So I have had the car (2.0T) since new in Nov 05 and it has 16000 miles. Came to a stop and it would not go into 1st gear as normal. A little persuasion and it went in and also moved a little forward...then the clutch acted no where near normal. It makes a noise when the clutch is depressed and it does not fully disengage.

I brought it to the dealer and they promptly told me the clutch is burnt at it will be $1960 for another. Today they showed me the clutch and one plate is in pieces...not normal is it? I mean I had no problem with it at all until that light and then everything went wrong. That tells me it is a break (read warranty) and not a wear and tear item.

What do you think...my fault? Audi dealer and customer service not helpful at this point. Next issue is where to order a clutch so I can repair myself?

I am 30 and have always owned new vehicles, mainly manuals. I have never replaced a clutch in my own car. Over 60K on a lifted wrangler, 50K on a jetta, and 35K on an S2000 (which were all hard miles). This one is mainly a road car. About 10K of the 16K were interstate miles. I do not see the clutch wearing out that fast.

Advice???

 

That should be under warranty, why are they trying to charge you?

 

Clutch warranty is 12 months or 12K miles...after that it is a wear item like brakes, headlights, wipers, tires.....
I say that it isa catastrophic failure which would be covered. If anything caused the clutch to wear prematurely, it would be covered completely. Clutch plate in pieces is a premature catastrophic failure I thought and was hoping someone else already fought this fight.

 

The same thing happens when the clutch is overheated. The friction material seperates from the backing plate and the clutch comes apart, usually on one side. Its nearly impossible to say what happened for sure.

 

hey...i also have a 2006 audi a4...i had the same exact problem you did. Traveling on the highway, I was about to exit and as i down-shifted the clutch gotreally rigid and it depressed all the way to the back of car. My foot even got stuck (scary at the time lol). After i came to a stop, it wouldn't go into any gears and my car had to be towed. After they took a look at it a few days later, they told me that the clutch plate Shattered and that they had never seen something like that ever happen before. They even documented the problem and took pictures and they said from what they knew that might only happen from constant high speed racing (lol dont do that, take very good care of my car). So I assume it was a defective part but they replaced it andin the end convinced them that it was to be covered under warranty.

 

Jersey Devil-
Sweet answer...can you provide specifics like dealership and timeframe of this occurrance. You were probably under the 12/12 which helped you, but Audi just does not care about me at this point. I called Lexus (which would be the replacement car company without amicable resolution) and described the problem and they saidbased on my description was accurate it would be a warranty repair.

 

The dealership was Maitland Florida..and it happened i believe probably 10 months after i got the car. Under 10k miles. I believe the way it worked out (My dad took care of the business) was that they hand't seen something like this before so they really didn't have an answer or something but wanted to say it wasnt under warranty. Then we said NO, it was a Defective Part obviously and had nothing to do with me driving etc...in the end though there they covered it under warranty