Dual mass flywheel and Clutch

[nano]

Hi All,

I have a 2002 A4 1.9 Tdi (130). I have owned it for a year and it now has 110K on it. I do a lot of motorway miles and have recently noticed the clutch start to slip a little, but only in 4th or 5th.
This only happens when im accelerating hard (down the sliproad) to join traffic.
It starts to slip around 2000 revs in 4th and 5th.

The problem is i cannot get it to slip at any other time. Handbrake on in first, i can raise the clutch untill it stalls, no slipping. I can even roll off in third, again no slipping so it seems there is still plenty left in the clutch.

I spoke to a couple of garages including ********, all suggested new clutch and replacing the DMF (dual mass flywheel) while im at it. Its gonna cost me £800!!

The thing is, i was wondering if it could be anything else. i cant get my head round the fact it will ONLY slip at speed in 4th of 5th.

Your ideas and thoughts would be appreciated before i am forced to blow £800!

[skymaster]

Sounds like a new clutch & pos flywheel might be the order of the day. I assume the car is on it's original one.

If you want to replace the clutch but not the DMF then do it sooner rather than later, if you let it slip too much the heat generated could damage the flywheel and then you are forced to relplace both.

There is a chap on this forum who is a bit of a clutch / flywheel expert. He advised me that my flywheel was made by the same company regardless of which packaging it came out of. So the only benefit of a genuine one was it's 2 year parts warranty, apart from that the part was exactly the same.

I am sure with a non gen flywheel and a specialist with a decent labour rate you can get well below £800.

[golf tdi 02]

you have two options one convert to a normal clutch with fitting kit or go with original parts but do change the dmf at the same time as you dont want to do two jobs just weeks appart.
still waiting for a8 techs advise as he works for audi ????
but hope this helps

[Crasher]

£800 is way too cheap, there is something being left out. You should be looking at £1100 outside VAG dealer network and £1300 at Audi, maybe more. If the flywheel on yours is available no genuine, that will save some £150 or so but not all the flywheels are available from LUK or Sachs. When the box is out, many of the bolts removed MUST be replaced as they are one time only (it may not seem much but some are £4 each and it adds up) and usually the release fork, release bearing guide sleeve and release arm pivot pin are worn, that’s about £150 worth. Often the flywheel oil seal is leaking (£50) and occasionally the crank needle bearing is damaged, not much but tricky to remove and install. If the DMF is going, the starter motor will be full of goo and will need cleaning out carefully which takes time. Please, watch what you are doing here, it would be very distressing to find it was not right and for the garage to say it wasn't a part they had replaced, I have seen this many times.

[nano]

Hi Again,

Thanks for the replies, some useful some scary! The slipping has got a lot worse so im currently not driving it for fear of becoming stranded.

I spoke to my garage again, he quoted me 285 for the flywheel and the rest can be done under the extended warranty (something about claiming for a collapsed clutch and labour) this way i only pay for the flywheel.

I still want to make sure it is done properly, do i need to look at the box bolts, the release fork, release bearing guide sleeve and release arm pivot pin? and the flywheel oil seal, the crank needle as mentioned?????? its a little worrying.

I was quoted 167 plus Vat from andrew page for the DMF made by LUK, it seems scarily cheap. Too good to be true?

so as it stands i will be paying £200 for new clutch and DMF. Should i be looking at anything else whilst the belly of my car is ripped open?

any advice?

thanks

[Crasher]

The price of the DMF is coming down all the time so it should be OK. I always replace the release arm and guide sleeve and base the need to change the crank oil seal on whether or not it is leaking, and they usually are leaking. Also the input shaft support needle bearing in the crank needs checking very carefully, they are often falling to bits and all the rollers drop out when the box is pulled out. The trouble is you don't notice this until you try to put the box back in and it won’t go in because of the needle bearings rolling around. Worse though is if the needles are cleaned out and the box is put back in, this wrecks the input shaft and means a new box, I have seen that a few times.

[lowndsy]

Hi, just picked mine up from having a new clutch (a4 avant tdi 130 03 reg), it cost me
£190 dmf, £125 clutch kit, plus vat. Total fitted was just over £500. Which i don't think is to bad.

[golf tdi 02]

well done under 800 pounds bargin

[nano]

UPDATE

I picked my car up yesterday after having a new DMF and clutch fitted. It worked out at,

DMF £160
Clutch kit £125
Labour (5hrs @ £40) £200

Total £485+vat

I drives like a different car, solid clutch, with nice smooth changes, 1st to 2nd usd to have a real clunk!

He showed me the flywheel, there was a lot of rotational play (bout 2cm) between the 2 discs (apparently there should only be a couple of mm), the surface was slightly scorched due to heat spots and as a result there were loads of hairline scratches/cracks. All in all im glad i replaced it.

Thanks for the help and advice to all involved!

until next time.....

cheers Nano

[skymaster]

I found that my car drove much better after I had my clutch and DMF replaced. It felt like a new car in terms of the gear changes, pulling away etc etc. Amazing really how bad it was before but I never really thought about it much.