A3 clutch slipping questions, severity, suggestions

Hey guys,

My MK3 with PP520's, RC2, EGR delete and an overboosting turbo might be experiencing a slipping clutch. Just hoping you could all give me some advice about it. For starters, I discovered the clutch was changed by a local trustworthy dealership, (AFAIK, are any of them really...) at 217,000 km in July 2003. I bought the car with 260,000 km on it and it's now just over 320,000 km. EGR has been deleted for 27k, RC2 has been on for about 10k, PP520's for 7K, IQ currently at 3.4. I recently had a split intake hose which I just recently fixed, car had reduced power and increased smoke for probably 500-1000 km. I was pretty sensitive to the smoke and didn't let my right foot go down too far, but my girlfriend took the car for a day and smoked a lot of people unknowingly . Could this have caused damage?

I replaced the split intake hose but had a fair bit of oil spray under the hood for the time it was leaking (see pics here). I know people have said that any oil on the surface of a clutch disk pretty much means you'll be replacing it, but I don't see any possibility that oil or anything else got in there. Bell housing plug was in and that oil was nowhere in the vicinity anyways. I drove the car after replacing the split hose on Saturday and power was back. Got on it in 3rd gear around 3000 rpm and clutch started slipping! Either that or I spun the tires and didn't notice it, but I don't see that being likely. Yesterday I drove it pretty carefully just around town and didn't feel any slippage.

So, given that the clutch is (only) 100,000 km old, does this sound like normal behaviour given my relatively recent power mods? I know the MK3 clutches are supposed to be better than the MK4 clutches, is this only because of the lack of DMF? If I just be sure to not let it slip, should I be okay for a while? I'd be open to any suggestions as to further tests to determine how bad it really is, but I've taken it easy since it first slipped. Saturday was the first time I ever experienced it slip. I guess it will eventually need replacing, but I really want like a DC stage 3 or 4 down the line so was hoping I could save for a bit and maybe put this off with some carefulness. In the meantime, I could put the stock chips back in too.

Thanks in advance for any advice y'all can give me.

Assuming the clutch is stock if done at the dealer. If so, that clutch is barely adequate for your tune/mods. I recommend a Sachs Power Clutch unless you're looking to go for more power. I'm considering Southbend clutches. But I only slip in the winter.

Ehhh,keep driving it,worry less about clutch ..... I just turned over 227k-I've had the RC2/PP520 combo for the past 3 yrs/60k.-clutch started to slip shortly after-first slipped in 5th,then 4th,now a little in 3rd....are you sure your tires didn't spin on the white stripe that they put down at stoplights for the crosswalks? A little rain, and those are slicker than snot.....too bad the body on my car is rusted-otherwise I would invest in clutch-and timing belt-and whatever else that would cost several hundred too fix/replace.

Thanks for the replies guys. A few things I have noticed over the past little while. This certainly wasn't caused by tires slipping, I did a couple more tests. In fact, one time I was slipping the clutch in 4th and 5th on the highway and heard a big POP under the hood. Turns out the rubber piece connecting the turbo outlet pipe and the pipe to the intercooler had just popped off. What I'm guessing is that since the drivetrain was under such a huge load (WOT in 4th, 5th), when the clutch slipped, the load was much less and caused a huge surge on the turbo (which is overboosting) which made a ton of boost and popped off that hose. Does that sound right? It's interesting that the hose I just installed as mentioned in the first post was not the culprit.

Either way, I'm not too concerned about it. I just towed a trailer about 1000 km, no slip at all due to right foot mod, and it seems that I'll just have to drive for economy for a while now!