Clutch on it's death bed?

My 2003 Jetta is currently at 242,000 miles and recently I will sometimes get a good dose of vibration when engaging the clutch in first gear. Not noisy and doesn't do it all the time. No clutch slippage in any gear and I accelerate briskly all the time.

My engine does have the original injectors/nozzles and seems to run a lot less smooth but only smokes at start up and just had an 800 mile tank. I do seem to have quite a bit more vibration at idle and during acceleration. I have a new set of 520 Sprint nozzles sitting on the shelf with the hope of getting down to jasontdi in Madison to get them sent out to dbw for calibration soon which will cost me a bunch more money.

I'm hoping to baby the clutch awhile longer but if it's going to grenade on me I might have to put off doing the injectors in favor of the clutch. I know some of the folks here do their own clutches but this is a bit beyond my comfort level. $1000 for clutch/install sound about right? Could bad engine mounts account for the vibration? Thanks for any comments.

My 1998 NB TDI does the same thing since it was new and I have 301K miles on it now. It seems to happen when the clutch is real hot. Like after a summers day 85 degrees F and driven 100 miles or more. Hope that helps.

$1000 for clutch parts and labor is not too bad. The question on your car though could be the DualMassFlywheel maybe unhappy and if it goes you will be unhappy. You are very close to Jason and he can help you out now!

Thanks, my real concern is that the flywheel could self destruct or something worse could happen by waiting. Until now the clutch has been great considering that it is supposed to be a weak component.

Well I spoke to jasontdi this afternoon, described the symptoms, and he says the dmf is failing. So a new clutch will be ordered (Valeo G60 from idparts.com) tonight. So much for paying off the credit cards. Thanks for all of the comments guys.