Catastrophic clutch failure? 2017 GSW 5MT

[Basegolf]

Brand new member here:

I daily drive a ‘17 SportWagen S with a 5-speed manual transmission. I bought it in December 2017 as a CPO car with 7500 miles, it now has 54k miles.The drivetrain is completely stock and I don’t abuse it, shifting gently between gears. I have, however, noticed a slight clutch chatter when I pull away when it’s cold first thing in the morning. That’s about the only time it happens. Other than that slight issue the car drives great and has served me well for the past four years.

My wife doesn’t usually drive this car it but has never had an issues with it as she daily drives a stick herself. She was planning a 500 mile trip with our daughter to go see some family so I suggested that she take the Golf since her daily driver is a 2008 Mazda with nearly 200k miles.

About 300 miles into her trip today I received a frantic call from her that she was stranded on the side of the highway in a really bad spot with not much of a shoulder. She said he had attempted to downshift from fifth to fourth but the gear lever would not move and she smelled the clutch burning. She called AAA and was fortunately able to get it towed to a nearby VW dealer in Wheeling, WV.

I’m completely baffled as to how the clutch would fail suddenly with no warning. I’m thinking it either has to be an issue with the slave cylinder/throwout bearing assembly or the pressure plate. The dealer is going to give me a call once it’s apart and has to order the parts so it won’t be fixed until next week. About a year ago I decided to do the delay valve delete while I was doing the 40k mile fluid flush. Could this have caused an issue that would have led to this? I’ve done some cursory research and have heard other stories of similar failures in Mk7 cars. Is this a known issue? Has anyone on here experienced anything similar?

I’m glad my wife and daughter are safe after such a scary ordeal but I’m also not too happy about having to spend over $2k on a new clutch after just over 50k miles when I was expecting to go at least over 100k. It’s really shaken my faith in this car. As a DIYer I also hate having to pay a dealership for a clutch job but I see no other choice. I was planning on keep this car for a long time but now I’m not so sure.

 

[PRRGG1]

For what it's worth, the clutch on our '17 Golf 5M (USA) is in bad shape as well at only 50K+ Miles, despite normal driving with care by my wife and I who've driven manual transmissions exclusively for 30+ years. I have a friend who recently sold his bought-new '17 Golf 5M when his car began to experience the very same failing. Neither of us has had gearbox problems though. Not sure what's up here, but it seems increasingly clear that VW put some crappy clutch components in these cars.

 

[Basegolf]

For what it's worth, the clutch on our '17 Golf 5M (USA) is in bad shape as well at only 50K+ Miles, despite normal driving with care by my wife and I who've driven manual transmissions exclusively for 30+ years. I have a friend who recently sold his bought-new '17 Golf 5M when his car began to experience the very same failing. Neither of us has had gearbox problems though. Not sure what's up here, but it seems increasingly clear that VW put some crappy clutch components in these cars.

When you say “bad shape,” do you mean it’s slipping? What I can’t understand is how mine went from fine to basically self-destructing suddenly. I’ve been daily driving only manual cars for more than 25 years and have had clutches go bad, but only on higher mileage cars and always with plenty of warning like slipping and chattering. I’m seriously considering selling my car once it’s fixed because I have don’t trust the Mk7 OEM clutch components. Furthermore, I have zero interest in owning an automatic Golf. The main appeal of the SportWagen for me was that it was the last manual wagon you could buy in the USA.

 

[PRRGG1]

When you say “bad shape,” do you mean it’s slipping? ..

Yes, that's it and ours too went from good to slipping in a fairly short time. What's weird is that the slipping is always there, but sometimes it's worse than other times. Our 2010 TDI 6M Sportwagon's clutch was excellent. We sold it back to VW with a bit over 100K Miles and it was like new. I hope the clutch in my '21 GTI SE 6M is good.