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Clutch failure at 12k miles - no warning signs...

GTI Jake

Autocross Champion
Location
Charlotte, NC
Dealers owing smoke. Try rocking the car back and forth and see if you can get into first. With a bad clutch or hydraulics you can't always just slide it into gear without a little movement

I'm being a hydraulic cylinder or line broke. If you merely had a bent diaphragm finger the pedal would still work even though you wouldn't be able to get it into gear.

T.

I wasn't suggesting one bent finger, rather the ring that spring loads all of the fingers. Had the same problem on a friends mk6
 

Rosaymaan

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
SoCal
quick update folks. i decided to have the car towed to a different dealership (vw santa moica). i had dealt with them when i first got the car on a warrant paint issue and they were a pleasure to work with. anyway, just got a call from the SA and WOW - what a difference. He reassured me that they were going to fight for me to make this right and mentioned the issues people have had with the slave cylinder.

It's amazing the difference in tone/tenor of a quality customer-focused dealership vs. the avg stealership. Downtown LA Audi/VW will be getting a nasty tweet from me and my friends.

Will keep this thread posted
 

The Fed

Old Guys Rule
Location
Florida
I wasn't suggesting one bent finger, rather the ring that spring loads all of the fingers. Had the same problem on a friends mk6

Got it. That's bad too. I had one of the coil springs break on my 12" Trans Am clutch. And there were two springs, an inner and an outer. The outer broke. It wedged itself between the pressure plate and the disk, making it impossible for the disk to disengage. This was the third time I had a clutch failure for one reason or another, so I shut off the car and managed to get it into first gear. Drove very slowly and shut off the engine at stop lights but managed to get it to the shop.

My first experience was a bent finger on a Chevy Nova, the second the clutch cable broke on a Chevy Monza. Does anyone here remember when they used cables to connect the clutch pedal to the fork? You all have it so easy with your hydraulic assist clutches. Little girls can drive them :)
 

Rosaymaan

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
SoCal
Update: heard back from the SA today and they too need to drop the tranny to see what failed. This time the conversation was much more "consumer friendly" - guy at least had the courtesy to give me the benefit of the doubt that I wasn't lying...

Also it's only $1k charge here vs $1.3k at vw downtown la.

I'm pretty confident they are gonna find something bad happened. Even if the prior owner beat on the clutch - I would have seen some signs over the the last 2k miles of stickiness or slipping.
 

Rosaymaan

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
SoCal
update: SA called me today to let me know they have not been able to find any mechanical failure. he's going to send me pics and has opened a case with VW corporate to see if they will warranty. im super pissed. i dont understand how the clutch is working completly fine one day and the next it's fried. any advice? i'll post pics when i get them
 

dragoncoach

Ready to race!
Location
SF Bay Area
I completely understand your frustration. However, I've seen clutches go out in 7k miles. With manuals, a person who doesn't know how to drive or a person who just beats the heck out of the car can easily ruin it. I wondering how old, how experienced, and hard the previous owner drove it. You probably will never know but why did the original owner sell it with only 12k miles? Is there any service history documenting any prior problems? I wish you well in your resolution process.
 

Rosaymaan

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
SoCal
I hear what your saying, but what I don't understand is how there were no signs of wear (slipping etc) in the 4 months I've owned the car. And then one day it just gives out completely??
 

mopar22

Autocross Newbie
Location
Michigan
Car(s)
16 GTI
Mechanical parts can be funny at times. Sometimes they give you warning for years at a time or sometimes they just decide to give up
 

GTI Jake

Autocross Champion
Location
Charlotte, NC
So there's still friction material on the disk, and no excessive heat coloring on the flywheel or pressure plate either?

Did you look at the pics in the mk6forum link I posted? That broken pressure plate spring is very easily missed if the tech hasn't ran into that issue
 

GTI Jake

Autocross Champion
Location
Charlotte, NC
I had a clutch failure suddenly on my Cummins, but it was instantly clear what happened in that case. Ripped all of the ceramic pucks off one side of the disk lol. But to be fair, the clutch had 60,000+ miles on it operated at near its 1,100 ft lbs tq rating, including the 3,000 rpm boosted launch that finished it off. Apples to oranges, but like I said abuse is easy to pick out, mechanical failures usually not so easy
 

Rosaymaan

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
SoCal
see pics below:

not really sure exactly what I'm looking at here, but the second one looks completely f'd...

Once again, I have been driving this car for the last 2k miles and had ZERO issues with slipping gears or not being able to put the car into gear. The gears did feel a little "notchy" (vs. my 60k mile mini cooper s where the clutch is starting to go), but I assumed that was literally due to it being basically new and took it as a good thing.
 

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GTI Jake

Autocross Champion
Location
Charlotte, NC
Oh yeah it's F#cked lol, the friction material ripped off the rivets on the disk. That's standard signs of abuse.

Good news is they're still willing to work with you to attempt getting it covered.

Me personally I'd take the hit and upgrade to a better aftermarket clutch if they don't cover with enough headroom for any power adding you plan to do in the future.

Also note it will be a full clutch replacement, including the DMF (dual mass flywheel) in pic #3. This opens up options for switching to a SMF since it absolutely needs replacement anyway
 

GTI Jake

Autocross Champion
Location
Charlotte, NC
Even tho you bought the car used, if I was purchased from a dealer (especially certified pre owned) VWoA may cover it just to keep you happy, since clearly the abuse wasn't your doing, but the PO
 
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