a4avant99

EDITED: Do I need to take the flywheel out in order to replace the throw out bearing?

I am getting quotes for a clutch job. A shop says "bleeding the hydraulic throwout bearing", which is confusing me. Does our throwout bearing needs bleeding?

mtroxel

No. Only thing hydraulic is the slave cylinder that pushes the fork against the TOB. TOB is number 11 here. Nothing hydraulic about it.

AudiMick

Jettas,Audi TTs and Golfs often have internal integrated slave cylinder/ throw out bearings. Some of the estimating for labor systems assume that on the A4.

You probably have a dual mass flywheel, make sure they are quoting to potentially replace. It's rare you can resurface at high miles, so assume they won't and when they discover that fact expect a potential big $$$ upsell.

mtroxel

Wish I knew that that looks like.

AudiMick

Fairly common nowadays.My ford ranger pickup has one .This is the Audi TT version.

mtroxel

So there's no fork any more. Hydraulic pressure actuates the TOB right at that point. Seems like I have to pull the tranny if my clutch "slave" is bad now. What's the advantage for that trade off?

a4avant99

Do I need to take the flywheel out in order to replace the throw out bearing?

AudiMick

When you replace a clutch, you typically replace, center plate, pressure plate and throw-out bearing.

You do not need to remove the flywheel to replace the throw-out bearing, however most shops suggest that you have the flywheel machined otherwise your new clutch won't last very long. They do have to remove the flywheel to machine it. Often they won't warranty the work if you don't do this.

On an A4 the flywheel is Dual Mass, these typically can't be machined at all if they have been used for a lot of miles.

Your shop should know this, but they often don't so when they discover this expect another $400-800 for a new flywheel.

There are single mass conversion kits, however some people don't like the "rattle" they generate.