S5 manual clutch problems

[P_G]

Has anyone had issues like this with their S5's?

A good mate of mine bought one 2 weeks ago and last night he got into it and couldn't select gear when the engine was on. Could do with the engine switched off so after a coupled of hours trying to get it to work he called Audi roadside (RAC) who then called a subbie in with a trailer van. The guy took a look under the bonnet, said it couldn't be fixed by the road so would put it on his low loader all the way from Birmingham to Newcastle.

Fortunately he could leave his car in Birmingham and use a company car but this monring a proper Audi Roadside tech came to look at it and started and selected gear / worked fine.

So I suspect it is either slave cylinder or return pipe connected but wondered if this was a common fault? I know on B7 RS4 the clutch return pipe was too small and this could happen but the pipe after 2006 was modified / made bigger diameter.

Any ideas?

[Pete.S]

Have a look on here, I remember reading a lot of clutch-related posts when I was thinking of getting an S5 a while ago:

http://www.a5oc.com/forums/

[P_G]

Thanks Pete, so it looks like my mate is in line for a complete new clutch under warranty, just hope the new ones are a bit beefier.

[garywhatford]

Interesting to hear that. I've just had a new clutch under warranty also. My clutch suffered a terrible slip, which resulted in shudder developing. I wasn't being hard on the car at the time.
I took it to Audi and had the usual line of, "it's bad driving" I pointed out I'd had various high performance Audis with no similar issues.
In the end they took the car in for investigation and replaced the clutch with no question. I don't really know what the issue was.