So...I've had clutch slipping for about 2-3 months now. I would give about1/3 throttle and anything after that would be too much torque and the clutch would slip. Recently it slipped really bad, to the point where there was some smoke and you totally smelled it.

So last night I was climbing a long hill and I gave a little more and the turbo was spooling and I gave a little more gas and it didn't slip.....I was like huh?? So I gave more and it just grabbed and pulled. Totally shocked me, and so a little bit ago I was cruising 45mph in third and then mashed the gas and before I knew it I was up to 70mph and there was no slippage. NOTHING!

Explain to me......what the heck is going on? I hope it stays good like this so I don't have to replace it. Could it have been a bubble in the hydraulic line of the clutch or something? Or did the little slipping of the clutch here and there "grind down" the glazed flywheel enough to get some decent contact?

 

When the clutch started failing in my A6 there was high rpm (to red line) and no power/acceleration. There was no smell. Now I have smelled burned clutch when I slipped the clutch on a steep hill when engaging gear. Different situation entirely. It sounds to me like it was not fully engaging for some reason and now it is. There is no way to grind down the glaze -- one a clutch glazes it is smooth and it will not perform correctly. Maybe your throw-out (or pilot) bearing was not allowing the clutch to fully engage. No idea why -- did you have any work done on it?

 

You must be low on brake fluid.

 

Are you kidding me? Brake fluid?

We're talking about the clutch...not the brakes man

 

A manual hydraulic clutch uses brake fluid for the pressure liquid. If you bleed and refill the clutch, you use DOT 3 or DOT 4 brake fluid most of the time. I'm not 100% on audi's though. They're the only car I know with their own fluid for damn near everything

 

+1 on brake fluid. Audis use the same reservior for brakes and clutch in a manual trans. Did you have brake service done recently? Maybe an oil change and they topped off the fluids for you? Maybe just some warmer temps got you enough fluid to make up for the low level or you finally purged an air bubble from having low levels previously.

Probably a good time to do a brake fluid replacement. It is an Audi service item every two years.

 

really? Wow I've never heard of that before. Okay...well no I haven't done anything with the brakes lately, I think I was low not too long ago and so I added some. We I guess maybe I'll change out the fluid.

Now would this still make me burn the clutch though? Is it just that there wasn't enough pressure on the flywheel cause of low brake fluid?

Does anyone have a write up on how to go about flushing the fluid and what not?

 

its slipping again!! =(

 

Time to change the clutch out. All your doing is doing more damage to the flywheel and pressure plate surface by allowing it to slip all the time. You are also pealing off the material off the clutch every time it slips and just putting more wear on the clutch.

 

Clutch failures feel all different, might be time to dish the cash for a new clutch pressure plate and flywheel...