paulpas

Before I go on, I have contacted ECS and they told me to take it to my shop first. I haven't had the time yet, so now I'm just trying to learn all that I can until I have the time to make it back. This is my second car so I am not stressing time management.

I have a 1999 1.8T A4 Avant that just got a new clutch. I had a shop perform the work and it drives great. One thing is different from my OE clutch is that there is some air-like grinding noise when I accelerate with load, loudest at 2200-4500rpm, and then it gets quieter. From the interior the noise is loudest and I can hear something that sounds like a pilot bearing when the clutch is out at idle. With the clutch pedal in, the sound goes away. I feel no vibration.

I opened the hood today and tried to replicate the noise at idle while my ears were close to the transmission/engine, I couldn't hear a difference with the clutch pedal in our out. This baffles me since I thought I'd be hearing it much louder in the engine bay than in the cars interior. It's either the pilot bearing or something that got reconnected incorrectly during the install process.

Here's the best I could get in a video, some of the road noise is actually the noise that I'm talking about. Listen with headphones and try to see if you can tell what it is:
I first revved with the clutch in, then out, then drove from 1st to 2nd to 4th, then tried lugging it in 4th around 2k RPM because that made the noise the loudest.

It also almost sounds like some air leak, but it grinds, it's really weird.

I took some pictures and all that I could find is this tube on top of the transmission leaking and looking a bit damaged, what is it for? It seems to go from the engine a connection point in the transmission, routed above the bell housing.

Thanks.

paulpas

Took it to the shop and determined it's just new harmonics of the whole package. It wasn't anything I've heard before. It's all good.