Clutch Failure on 1998 A3 1.6?

[Matt_1990]

Hi all, earlier today I was travelling down the motorway at 70mph when I heard a small bang sound come from the front near side wheel. Smoke then began to come from under that wheel arch.

I pulled over and took a look and saw that there was a grey coloured oilly liquid leaking from just behind the wheel (see pics below). On the way home the clutch pedal got heavier and harder to use, I could smell burning clutch and could hear occasional grinding sounds. Has the clutch gone? I'm confused as it was changed less than 2000 miles ago.

Thanks,

Matt

http://i993.photobucket.com/albums/af59/matt_c_1990/IMG00561-20100509-1008.jpg
http://i993.photobucket.com/albums/af59/matt_c_1990/IMG00562-20100509-1008.jpg

[Matt_1990]

Also I forgot to mention that when I heard the small bang on the motorway, the car jumped out of gear.

Also over the past couple of weeks the clutch pedal has been grinding occasionally and the gear lever jumps when accelerating in 5th.

[accy]

Did you also change the dmf when you changed the clutch?

[Matt_1990]

couldn't give you a definite answer as it was a previous owner that had it changed, but the reciept I have only shows "Fohrenbuhl Clutch Kit, part no. FK440".

[Matt_1990]

Phoned up my garage today and described what happened. They said it sounds like a gearbox problem. But when I was driving the car I had no problems with the gears, just the clutch got harder to use. Is it likely the gearbox is broke?

thanks

[Crasher]

Excuse me for being stupid here but where is the green end cap for the gearbox? It appears to have gone AWOL. What you can see there is the exposed clutch operating system and behind that is the 5th gear. I suspect you have suffered the usual 02K (Goggle Audi or VW +DUU for enlightenment) box failure but the end cap does not fall off when this happens.

[Matt_1990]

Thats how it was after the problem occured. I have never looked if there was a cap before this happened. I did hear a small bang under the near side front wheel arch when it happened, I thought initially I had run over a large stone and it had hit the inside wheel artch. Could this have been the cap coming off? thanks for your help

[Crasher]

I think you have a failed gearbox which is going to have to come out and be stripped down to inspect what has gone wrong, I suspect a differential rivet has failed but the cap coming off is odd, I have never seen that happen.

[Matt_1990]

Hi again, just a quick update. I took the car to the garage today and initially they were going to have the gearbox out to inspect it.

However, before doing that they had a look and decided this wasn't required. They have replaced the missing cap, filled up the missing oil (which had nearly completly drained) and have ordered a new part of the gear linkage which broke.

Aparently the bang I heard was probably the cap coming off, and the smoke was probably caused by leaking oil splashing onto the brake disks or anything hot really.

fingers crossed thats all that's needed, thanks everyone for your help, its much appreciated :)