Hey Guys,

I just bought my First Audi A4 1.8t Quattro with the sport package. I got the car on Wednesday (24th) I have only driven it roughly 200 miles since I got it, and It has 104k on it. My friend hopped in the car with me tonight and he tried to launch the car and said that the clutch was slipping. It also worries me that the clutch is slipping at WOT once I passed 4k RPM.


I also noticed a little bit of shaking/vibration in the shifter/car while driving

Do I need a new clutch/ What should I look for?

 

Put the car in 5th at about 35mph and put the pedal to the carpet. If the clutch is gonna slip, that's when it'll happen. Vibration could be mounts wearing out or shifter bushing wear (more likely).

 

And keep in mind that you have significanly less than 200hp being put to the ground through all four tires - your grip is considerable compared to the available thrust. Try and launch it hard and you're likely to break things. If that's your purpose in a car, buy a Mustang or something meant for it, or a DSM - that's a car meant for hard launches. An A4 isn't.

 

LOL yeah thats why My stock driveline A4 puts down 1.54 60 ft times and pulls mid to low 3 second 0-60. Have you even launched your A4? Because the funny thing is that every single person that I have seen post that "the A4 is not for launching" has either never launched their A4 or just doesn't have the skills to launch a AWD car. Belive me I have put plenty of V8 mustang and DSM guys to shame at the track.

Lets see a V8 Mustang put down any good 60 ft times with 100% street tires on the car. lol


It does sound like you need a new clutch and if you plan on launching the car you better upgrade to a much better clutch since the stock clutch cant handle too much of that.

 

Mike is right this car doesn't launch like a RWD or even FWD. Keep launching wrong and you will be killing your clutch!

AWD vehicles use all four wheels to transfer power from the transmissions, while FWD (Front Wheel Drive) vehicles use the front wheels, and RWD (Rear Wheel Drive) uses the rear wheels.


Because AWD vehicles use all four wheels to move the car along, the available traction for launching greatly increases. If you simply dump the clutch on any other type of drivetrain, the weakest link from engine to the ground is probably the tires, and all you will do is start a burnout and smoke the tires. If you dump the clutch on a AWD car, it is very difficult to break traction on all four wheels instead of just two and often the weak link is somewhere else in your drivetrain. What happens?


If your clutch is not strong enough to handle the torque, then you will wind up burning your clutch - possibly warping or damaging your flywheel.
If your clurch is strong enough but your transmission is not, then you have just transformed your transmission into a grenade. There is a good chance you have sheared your gears, snapped your drive axles, or warped the transmission housing (people say is possible, i’ve never seen it happen)
If your clutch and transmission are both strong enough but your engine and transmission mounts are not, you stand a very good chance of breaking or warping engine mounts. Thats not good either.


If you haven’t gathered by now, its usually not safe to dump the clutch on a AWD car. Sure there are race prepared drag cars and track cars, but they have spent tens of thousands of dollars into strengthing the drivetrain to handle the power.


The safest way to launch a AWD car takes a little bit of practice. It is similar to the “Turbo Start” that BMI refers to. Turbo Start is simply making sure that when you launch your engine is able to produce boost. This means feathering the clutch so your engine stays in its peak output RPM range.


A proper AWD launch is a symphony of clutch, throttle, and shifting control. To do an AWD launch without turning your car into scrap metal, step on the gas to get the engine up to speed. Full throttle is not needed and puts extra stress on the drivetrain. On my car, I get the engine up to around 4k RPM which is where it starts to make boost when i’m crusing. Then, let the clutch out to the friction point where it starts to engage and back off slightly so its not touching anymore. Then, in one quick swift motion, floor the gas. As soon as the engine starts to increase around 500 RPM or so, quickly let out the clutch - but do not let it fully engage - this allows the engine to quickly build boost and keep the engine in its peak output range. The car will start moving, but your RPM is still rising and your clutch is slipping. When the car has started moving and you start to build boost, then quickly let out the clutch. Do not dump the clutch or side-step the clutch. Just pull your leg quickly away from the pedel. If done correctly, you’ll hear or feel the tires chirp a little bit, and maybe smell a little little bit of clutch.


Some thoughts. This is indeed a modified form of the “Turbo Launch” - it helps to build boost off the line and also protects your drivetrain. Do you smell clutch? If you don’t smell anything and you felt the car go “thump” when you completly let off the clutch, then you let the clutch out too fast. This causes drivetrain shock, which is exactly what we’re trying to avoid. Did you smoke the clutch instead? Make sure your clutch isn’t slipping to begin with, and next time let the clutch out quicker.


Simply dumping the clutch at low to medium engine speeds will actually hurt your launch because it forces the engine to a very low RPM range where the turbo is not working to produce boost, and you will have to wait for the engine to rev up to build boost again. If you dump your clutch out at a high engine speed, say at your rev limiter, then sure your engine is building boost, but then your engine is making almost peak output. Instead of using that peak output to launch the car, you may have just used the peak output to shread your transmission. Smelling a little bit of clutch is fine - that smell is from the extra energy that would have gone to damaging your drivetrain converted to heat energy.


Note I didn't write this but I don't remember where I got it!

 

Chocalot, I think mike was talking to me in his post. Mike, I understand that just fine, comparing your car to his is comparing hand grenades to suitcase nukes. You may have a stock driveline in terms of gearbox, axles, and driveshaft, but your clutch is heavily upgraded and your engine makes five times the stock output. You can break the tires loose at will with that and lessen the stress on the joints. A stock engine is gonna have a hard time overcoming the grip of all four tires and can't transfer that torque off the joints and/or clutch and into wheelspin, which is gonna increase the stress on the driveline. I stand by what I said - the A4 isn't made to leave the line with that kind of force. It can be made to do so, but a stock vehicle is not at that point.

 

I disagree. The car isn't that powerful stock, which means... it's not dumping so much power into breaking crap as a powerful car.

You know what kills driveline components, especially in a 2WD (RWD particularly)? Wheel hop.

 

I can see your point on that. Obviously when the clutch goes to full engagement, Mike's car will put a helluva lot more punch through the components than the OP's car. My thought on it is that once Mike breaks traction, the strain on the driveline is alleviated because the tires have lost grip and there's a lot less force (friction) acting against the driveline. The stock car won't blaze the tires like that and will have comparatively more force against the driveline, acting against less force from the engine, which would put the load on the driveline.

 

I have been drag racing my A4 for almost 10 years(oct 2000) and when I started drag racing it the car only had a Chip. Over those years I have also raced other A4's for other people which is why you will even find my name all over the B6 A4 1.8t 1/4 mile list.

I still hold the quickest A4 1.8t K03 time to this day at 14.29 @ 97 mph and did that way back in 2001.


I run Hoosier Drag Radials that are basically slicks with 2 grooves, mine are the R&D tires that Hoosier made. Chris at USP now runs those same tires on his VR6 S4 that runs in the 9's so believe me I am not breaking the hoosiers loose. Before that I ran BFG drag radials for years and was still able to pull 1.55 60 ft times. The picture in my sig is with the BFG on the car and most of my vids shot from outside the car are with the BFG's.

This is my set of Hoosiers.


Yes the stock clutch is the weak link when it comes to launching our quattro cars, but still doesn't mean it shouldn't be used for drag racing. Just means he a better clutch to handle doing that.


Here are some vids of me launching a few A4's at the drag strip.

B6 A4 1.8t with GT2871r

B6 A4 1.8t Avant 5 speed with GTRS Elim and BFG drag radials

My A4 when I first got into the 10's.

My A4 racing in a T4 class against a bunch of turbo charged civics running slicks and beating all of them 1 since that car ran 150+ mph traps.

A4 1.8t record 10.55 run at a IDRC event

 

Hey guys,

Sorry to start an argument, I should not have used the word "launch" as in a Drag Racing term, it was more of an "Aggressive Street/Stoplight Start"

My Friend drives a Subaru, so he is not new to the concept of launching an AWD vehicle. He revved the car to between 4k-4500rpm and let the clutch out (not a dump) but Once the clutch was fully engaged, he put the throttle down and the car stayed at about 3000rpm but didn't launch it just did sort of a normal easy start and he though the clutch was just slipping the whole time.