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Hi guys,

I am new to this company and a relatively fresh owner of an avant RS4 (roughly two years).
About 6 months ago I started having the famous "sticky" clutch problem and after trying everything others in here have tried, have not yet reached a solution.
I am totally frustrated and I could use any type of advise/info from anybody.

I initially changed the following in the below sequence:
1. Master cylinder + fluids
2. Slave cylinder + fluids
3. This tube 8E0721465 + fluids
4. Master cylinder again
5. Slave cylinder again
6. Entire clutch kit replaced with LOBA Sachs stage 2 (Pressure plate, disc, flywheel).
7. The entire pipe 8E0721465BK + fluids

Long story short, up until 4 the clutch stuck at the floor either after 1-3 gear WOT and/or spirited driving. Especially after 1 the clutch had an "empty" part of its travel to the floor, which until, today has never disappeared. I mean at the first couple of inched it is totally soft. at about after 1/3 it start to become normally stiff.

The crazy thing is that even after 7 (about a week ago) the empty part of the pedal route was there. Actually 7 was performed by a local Audi dealership. They said it should be fine and that the empty part is because the clutch is not an OEM dual mass (I ahve absolutely no idea if this pay be true).

However after a day;s driving the clutch got stuck on the floor after pressing the pedal and without spirited driving. I had to "detach" it by putting my foot behind the pedal.
Next morning I had to leave for a 400km trip. I took my chances, got into the car and drove off! The pedal was as I had left it the previous night. It got initially stuck at the floor but after the first gear changes, started to only become sticky, albeit returning and after the first couple of WOTs until 7k rpm it worked just fine for the entire travel!.

During my stay at the place I drove at, for normal driving it became sticky. Once I WOT it started to behave normally!

During my way back today, I found an opening at the highway and drove 4th gear to 8k redline, and it became sticky once I put gear into neutral, but again after a couple of gear changes it behave again normally.

I am totally lost as to what might be the problem in this irrational situation.

Any thoughts and ideas are more than welcomed!

Best,
Nicholas

Sounds like it could be the bearing guide sleeve?

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=110589

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=104900&hilit=bearing+guide

But the answer is no, nobody has actually found out exactly what causes the clutch to stick halfway down.

Is the clutch level with the brake pedal?

Mine wasn't by a slight bit and one of the Audi Techs said my pedal itself was broken up somewhere in the pedal box.
The explained the first part of "Free" travel before I felt resistance.

@irishmike I have some free travel before resistance on the clutch pedal. I only noticed it recently. I think it sits a few MM higher than the brake.

It might not be the same as mine, but worth getting it checked. Audi said that because of this free travel the clutch wasn't engaging/disengaging fully, which lead to sticky clutch and ultimately fubared the clutch.

Not sure about any free travel but my clutch pedal sits about 5mm higher than the brake pedal at rest.

I take it that is not normal then?

irishmike wrote:Is the clutch level with the brake pedal?

Mine wasn't by a slight bit and one of the Audi Techs said my pedal itself was broken up somewhere in the pedal box.
The explained the first part of "Free" travel before I felt resistance.

Hi irishmike,

I had read your relevant posts and asked them specifically to pay attention to it.
While the clutch pedal is nowhere near the same level with the brake pedal, their answer was that it is not broken.

The justify that they have looked at it, they charged me for replacing the spring behind the pedal.

coffey555 wrote:Sounds like it could be the bearing guide sleeve?

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=110589

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=104900&hilit=bearing+guide

But the answer is no, nobody has actually found out exactly what causes the clutch to stick halfway down.

That is the only thing left to look at actually.
When I had the entire clutch kit replaced, I was told that there were no apparent wear marks.

Given that today i dove the car to work, parked it in a garage and after 5 hours when I tried to pick it up, when i touch the clutch pedal it completely and without force fell on the floor. Obviously no way to get into any gear as it did not engage. I followed the same routine (detaching it from the floor with my foot, until it builds some pressure to engage) and drove back home.

In a nutshell nowhere near the behavior it had yesterday.

So the decision has been taken.

Monday morning it is going to the workshop and the entire clutch will be taken out for thorough inspection, change the bearing guide sleeve, chagne teh fluids, change again the cylinders and .....I am not leaving there until it is fixed!

Can't believe a definitive answer to this problem doesn't exist yet. Good luck and I hope the problem gets fixed for you.

Thanks a lot for the wishes.

I am sure I am going to need them.

Pretty sure the pedal falling to the floor is a different problem to it sticking down.

Check adsgreen's post as he was talking about it the other week I think.

coffey555 wrote:Pretty sure the pedal falling to the floor is a different problem to it sticking down.

Check adsgreen's post as he was talking about it the other week I think.

You are totally right. It should be another issue than the sticky thing.
The crazy thing in my situation as you can read is that sometimes it is totally on the floor and others it is simply sticky. So a propoer diagnosis is impossible!

Go figure...

I am stripping out and changing everything from start...

Didn’t Arthur investigate this and come to the conclusion it was the sleeve ?

i dont think it is the sleeve, i remember talking with arthur at the time when i had the problem.
i bought a full loba clutch kit a new oem release bearing and guide sleeve and took the lot to unit 20 for fitting when grizz stripped it all out he said the guide sleeve was mint no marks or signs of wear, it was that good condition that he never fitted the new one.
anyway the full clutch/flywheel cured the problem, been sweet now for 25000 miles. still on original slave and master cylinders and pipes.
i thought the latest thinking was the problem is caused by the weak oem pressure plate?.

sar wrote:i dont think it is the sleeve, i remember talking with arthur at the time when i had the problem.
i bought a full loba clutch kit a new oem release bearing and guide sleeve and took the lot to unit 20 for fitting when grizz stripped it all out he said the guide sleeve was mint no marks or signs of wear, it was that good condition that he never fitted the new one.
anyway the full clutch/flywheel cured the problem, been sweet now for 25000 miles. still on original slave and master cylinders and pipes.
i thought the latest thinking was the problem is caused by the weak oem pressure plate?.

It is obvious that similar symptoms are created by different issues and diagnosis.

While your new Loba kit cured the issue, mine didn't. So again i am thinking either the guide sleeve (which is the only part that has not ben changed) or somehting else in the vacuum system, although supposedly everything has been changed.

I need to see the diagram again and check whether there is any other tube aside from the slave, master, and the return pipe that is attahced in the system and which could be the cause of any pressure loss.