So im the second owner. Original owner hears a weird ticking/clicking noise, takes it to the dealer, they replace the release bearing guide tube and the flywheel, problem solved. 55k the owner notices the clutch slipping. Dealer replaces, clutch w/kit,flywheel. 80K i buy the car. 110k clutch is slipping. I pull the trans, flywheel doesnt look too hateful, disk has 50% left, pressure plate not too bad. Reason it was slipping was because input shaft seal on trans was leaking on clutch disk. So i replace clutch kit, flywheel, pilot bearing, release bearing guide tube/ input shaft seal, rear main seal. Doesnt bother me that i had to replace it cause i didnt pay labor just did it myself, and it gave me a reason to throw a short shift kit in. Just scratching my head as to why the hell this cars on its 3rd clutch and its 4th flywheel. Any input would be superb. Car feels great now by the way. Took me 7 hours on and off the lift.

 

7 hours, it took me 15 but I had no lift, I was on my back.

 

what clutch did you put in?

 

Guy before you couldn't drive a stick? Just a thought...

 

ya 7 hours on a lift, makes a world a difference, plus im a mechanic and do audi clutches all the time, makes it a bit easier. Its a full Luk stock set up. But even at that it should last over 150K. I will say the previous owner was a DC native so the stop and go contributed. My thought was that Input shaft seal/Release bearing guide tube (same thing) has been bad from the get go, so with some time and hard pulls the clutch disk just became saturated. Just wanted to know if anyone else had the same situation or something similar.

 

I had a 1969 roadrunner with a similar problem. Every 3 months, it was either a clutch plate, pressure plate, or throwout bearing. Tried stock, racing, heavy-duty, and truck clutches to no avail. I replaced bolts with brand new ones to rule out metal fatigue and torque stretching of older bolts. I spent a fortune (seemingly) looking for the reason, and these are the best ideas I could come up with.
If diagnoses is the same, the first idea is that you're likely looking at a warped connection between the housing and the flywheel. Putting too much pressure on one side or the other of the assembly itself when it is all bolted up right.
If that connection all matches up and there isn't any twisting torque there, then something is just a wee bit warped or out of line farther down the tranny (like the drive shaft).
Bottom line is something is putting an off-kilter sideways type torque on your parts, which is in turn causing early failure.
Could even be that the sub-frame is bent from an earlier accident and not quite as straight as the person who pulled it out wants you to believe. I wish you better luck finding the problem that I had. This is what I finally believe occured with my RR. The guy before me hadn't gotten around to a full straightening of the frame (he had a 'good enough' attitude) when he sold it to me still painted primer grey.
You may be able to hook up some sort of laser that will sight down the drive shaft perpendicular to the axle and verify which part where is out of line, but it isn't going to be easy to find.

 

If someone replaced that seal (or the rear main seal) in the past and scratched the face of it while doing the job, there's a chance they created a permanent leak that reappears every so often.