Looking for opinions before reinstalling clutch...

[saucer]

I'm humbly seeking some opinions before throwing in a new-to-me clutch kit I purchased from a member on here. It's a Sachs SRE performance clutch sold from Darkside Developments.

(History: Car was foolishly used to tow some heavy equipment early in her life, driven just fine for 60k, clutch began slipping about 6 months ago and has progressively gotten worse. No vibration in the stick, no trouble engaging gears, she just spikes in RPM on hills and quick acceleration.)

So after finally getting my old clutch out, I was surprised to see how much organic material was left on the disk. However, I am NOT a gearhead and have no precedent here. From the way the car has been driving the past few months, I was expecting the disk to be completely shot; like, no material left at all. But after comparing the thickness of the used vs. the new, I'm guessing my slipping was caused simply by the lack of thickness in the disk? Maybe this is a design precaution to keep the rivets from eating into the flywheel and pressure plate? (I really thought I'd worn it down metal-to-metal, haha.)

So after seeing that things are in better shape than expected, I'm just wanting to make sure a worn-out clutch WAS the problem before I go throwing everything back together. I do see that my flywheel has some hot-spots as well, but I'd really like to keep in, as I'm flat broke. (I bought some steel wool and brake cleaner to shine it up... if that will help at all.)

Here are some pics:

Current state of DMF

Old pressure plate and clutch disk

Old clutch disk

New disk on top of old disk

New disk beside old disk

Is this simply the case of a clutch disk being worn thin? Am I good to reinstall?

Thanks for any advice!

 

[sloinker]

Doesn't take too much wear for the clutch to start slipping. They are thin to start with. Make sure that the slave is releasing all the way, also make sure you don't have a rear seal or back of engine oil leak that can make its way to the clutch surface. I changed one clutch on an '01 Passat 1.8L, clutch was slipping @75k miles. Upon inspection it had become contaminated with oil that was leaking out of the cam tensioner assembly. I fixed the leak and changed the clutch and @180k miles gave the car to my brother, clutch still fine.

 

[Tinman265]

Is it the 2010 Golf? How many miles on the car (I know 60k miles is stated but it that the total or when the slippage started)?

I say replace the flywheel. They are a weak link already...... Think you'll be pulling the trans to change the DMF flywheel due to the use early on....

 

[saucer]

I did notice a little oil/soot blown around the bottom of the car and in the skid plate but the interior of transmission/bell housing are bone dry. I'm hoping it's just normal blow-off.

Car has about 65k now... looking back, I actually got my first slips about nine months ago, but over the past two, it made it all the way down into second gear. I've been driving as easily as possible the whole time... it has sucked haha.

I read up on all the symptoms of bad synchros, bad DMFs, and failing hydraulics and was 99% sure it was the clutch disk until looking at it. But yeah, considering the pressure plate only moves a few mms, I guess it wouldn't take much for it to have trouble keeping things engaged.

I haven't checked the throwout bearing yet, but I did order a new one to install no matter what.