Does anyone know if this seems a bit pricey..
$3700 for Clutch and Flywheel replacement.
Thats what the dealership quoted me
20 hours of Labor.

I lent someone my car.. trying ot be a nice person.. He of course doesnt think he caused it. .."I drove it home and back"

I do have 90,000 miles on it but according to dealership they last till 130,000.
He also said he never had it above 3000 rpms.. Do you think its just a coincidence?

 

Hi there well 20 hours is a total joke. It's a day job fair enough but anything more than 10 hours would start me to worry. You can replace a complete engine in 20 hours!!!!!!!!! Trust me find somewhere else or even try the Audi main dealer they should charge less hours.

 

hey RF

I have the 2k german tt that just turned 50kmiles, I just replaced my clutch the other day it wasn't needed right now, but within a year it would. Actually 2 weeks ago I dropped 1st and 2nd gear, took awhile for my buddy to figure out what it was...ended up as just the shifting forks broke. good thing nothing fell into the gears. So since everything was apart he put a new clutch and flywheel. total cost was about $2600, great deal even though it was not a audi dealer but hell no warranty anymore and if I had one since it is a euro car in america, Its was past away.

Anyway if you shift hard and ride the clutch... some of the time..... its bound to go out. It could have just gone out when your friend drove it. Mine went out as I was down shifting coming to a stop sign. Though 20 hours seems alot, esp. when they know what they are doing.

 

how i know uf i'm runing oout of clutch????

 

you hit the gas and don't go.

FWIW, my car has 150,000+ miles on it, and for all the records I have, its on its original clutch. I drive it hard, but im either on/off the clutch. Not much chance of wearing it down if you're not forcing it to slip all the time. Rev matching shifts helps, and not riding the clutch to get the car moving. I can go either up or down thru the gears w/o using the clutch at all by rev matching my shifts.

 

^x2. rev match is the only way to truely spare your clutch serious wear. I learned to drive by using as little clutch as possible. neutral is your friend=)

 

$3700 is a ripoff...the OEM parts new are hella expensive ($1000 for the flywheel alone) plus add $2000 of labor (20hrs @ 90ish).

You could easily pick up a complete upgraded clutch disc/flywheel/pressure plate (if they all need replaced) for <$1000 or just a clutch disc (if the rest is good) for $200 ish. Check out Four Seasons Tuning and the Clutchnet clutches on there.

As for labor I'd say 8 hours would be about normal...maybe a bit more since it's a quattro but 10 hours @ 55 an hour (typical shop rate) = $550.

If it's just your disc you could replace that with labor included for under a grand for certain.

 

First off, why so you think you clutch is bad? The following link has some good information:

http://www.clutchwizard.com/faqs.htm

THe best method though to determine if you are indeed slipping is as follows:

1. Park car and sit at idle with parking brake pulled up and transmission in Neutral.
2. Place car in 4th gear
3. Release foot from clutch slowly.
If the engine stalls immediately you clutch is fine.
If the engine stalls from between 1/3rd to 1/2 the way up. Your clutch is beginning to slip. Start saving but don't feel the need to have to get it done immediately.
If your engine does not stall until over 1/2 way up it is slipping very badly and need so be replaced.

Personally today I paid 1700(Plus Louisiana'a awesome 9.5% sale tax) for a new Luk Clutch, OEM flywheel, rear main seal, release bearing, slave cylinder, pilot bearing with labor and I got a 12month/12kmile warranty the same as a dealer offers.
If they are trying to charge you over $3000 dollars it is because they are most likely double charging you for labor. The dealer is supposed to charge you a standard corporate labor rate for a specific Audi determined time of labor. It is most likely that they are charging you the full rate for both clutch and flywheel. they should only charge you the labor rate for the replacement of the flywheel as the clutch assembly has to be removed and no extra labor is required to install a new clutch than to reinstall the old ones. This is evidenced by the amount of labor they are trying to charge you for which is essentially 2x5 times what it should be.
Personally, unless you have the time to do it yourself, I would go to a local transmission shop, they tend to know transmissions pretty well, and will typically be much cheaper. If you for some reason insist upon going to the dealer DEMAND that they give you a break down of the labor and call them out on it and speak to the manager if necessary.

 

October 26, 2011

Dear Audi,

We borrowed our neighbor’s 2000 Audi TT and apparently burnt the clutch on our 43 mile (1hr) trip without hills.
After coming off the highway we had troubles getting the clutch into 1st gear before a traffic light. This continued to be a problem on our immediate way back to the mechanic. My neighbor tells me that with a TT you need to engage the clutch twice to go from neutral to 1st gear, but we also had this problem switching from 2nd to 1st gear.
On the first test drive the mechanic did not notice anything wrong with the clutch, but reported similar troubles switching to first gear. On the second test drive together with the owner, the mechanic concludes that the clutch is burnt.

Background:
• 2000 Audi TT
• Mileage: 57,804 since new 2000.
• Owner did not drive the car for long distances at the time.
• Even before the 1st test drive the mechanic warned us for little maintenance history and that if anything would be wrong we may have had bad luck/timing borrowing the car.
• The first invoice reports accordingly that the “rear brake pads need replacing” (10%) and that the “transmission fluid needs to be drained”.
• After the second test drive with the owner, the invoice lists “clutch replacement”.
• Owner admits not having done maintenance for a few years except for oil change.
• The only time the owner let someone else drive the car was in 2004, which was when a valet driver parked it and the same clutch problem occurred.

We feel responsible because this occurred on our trip and thus paid in full for the expensive clutch replacement.

However, my question is:
Is it this easy to burn the clutch of a car of German quality make in just one hour of normal driving (no steep hills, no joy riding and we are used to driving clutches in Europe)?

By reading the forums on the Audi websites, the shifting gears and clutches seem to be recurring problems among Audi drivers.

I wish we had never borrowed the car.
Please be so kind to enlighten me on this matter.

Sincerely,

 

Drive the car in gear and mash the gas, if your RPM's jump with no movement of the car then your disc is definitely slipping. I wouldn't replace the flywheel also if it wasn't warped and wasn't to thin the flywheel would have to be mic'd i think someone just wrote up everything at the dealship and tried to sell it. If you don't have chatter when you let out the clutch your flywheel is fine. If it slips that's a disc. Growling noise would be a bearing of some sort.