B7 clutch slipping

[mallinguard]

hi folks, this is the first thread i have ever posted..so here goes.
my 56 plate avant has done 67k and i have clutch slip. i suppose it is not too far out of the question to say it's not a fault at 67k, just wear....? spoken to local stealers and been quoted £1700. been told that there could be a flywheel change and they have allowed for this in the price. is this right?? is this a fair price?? i was expecting around £1100 to 1200.
can i also just say after owning many S and RS Audi's over the past ten years or so, i only wish i had signed up for 246.com years ago. a great site, and from what i can see great members too. thanks guys.

[Contigo]

I paid 1700 for clutch and flywheel from an independent for my B5 a year or so ago.It seems like the right sort of price to me.

Man you've done some miles in that!

[Andyuk911]

Ask APS to help you, say you are member here, it might help ...

[mallinguard]

thanks for that. i was afraid £1700 was going to be somewhere near to the mark. i have heard APS are pretty good, thanks guys.

[APM]

APS will do you a clutch for appx £950,this does not include a flywheel.

[RED_ROCKET]

MRC

[SR71]

Cognizant of the fact its a different car, but my original S2 clutch lasted 186K miles and was replaced by an independent for ~£950.

I'd never pay stealer labour charges for this kind of job.

That said, I'd expect the clutch to have lasted longer. I've heard its under-engineered to save the transmission.

Shame on Audi if thats the case....

Depending on how you've driven it, and whether you feel it has failed prematurely, how you feel about warranty and whether you want to extend it, I'd be tempted to get an uprated one.

Sounds like you rack up the miles and £1K+ every 2 years for a clutch is a little tough to swallow IMHO....

[APM]

mines on it's original clutch(84k)

[William_Blake]

why doesn't Audi fit a stronger clutch?

[SR71]

I guess because, under warranty, they prefer to replace clutches rather than diffs...

[mallinguard]

been into local dealer today and it will not be covered under a warranty claim. it is "wear and tear". any comments??

[scoobyc]

to be honest i thought they'd say that. Chances of them replacing discs, pads or clutches are very slim but not impossible, but with that mileage and 400bhp am i the only one to think that thats a decent mileage to get out of it? Considering 911 turbos etc expect to have clutches from anything over 25k miles changed i didn't think it was too bad and again as written its obviously to save the rest of the drivetrain as there has to be something give somewhere! All imho

[SR71]

I suggest you search the forum using "clutch" to build up an idea of the issues with the B7 clutch.

You might want to ask to see the old clutch to make your own mind up about "wear and tear"? I agree with ScoobyC though in that your chances were/are slim getting it covered under warranty.

Alcon do an uprated clutch: http://stasisengineering.com/Category_D ... 95&PID=199 which has had some negative comment on it in that its rating isn't that much better than the stock rating.

MTM must have a uprated clutch flywheel package and you can find it on their WWW site: http://www.mtm-online.de/en/index.php?n ... l=RS4%20B7 for ~2000 Euros.

I don't really know enough about how the actual B7 clutch works to know whether its possible the accelerated wear is due to design faults and/or premature failure of the release mechanism (leaving the clutch dragging slightly) rather than genuine "wear and tear"....if you see what I mean...

[Lancia]

OK heres my 2 cents or 20 cents.

My car has done 48000km now and the gearbox was playing up, syncros in 1st - 4th gears. Fixed under warranty. I figured Ill upgrade the clutch while its out and the dealer agreed with this.
Now I bougth the Alcon clutch from Stasis as everything else I have bought off them has been top notch and Im still over the moon in regards to the motorsport suspension now fitted.
The dealer said my clutch considering the history of the car was spotless. Flywheel was perfect and very minimal wear on the plate. I only experienced bad slip twice when getting overzealous with the launch but most of the time my driving is as smooth as possible, even on the track, after all it is just a hunk of metal that still needs to be taken care of no matter what the quality.
Well drove out and within about 10km I HATED the Statis clutch. The worse thing was it had all the feel of a race clutch (on and off) but none of the benefits(lightened flywheel). I would only reconsider this if it came with a solid lightened flywheel but if I did want a car that felt like that Id just go get an EVO or Lotus!

Now after all this a kind of good and bad thing happened. The gearbox failed.
When I left I heard a loud "ting" eg the sound a circlip makes when flying off if not using the correct tools. Now I was late and I figured Id get the usual dumb look from them if I went back as they couldnt even hear the rattle in the back parcel shelf I have complained about 5 FU&*^ing times! Possibly their brain rattling due to it not being secured properly.
Well 2 days later the gearbox started making a horrible noise so stopped and got it towed. I told them about the noise I heard and wouldnt be suprised if it was the circlip on the input shaft or something.
So while they are fixing there screw up, which BTW was the circlip coming off the input shaft Ill put the stock clutch back in.

Hope this helps. I like a drivers car but if you dont get a modded clutch right the car will suck. I did this to my S3 and yes it went crazy over 4k RPM but below that and driving around town the car was horrible as well so I sold that one.

Id be interested to know what people thing of the MTM clutch?

[grizz]

I've just priced up a clutch for a customer .To fit a new genuine unit would be £700 all in. I've sent a standard flywheel to re engineered as well .