In for sticky clutch investigation

[Noyjatat]

Well had the old sticky clutch syndrome for a while now and put aside enough pennies to do a start to finish diagnosis. The fault which has been reported a lot on here is as follows.

When given some heavy right foot and pushing through the gears each one over and above 6000 revs the clutch and pedal feel fine but at some point and soon after the spirited driving the clutch pedal fails to return to its original position and sticks a little over 50% of travel.

A good test for this without having to find a private road or airfield to replicate is to bring the car to warm. Then with the car stationary keep it out of gear, dip the clutch and rev to 7,000-8,000 rpm three times. On lifting your foot at the end the sticky pedal will again fail to rise to original position.

So here's the plan.

1. Replace the clutch hydraulic return pipe. A fault Audi are aware of and have upgraded the pipe for. As this is done the clutch fluid will be replaced too.

2. Slave and master cylinder. Could be either one of these and it's a bit hit and miss unless there are some obvious signs of pressure loss or other problems externally.

3. Clutch or flywheel. Pretty much the last call.

Will put the final answer once its found.

The car is with Audi today but only going as far as the return pipe and two cylinders today. Will get the clutch and flywheel replaced next month if required and hope adds a bit more info for options if anyone else has the same problem.

[Firestarter]

Good luck with that Gaz. Keep us all posted on the progress mate!

[MikeFish]

I thought this was about a sticky crutch! Bit disappointed now.

[Noyjatat]

Okay so the pipe replacement and new fluid hasn't worked. Tomorrow slave and master cylinders.

[Gavla]

Thanks for the update Gaz Do you know if option 1 has even ever cured this problem? The post's I've read seem to point to option 3 as the only cure
If that is the case then you may want to consider an after market kit such as LOBA.

Good luck for tomorrow I hope it brings some good news.

[Surrey Sam]

These things never end up being the cheap, simple things to replace. Fair play Gareth for wanting to get to the bottom of it and reporting back, have Audi diagnosed it or are they just carrying out your instructions?

ArtherPE started a thread on his experience and I was looking forward to the result of that one but he ended up selling it in the end. Shame that there is no definitive cause and solution to this quite common problem. Here is the thread incase anyone missed it - http://forum.rs246.com/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=104900

[MikeFish]

From all that I had read on the subject I don't think anyone could conclusively say that the return pipe cured the problem. Only those that had a new clutch fitted said that the problem had been cured.

[spikeyboy101]

To be honest if anyone ever gets the sticky clutch peddle I would recommend they just go straight in and have the clutch and flywheel replaced, will save you money in the long run as from my experience and others on this forum it's the only thing that fixes the issue.

I tried to save penny's by having the return pipe replaced and the master and slave cycle doers - didn't work and had the clutch and flywheel replaced - that did work, so if I had just gone straight in I would have saved myself £500 in labor.

Best option is to Shop around to have this done, don't have Audi do it at their highly inflated £2,500 price, many on here including myself have had this done by indies for around £1,500

[Noyjatat]

Yep Paul at Ipswich Audi has had three in the time that he has been there that have been fixed prior to the full clutch replacement. It's a gamble but if it's fixed before the clutch change then you save money, if not you lose it in man hours.

[vestax32]

Clutch.

[lengster1]

Option 3 I'm afraid matey ,I did return pipe etc first but......

[Ginors4]

I have these probs too. I have purchased clutch, flywheel and return pipe and going into AMD to have sorted. Not sure whether to do slave and master or not.

[Noyjatat]

I expect it to be the clutch as well, only put together this post as another point of reference for others to build information to help guide to the right change first.

[sar]

could it be the pressure plate?, i read in a few places now that this could be the culprit.
in the states one of jhm's aftermarket clutch kits seems to be throwing up the same sticky pedal issues as the oem clutch, turns out in that kit they use an off the shelf oem pressure plate.....

[victor2vt]

I had this happen to me on a recent track day, but no signs since, 2 weeks ago, anyone had this as an intermittent problem ?