but felt a bit of resistance then got a great bit click (almost a crunch) as it forced the switch in. Clearly it was now broken. I put the old switch back it but seems I must have broken that one too so I ended up with the EPC light permanenlty on and having to hold the starter button until the engine started. That'll teach me for trying to mess with things that are working!

Anyway, I now have a new switch but seem to have the same problem. If I try to press the switch (but without actually pressing it in) I can feel there is no resistance. If I twist it in as far as I can I can feel the same resistance the previou switch had and pretty sure if I pressed it any harder it would click and pop in and probably break again.
The little grey tabs that allow it to twist don't seem to be turning as far as they could be and I'm wondering if that is why the switch doesn't want to go in. What am I doing wrong or is this switch defective too?
All the searches I have found just say to connect the wire, slide it in and twist but that doesn't seem to work for me. Help!

[Rick_RS4]

Some of the switches are stored with the switch rod pushed in and turned a quarter of a turn so they don't snap in transit. Is that what your referring to or the actual switch in the mounting in the car.

Could be that if the rod is still in the closed position it might have tabs that stick out to stop you mounting it correctly or vice versa.

When I did the brake switch the other week it just twisted in

[MikeFish]

Did you do the lower or upper switch Rick?
The upper went in no problem. The old lower one goes in no problem. But neither of the 2 new lower ones I have will allow the plunger to be pressed (you can force it) unless it is in the normal untwisted position (which would make the switch fall out the holder).
Taking the switch out the holder to play about with, I noticed that I can only twist them to what looks like half way i.e. it looks like they should turn more but I can't (I tried applying a lot of force to the point that anymore feels like it would probably break).

[coffey555]

I changed my one but did not turn it enough to full seat it home at the first attempt. After taking the lower part of the dash off again (school boy error) I was annoyed enough to give it a proper twist.

It did feel like it was going to break but it seated home with a very distinctive click.

Worse case is you do actually break it but then it was not working anyway and a new one is fairly cheap.

If you do have to buy a new one just stick it straight it without playing with it, I did read somewhere that you can break them by moving the switch when they are not fitted into the car although I think that was the older spec part iirc.

[marc1]

Is this fairly straight forward to do? I might do it as a preventative measure too. I feel like the car takes a little longer to fire up than it used to do, thought it may be just me or spark plugs, so had those replaced too.

[MikeFish]

I believe it is straightforward but for some reason I'm struggling. Bad batch of switches or maybe I'm just being dense.