HELP - Weird Clutch

[steinbru at vnet.ibm.com]

Ref:  Your note of Sat, 23 Jun 2001 12:13:07 -0400 (attached)

The weirdness is caused by buildup of sludge in your clutch MC
probably:  it won't fill from the reservoir but slowly and so the
pedal won't return right away or regularly.

You should flush all hydraulic systems every year or two to get
rid of the moisture that dot3/4 absorbs or it turns to sludge.
You *may* save this one.  You can try a pressure bleed.  (Get
an old cap from the scrap yard and fit a tire stem, write to me
if you want more details.  Don't go over 15-20psi.)

I'd suggest just rebuilding the MC.  I get my parts at napa
(about $12 made by United), and with a cylinder hone on my
drill the process takes about 45min (first time much longer :)
You'll need to cut down an 8mm (I think) hex key to fit behind
the boss where the reservoir feeds into the MC.  The clip and
clevis are a pain, so have a magnetic pickup tool handy.  Layer
some towels to catch any fluid when you unhook (I just drain
the hose first into a bottle).  Really not too bad, drop the
package shelf and have a look.  When you reassemble the MC, use
some thin plastic (cut from scrap packaging) and tape in a
cylinder to *just* fit the new piston and seals.  This will
shoehorn them into the bore without damage against any edges.
HTH --Gary

----------------------------- Note follows ------------------------------
Date: Sat, 23 Jun 2001 12:13:07 -0400
To: LRGreger at aol.com, quattro at audifans.com
From: Kneale Brownson <knotnook at traverse.com>
Subject: Re: HELP - Weird Clutch
Cc: rgreger at dhs.ca.gov, EGOR46 at aol.com

So, Which of the three cars in your list is the subject car?

Did you check fluid level?  The clutch gets hydraulic fluid from the brake
fluid reservoir.  If the level in that reservoir is below the level of the
nipple off which the clutch master cylinder is fed, you may run low on
fluid. It sounds like you have a clutch MC or slave cylinder problem.



At 11:56 AM 06/23/2001 -0400, LRGreger at aol.com wrote:

>I recently
>  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