Stiff clutch pedal = failing clutch?

[Dave D]

"Fingers" on the pressure plate can also wear thin/fail or rarely break, but
much more likely for disk- essentially a brake pad squeezed between flywheel
and pressure plate- to wear thin, usually by slippage over time, IMO.
Bernie can confirm..?

There are torque shock absorbing springs in the disk/hub assembly and I
heard of one almost new A4 or A6 where those springs totally failed because
the non stick driver did a high # of high throttle "dropping the clutch"
events--from old Service Mgr at UVA.  This is unimaginable abuse of a non
drag race car.

DaveD
'91 200Q with 125K on the clock.

----- Original Message -----
From: <wolff at turboquattro.com>
To: "200q20v" <200q20v at audifans.com>
Sent: Sunday, May 04, 2003 7:53 PM
Subject: Re: Stiff clutch pedal = failing clutch?


> Thanks for the explanation. Makes total sense. So it's not really the
> pressure plate that has gone bad, but the thickness of the friction disk
> that makes the difference.
> Wolff
>
> >
> >  Kneale and Wolff,
> >  The reason a clutch feels the way it does involves how close to
"center"
> the
> > diaphragm arms are on the pressure plate and thats a function of clutch
> > thickness.
> >
> >  The center or breakover point of the pressure plate diaphragm is the
> point
> > of max resistance. Its very like a compound bow, when you begin pulling
> the
> > bowstring the effort required increases until you get to the breakover
> point,
> > once past that point effort drastically decreases. A new clutch disc is
> thick
> > enough to keep the pressure plate very close to its breakover point. As
> the
> > clutch wears it gets thinner and requires you to move the pedal further
to
> > reach the breakover point. Eventually the clutch gets so thin that you
> never
> > reach the breakover point of the pressure plate. You feel this effect in
> the
> > pedal as stiff at the top and easy at the bottom when new and easy at
the
> top
> > and stiff at the bottom when old.
> >
> >  Sorry for the poor explanation but its the best I can do without
> drawings.
> > Keith
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