Where to start.... Clutch slave?

Hi all,

I'm no mechanic by any means... I'll throw that out there before I rant..

So I just bought my 14 TDI Jetta 5 speed in September '19. I bought it with 15k miles on it and it currently has 33xxx... Around December-ish, my clutch began acting weird. I was taking a long drive ~250 miles and noticed when I engaged my clutch it didn't come all the way back up.. It happened for a couple days and I didn't think anything of it (I'm in NNY and figured it was the cold causing it to stick). It happened randomly here and there and I shook it off. Yesterday I went to start my car and my clutch went right to the floor.

Minus the beginning pressure on the top of the clutch, it goes straight to the floor. I did some reading on here and everyone's first step was to bleed the "clutch" line under the airbox. I bled that with a power bleeder.. Note: There wasn't a ton of brake fluid in there - more toward the min. I refilled then power bled. Still nothing happening after the bleed. I'm thinking my next step is replacing the Slave (which I can't seem to find out exactly where it's located)?
-Also, I check under to see if any fluid was leaking; none that I can see anywhere

*Maybe unrelated but when started, my glow plug light is flashing

I haven't beat this car hardly at all minus the one or two burnouts I did when I first got it. Always been easy on the clutch, just don't know why this would start happening with only 30k on it. I've only owned manual vehicles and have only had 1 other clutch problem (clutch itself replacement) after 150k on that vehicle.

As always, you guys are awesome and any helpful info would be appreciated!!

John

Is the car still under warranty? I’d find out first , If yes , I’d start there first because if you do anything and it’s under warranty and it’s expensive......they will deny it.

Hi csstevej thanks for the quick reply,

I purchased a $2,000 5 year "Total Exclusionary Coverage" plan that states:

Parts and services NOT covered:
.... Manual clutch, pressure plate, throw out bearings, clutch master or slave cylinder, manual transmission clutch disc and lining....

With my luck, I'm assuming my issue is one of the following under their "NOT covered" parts/services

Well,it was worth a shot

If I remember correctly, the slave is inside the bell housing. So if it is the slave, you might as well plan on doing a clutch while your in there.

The diagram I just looked at show it being like the 6 mt where the slave is actually held in with 3 bolts and the bleed valve run to an opening on the top of the bell housing.


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Did you follow the bleed instructions for that type of slave cylinder?

I think you need 2bar (30psi), and then pump the clutch pedal 10x, bleed fluid, repeat a couple times (?). Something like that.

Edit: Here we go...
Apply 2 bar (29 psi) pressure to the system.
– Open the breathe valve approximately 1/4 turn.
– Press the clutch pedal 15 to 20 times rapidly by hand from stop to stop.
– Close the breather valve and turn the brake charger/bleeder unit off.
– After completing the bleeding procedure, and the pressure has dropped from 2 bar (29 psi), press the clutch pedal an additional 10 times by foot.

I'm my experiance, power blenders dont do a good job of freeing up air bubbles from most systems. Best way to do this is the tried and true method of filling, pushing the pedal down all the way and crack open the line with a drain tube that goes into a can of any sorts with some fluid at the bottom. Shut the bleeder and pull up on the pedal. Prince and repeat until you build pressure. Then once pressure is ok on the pedal, repeat but pump the pedal a few times first.
I've had too many applications where the power bleeder didnt do a good job and the only way was to do it manually. Especially on bikes or systems that have a valve assembly. I would try manual method before going to the next step.

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=505931
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=505952&highlight=clutch+slave+cylinder

I've not done too many of the 'donut' throwout bearings, but they usually are a problem to start with, bleeding out any air from the donut is a problem. Once that is done, I would think the master cylinder issues would be obvious. Anything else is, unfortunately, pulling the trans to see what's gone wrong.

I think the goal for any automobile manufacturer is 'bean-counters' are running the show. The donut is fewer parts, made cheaper. In my opinion, it's not better... just cheaper...That is, until it comes time to fix it.

Was this car not part of the buy-back? Excluding your add in insurance warranty, did VW not warranty the car?
But you're on the right track, sure sounds like hydraulics.

Mongler98 said:

I'm my experiance, power blenders dont do a good job of freeing up air bubbles from most systems. Best way to do this is the tried and true method of filling, pushing the pedal down all the way and crack open the line with a drain tube that goes into a can of any sorts with some fluid at the bottom. Shut the bleeder and pull up on the pedal. Prince and repeat until you build pressure. Then once pressure is ok on the pedal, repeat but pump the pedal a few times first.
I've had too many applications where the power bleeder didnt do a good job and the only way was to do it manually. Especially on bikes or systems that have a valve assembly. I would try manual method before going to the next step.

Click to expand...

So I tried this after seeing this and still nothing, not getting any pressure coming back to the pedal. Going to have to take it to a shop.. but just really surprising to me that this thing is having issues 30k in (assuming it's something with the slave/master or clutch itself).

BobnOH said:

Was this car not part of the buy-back? Excluding your add in insurance warranty, did VW not warranty the car?
But you're on the right track, sure sounds like hydraulics.

Click to expand...

Not that I know of? Think it's probably worth calling VW and seeing though? Not sure how to go about that

Failed seals in the clutch master cylinder (?). Every time you push the pedal, air gets drawn in...
The pedal that falls to the floor was the symptom when the master cylinder went south on my Mk4 (albeit at 300K km).