It's clutch time.

[boombastik]

Mines has just covered 65k and the peddle was starting to stick with some spirited driving.

I'll get the pics off my phone today and post up with a write up this afternoon

If you know a mechanic with a half decent garage and equipment chum him up and see if he will let you help for a reduced labour charge. That's what I basically did with my cousin he has his own garage and I used his time for most part of a day hence the labour was only £250 cash

[boombastik]

As promised guys a quick write up with pictures of the clutch change on the RS4

First of all disconnect the battery in boot
With the car up in the air remove the exhaust system from cat back.
Remove the prop shaft cover at the end of the box which is 2 X Torx 30
Then remove the prop shaft 2 X 13mm bolts and 2x pop clips for the centre bearing cover and centre bearing
8 X 6mm Allen head bolts hold the prop on at either end
Use a gear box stand and support the end of the box and remove the 3 X 13mm head bolts which is the mount brackets then remove the 3x 18mm head bolts per side which is the box cross member the member won't come out until the down pipes are removed so just leave it sitting on top of the pipe, this will allow you to drop the back of the box on the gear box stand allowing a bit more room to disconnect the lambda sensors which are all multi plugged in on a bracket on top of the gear box

Remove the front wheels
3 X 6mm Allen head bolts hold on the drive shaft covers remove these and remove the covers
10mm spline key and extension and you can get the air gun in and remove the front drive shaft bolts and leave the shafts in place
Remove the down pipes 3 X 13mm nuts each side mines were badly corroded and one broke so be prepared to use heat
Once one of the down pipes is off you can remove the gear box cross member as you wouldn't have managed to get this out with the lambda sensors in place but with one pipe removed it will come off.
Up the drives side of the gear box there is a switch that needs to be disconnected this is for reverse lights and parking sensors, disconnect the plug
At the passenger side of the gear box there is a heat shield around the engine position sensor bend the sheild slightly and use a 30 Torx to slacken the bolt you can't see this bolt as its behind the sheild (don't remove the one you can see this is bolting the spacer plate on to the gear box) with the bolt slack the cover slides off you will now see the bolt remove it completely and pull the position sensor out of the bell housing

Next we need to support the engine using another gear box stand and a block of wood put this under the oil pan and take the weight of the engine
Remove the suspension arm bolts at the subframe both sides 2 x18mm bolts and nuts.
The arms should with some leaverage come out of the subframe
Using the air gun remove the 2 main subframe bolts the long ones and slacken the two font ones remove them altogether then screw them back in a couple turns by hand.
You can now lower the engine on the stand slowly and lower the gear box at the rear a bit further
You now have access to the clutch pipe using a pipe clamp squash the rubber pipe so you don't lose all the brake/clutch fluid
There is a spring clip remove the clip and the clutch pipe pulled out of the slave cylinder

The gearlinkage is next there is a 13mm capped nut on the linkage arm up the left side of the box remove the nut then at the right side of the box there are 2 points where the linkage is connected. One joint is a 6mm Allen head bolt which is bolted from the top remove this and the other is a 13mm bolts which is bolted to where you have disconnected the reverse lights switch this is the gear linkage removed and it will stay there

Back to the subframe with the two long bolts removed and the others slack jack up the engine and box again and the sub frame should now with some slight persuasion come out and lay it to the side.
You have now exposed the 3 X 8mm Allen head bolts that are bolted from the front in to the box remove these bolts 2 will come out completely the other one won't come out due to a pipe so leave it once it's fully slackened

The gear box is now ready to be unbolted and removed
2 X top bolts are accessible using about 4 long 1/2" drive extensions. And there are 2 of the same bolts at either side 2 of which are the starter and one on the starter has a nut on the back

With all the bolts removed and make sure you have cut all the cable ties from the top of the gear box for the lambda harness using the gearbox jack to support it the box should pull straight out.

You now have access to the clutch and fly and the slave on the box

8 X 6mm bolts hold the clutch plate on and 10 X 12mm spline bolts hold the fly wheel on
Fly bolt torque is 48ft/lbs and clutch bolt torque is 20ft/lbs these bolts should not be reused replace with new

It's crucial that you use a clutch alignment tool when installing the new clutch as if the friction plate isn't centre you won't get the box back in

I replaced the clutch pipe as well when disconnecting this the small rubber seal will come off and it does so at both ends of the pipe ensure that the the seal is on the male end on the pipe on the car and a seal on the male end of the pipe that goes in to the slave

Change the Slave on the box this is straight forward and replace the thrust bearing as well.

Your now ready to put the gearbox back in and repeating above in reverse order

[JCviggen]

Thanks for the effort of making that boombastic, very nice to see the process!

[ASC]

Respec!

[Ellis]

Worth transferring to a sticky / FAQ thread admin guys?

[R1RS4]

Wow that's some DIY job, no wonder Audi want 999 for a clutch change on a b7!

[Briggy]

I'm more likely to perform open heart surgery than tackle a job like that. Well done that man.

[boombastik]

Honestly in a score out of 10 for hardness I'd score it a 5 but because the down pipe stud broke and the I spent a good bit of time sorting the rest of them out I'd then score it a 7

If I was to do this again I'd order new down pipe studs and replace them regardless

And lesson learned about the engine position sensor that it needs to come out before pulling the box back

I would say don't tackle this type of work unless you have access to full workshop facilities

[Tookey_87]

Removed my box today and this was a massive help cheers

[boombastik]

Removed my box today and this was a massive help cheers

Glad to hear my write up helped