[200q20v] Argh...clutch issues

[Linus Toy]

At 04:01 AM 10/26/2001 -0400, Zoot531 at aol.com wrote:
>Hello Again,
>
>      I am still anticipating taking the reigns of the 91 200TQ i just 
> recently bought.  Had a slight problem though.  The very courteous owner 
> from whom i bought the car was taking it to get smogged when the Slave 
> cylinder on the clutch decided to go South.  So this was repaired by the 
> owner, but while it was being changd out the mechanic said that audi's 
> with this kind of milage (89K miles...very easy miles) often had to have 
> the clutch replaced.  Is this generally true? And if so, how much does a 
> new clutch usually run?  Also, what would be involved if i were inclined 
> to do this myself at home?
>                           Thank you for your time,
>                              Adam Chinchiolo

For your future repair work, find a different mechanic--this one either 
doesn't know Audis or has other challenges.  Unless the car was driven by 
someone with two left feet, 89k miles is nothing for an Audi clutch.  Most 
on this list will tell you they have far in excess of 100k miles on an 
original clutch--I unfortunately, cannot--like your car, mine has 89k miles 
on it right now :) and my last Audi I traded after 7 years at 80k 
miles--original clutch.

Re:  the clutch slave cylinder:  this does not surprise me--while most of 
us are quite good at flushing brake fluid annually (or more for those of us 
tracking the cars) the clutch slave is usually ignored--kind of a tough one 
to get to, requiring the car on either a lift or jack stands (where as I've 
bled the brakes with the car on all four wheels).

--Linus
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*  Linus Toy                      Insanity is doing the same thing   *
*  Mercer Island, WA              you've always done and expecting   *
*  linust at mindspring.com          different results                  *
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