Clutch advice

[Fuman100]

Hi folks, as the title says looking for a bit of clutch advice for my 2006 rs4 avant.

Ok so I was driving from Aberdeen to Bristol last friday when my clutch pedal dropped to the floor just outside Glagow after a bit of spirited driving along side an Evo.

I had just worked up through the gears and boom lots of lovely clutch smell and could not select any gear. luckily im a member of the AA who organised a hire car for me and recovered the RS4 back to Bristol. (pedal still on floor)

I now have the car booked into my local VAG specialist later in the week. I have read up as much as I can on here on the sticky clutch problem and see that alot of folk went for the LOBA-Sachs RS4 B7 Stage 1 uprated clutch kit 550Nm single disc but I have heard that these can compramise driveabilty around towns etc.

Does anyone have this clutch fitted? would they recommend?

All advice/help apprecited.

Cheers

Oliver

[coffey555]

I had an OEM clutch fitted less than 20,000 miles ago along with a new flywheel, master/slave cylinders and new return pipework and I am sure I am starting to feel the clutch pedal starting to get sticky again with hard use. It has not actually stuck down yet but I am sure that it will given time.

Going to see about having the bearing guide bushing inspected and replaced to see if that fixes it.

[adsgreen]

need to be clear on symptoms - the pedal getting stuck down to the floor is different to it dropping to the floor with little resistance.

[coffey555]

In my case the pedal is just starting to get sticky on the return stroke when the car is driven hard.

Previously (before everything was changed) the pedal would get sticky on the return stroke before getting stuck about halfway through its travel. It could be pulled back up again with your foot but got a bit annoying everytime the car was driven hard.

I never had any burnt clutch smell and could still change gear so I guess I have/had a different issue from the original poster.

Are there any uprated clutch kits that avoid the bearing release bushing issue (if that is actually the cause)?

I think I remember there might have been talk of JHM working on one but that was a while ago?

[Fuman100]

Update... Car is now in the garage and requires a clutch.

Going to order the Loba sachs 550nm kit now.

[Specter]

I have fitted this kit. Certainly changes the overall feeling of the car, mostly behause of the lighter flywheel.
Loud rattling at low rpm's is something you will have to get used to due to the loss of the damped dual mass flywheel.
Overall it is just not that comfortable.
And by the way, I had the common sticky clutch problem, too. The clutch release bearing guide sleeve was worn, causing the bearing to get stuck.

[coffey555]

Did you just change the guide sleeve to fix it then?

If so, is it available on its own or as part of a kit?

[lengster1]

My mate fitted that kit and then removed it,ruined the car.

[Specter]

Did you just change the guide sleeve to fix it then?

If so, is it available on its own or as part of a kit?

The sleeve is available on its own, but because it is that much work to get to this part, you should not just change the sleeve. I replaced the clutch disc, pressure plate, flywheel, bearing, sleeve, clutch line and the slave cylinder plus some bolts and bits.
My clutch disc was almost down to the rivets, having covered only 80 tkm.

[coffey555]

Cool, thanks for that. I hear you about changing all the other stuff but I changed most of all that less than 20,000 miles ago so will try the sleeve first if it gets any worse.

I took the car for a blast the other morning and the clutch felt ok so fingers crossed.