Hold on, it wasnt the cylnder that caused the problem... Trying to think back, sure it was the bit the pivot arm moves (thrust bearing?) was gunked up, no know how and that was stopping the pedal from moving freely, hence the creaking, cant mind how it ended up bursting the cylnder or maybe it was unrelated and just away at the same time, was a while back....
Point was, it was making a creaking sound like that, seems theres loads of sounds like that without major issues so hope its not but if the pedal does start to give resistance you will need to have it looked at right away, I was lucky, the pivot bolt had sheared flush with the casing which would usualy be major (money wise) and by mirracle the Metaflux worked and it came out, topped of by it was a mate doing the work for the cost of a bottle of vodka...