HELP - Weird Clutch

[LRGreger at aol.com]

I recently purchased a 97 A4q, which came with an undisclosed clutch problem. 
 The vehicle has 84,000 miles on it, so I guess that it is to be expected 
that some problems may begin to appear.  However, this one is weird, at least 
to me.  I'm guessing that the hydraulic clutch is reasonably similar to older 
Audi clutches, so I'm hoping that someone may have experienced a similar 
problem.

Very shortly after I got the car, while I was doing some minor "new car 
testing" in the driveway, I depressed the clutch pedal and  the pedal went to 
the floor without disengaging the clutch, AND the pedal did not return when 
released.  I spent a couple of minutes unsuccessfully trying to figure out 
what was going on, then went on with some other chores.  When my brother 
returned a short while later, he looked at the clutch and it was working 
fine.    

A week later I was returning to LA on the interstate (I had been in fifth 
gear and had not used the clutch for the previous couple of hours) when I 
came to a traffic jam, in Las Vegas, and depressed the clutch pedal.  The 
clutch failure occurred again, except this time the problem did not self 
correct.  I managed to get the transmission into neutral and coast off of the 
interstate.  After a couple of hours, I gave up in my hope that the problem 
would self correct, and drove home to LA sans clutch.  Luckily I only had to 
go through the exercise of starting the car with first gear engaged, then 
matching engine speed to car speed so I could shift to third then fifth 
gears, three times to get home.

The clutch pedal was still not working the next day.  I went out of town the 
following week, and when I returned and took another look at the problem, you 
guessed it, the clutch pedal was working fine.  

What in the world is happening?  By the way, I don't do drugs.

TIA
Rob Greger
88 80q, 93 90CS, 97 A4q

  





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