37,000 Miles and a dead clutch

My 2002 Golf has 37k and the clutch has started slipping. I have no power mods what-so-ever, though not for lack of wanting them. I read my warrentee because I am still within the warrentee period (3 months left) and saw that the clutch is not covered as it is a wear item. In the hopes that VW might have extended the 12 month warrentee in the face of failures in the field (yeah, what was I thinking) like they did with the MAF sensors I took it to my local dealer. He confirmed my diagnosis but of course wouldn't cover any replacement cost and quoted me $1750 for the job including replacing the flywheel. I told him no and it is my opinion that this is a design flaw so he suggested calling VW Customer Relations which I did.

Has anyone here had any success in getting VW to pay for part or all of a clutch job due to unreasonably short service life?

I am not very hopeful about getting anything from VW but at least this is feedback that the Engineers made a poor design decision. I am tempted to ask the dealership if they are interested in seeing the parts after I have removed them.

Assuming I get nothing from VW my plan is to buy a G60/VR6 clutch kit and do the job myself. I did a search and found a nice writeup here. Thank you all that have gone before me. I will nurse the Golf along for the next 6 weeks until I have my Miata back on the road and the weather is warmer and do the job then. Even if VW paid the full bill I won't do it unless the G60/VR6 package is going in. Then I can power mod to my hearts content.

After doing a little searching here I have observed that there is a huge variation in clutch life. Some have made it 160k and I saw one die at 32k. Now before I get flamed for abusing my clutch I am not some 16yo kid hot rodding around or a newbie on how to drive a stick. I learned on my folks '67 Beetle. My wife and I have owned 8 sticks ourselves and the ones we have kept any length of time have made it to 100k on the original clutch. When I want to play boy racer I use the Miata. I bought it new and have 103k on the clutch and has spent regular time at New Hampshire International Speeway in driver's schools. I know how to not burn out a clutch.

It has been interesting driving and diagnosing when it will slip. I first noticed it at 36k. On the way home from the in-laws there is a steep hill that is about 1/2mile long. Starting at the bottom in 5th at about 50-60mph you can climb the hill in 5th at full throttle and only be doing 80mph at the top. Right around 2k rpm I noticed a slight increase in rpm without an increase in speed. It was only about 100rpm and since it was winter and the road was not perfect I hoped it was tire slip.

Fast forward to Monday and Tuesday with temperatures at about 5F. I can get the clutch to slip in 5th, 4th, and 3rd when I run at full throttle around 2k rpm. Temperature definately makes a difference. Cold air is more dense which allows more fuel and therefore more torque which makes slipping more likely.

Driving around has also shown that the inter cooler is easily heat soaked. If I drive around with a lead foot so the turbo is boosting a lot and then try the full throttle in 5th gear at 2k I don't get any slipping. If instead I drive at a constant speed or even better roll downhill with my foot off the throttle so that the intercooler cools then when I hit the throttle going up the next hill it will really slip. If you use your power a lot a bigger IC will definitly help.

This experimenting has also highlighted where the torque peak is. Above about 2500 rpm I don't get any slipping yet. The slipping does not start below about 1700 or so. Of course I knew the torque peak is at 1900 but this really shows it.

All of this makes sense with the theory but my marginal clutch really highlights the effects. Damn expensive lesson though.

Any TDIers in the greater Nashua NH area interested in participating in a clutch R&R?

Sorry to hear bout your clutch - unfortunatley, not unexpected. You have the infamously weak Sachs clutch. Earlier models had the Luk clutch which goes forever. Your observations on clutch slippage at colder temps are correct. I you can make it out of winter, you may be able to nurse it all summer - but what fun is that?
Good luck with getty VW to pay for any of the clutch job - I haven't heard of anybody that has. As for replacements, the G60/VR6 and new flywheel is a very popular replacement. You can get them from a couple of our forum vendors. I went with a SPEC clutch, and retained the stock DMF. It's really a matter of preference.
Good luck and keep us posted.

My clutch also died some weeks ago. I have to replace it and I payed 1500Euros in VW dealer without any support because the car is already out of warranty period (warranty was gone two months ago).
I have a Golf IV TDI from 2003. It has only 33000Km.
I already send complain to the Portugal VW Import Company and the answer was " You are driving wrongly".
I think I'm not driving wrongly. This is not my first Golf. I have been driving Golfs since 1991. I was a happy owner of Golfs MkII and MKIII.
For me, this is a very new and strange situation - clutch died.
I'm thinking also to send a complaint directly to the VW Germany.

Regards,

Hmmmm...what might be the association with cold weather due to? I too had that suspicion since I first noticed transient slip on a cold day and not since it has warmed a bit. I hate the thought of the crutch...er, clutch being outlasted by the timing-belt major service interval indicator.

Cold weather effect

Cold air is more dense. The colder the air is the more air the motor can inhale and therefore the more fuel can be injected without smoking. More fuel equals more power.

TDIs have a MAF (mass air flow) sensor that senses the ammount of air the motor is breathing. Since the ECU knows there is more air going in it can add more fuel for more power. At "wide open throttle" the ECU commands the maximum fuel allowed as determined by the ammount of air and the desire for no smoke.

This is also why TDIs have an intercooler. The turbo compresses the intake air to get more into the motor but this increase in pressure also heats the air and makes it less dense. The intercooler cools the air back down without a loss of pressure so as to get the maximum benefit from the turbo. The reason that people replace the factory side mount intercooler with an aftermarket front mount intercooler is that the SMIC too small for continous operation and quickly gets heat soaked. The heat from the turbo compressor heats the IC faster than the outside air can cool it so the IC temperature rises and becomes ineffective. The larger FMICs have more surface area to get rid of the heat and therefore remain effective for much longer or indefinitely.

If you took your car to dyno days in the middle of the Winter and Summer the Winter power and torque numbers would be significantly higher than the Summer numbers because the colder air is more dense and the ECU adjust the fueling accordingly. This is why really cold days can cause a weak clutch to slip.

Maybe more than you ever wanted to know but what the heck.