afeinstein
Member
On my 2011 JSW 6MT with 76k (salvage repair by me) the clutch has been getting a little rough of late. Frequent roughness in engaging 1st - easy start but gets rough as the clutch approaches full engagement. Then suddenly on our first freezing day the pedal is to the floor. CPO ran out.
No signs of hydraulic fluid leaks around master cylinder so forced to conclude that the slave cylinder in the tranny is bad. Shop recommends complete clutch and flywheel replacement (new slave is part of the clutch kit) and to move to a SMF (single mass flywheel). My car is not modded and I drive it real mellow so we went with the mildest good quality kit so we went for the Valeo one. The shop which is hold is very good in Cleveland, OH did the job at $1050 for parts and about 8 hours of labor. Seems fair. They also did a free alignment while they were in it. Inspection revealed that the seal in the slave had gone bad and this then leaked and messed with the clutch plate and then finally failed completely. It seemed like the flywheel also was pretty burnt/ discolored and the rubber in the middle of the 2 masses seemed especially loose and you could easily rotate the 2 masses with barely any pressure. Not a tight sandwich.
I was real worried about the noise factor and the possible vibrations from the SMF in the TDI and drive ability. Here is what I found:
1) It is a bit noisy at stop/ idle but the added new noises seem to synchronize with the diesel sounds and don't really bother, but there is a new "hum" to the diesel symphony. When accelerating, there is a new noise in there too that was not there with the DMF but again it does not bother or sound weird. It almost adds like an "electric motor" sound added to the diesel engine noise.
2) When in neutral, clutch in or out, there is no new vibrations or clatter that I can detect. I have heard that these SMF kits have been optimized over the years to damper more.
3) Clutch pedal feel and engagement are exactly like OEM. Same pressure and same bite. Very chilled.
4) Only thing that was a negative was that when the revs are low and you put it into 2nd and there is what seems like a lot of load on the clutch at low speed, there is more vibration in the drive train than before. Before you had some too but now its a little more.
5) Lastly you can feel the engine rev "more freely and easily" on acceleration which makes the car seem (or for real?) faster. Definitely you can feel the lighter flywheel setup having less heaviness on the crank and drivetrain.
Overall, it was a big shock that the clutch went out all of a sudden and who has an extra $2k to spend but I am least happy that this new clutch did work out well. I would love to know how the slave failed. My CPO ran out 2 weeks before this happened so sure seems like bad luck. But I wonder if the CPO would have covered the slave but not the flywheel?
No signs of hydraulic fluid leaks around master cylinder so forced to conclude that the slave cylinder in the tranny is bad. Shop recommends complete clutch and flywheel replacement (new slave is part of the clutch kit) and to move to a SMF (single mass flywheel). My car is not modded and I drive it real mellow so we went with the mildest good quality kit so we went for the Valeo one. The shop which is hold is very good in Cleveland, OH did the job at $1050 for parts and about 8 hours of labor. Seems fair. They also did a free alignment while they were in it. Inspection revealed that the seal in the slave had gone bad and this then leaked and messed with the clutch plate and then finally failed completely. It seemed like the flywheel also was pretty burnt/ discolored and the rubber in the middle of the 2 masses seemed especially loose and you could easily rotate the 2 masses with barely any pressure. Not a tight sandwich.
I was real worried about the noise factor and the possible vibrations from the SMF in the TDI and drive ability. Here is what I found:
1) It is a bit noisy at stop/ idle but the added new noises seem to synchronize with the diesel sounds and don't really bother, but there is a new "hum" to the diesel symphony. When accelerating, there is a new noise in there too that was not there with the DMF but again it does not bother or sound weird. It almost adds like an "electric motor" sound added to the diesel engine noise.
2) When in neutral, clutch in or out, there is no new vibrations or clatter that I can detect. I have heard that these SMF kits have been optimized over the years to damper more.
3) Clutch pedal feel and engagement are exactly like OEM. Same pressure and same bite. Very chilled.
4) Only thing that was a negative was that when the revs are low and you put it into 2nd and there is what seems like a lot of load on the clutch at low speed, there is more vibration in the drive train than before. Before you had some too but now its a little more.
5) Lastly you can feel the engine rev "more freely and easily" on acceleration which makes the car seem (or for real?) faster. Definitely you can feel the lighter flywheel setup having less heaviness on the crank and drivetrain.
Overall, it was a big shock that the clutch went out all of a sudden and who has an extra $2k to spend but I am least happy that this new clutch did work out well. I would love to know how the slave failed. My CPO ran out 2 weeks before this happened so sure seems like bad luck. But I wonder if the CPO would have covered the slave but not the flywheel?
