ok, I had been pretty happy with my spec clutch and flywheel. I took my car to a dyno day and the techs had issues with my car. They didn't really know Audis so well. It was a hub dyno and all the S4 they did before mine went smoothly. As soon as they tried to get the wheels moving in 4th gear in my car ABS would fight them. It took them about 4-6 tries before my buddy went over and disconnected the ABS harness. So each time they were slipping the clutch trying to engage it they were fighting my brakes. So anyways, once my buddy got around ABS for them things went fine on the dyno.

After this day I started having issues with my clutch. It seems to hold power fine. But when engaging it from a stop, it slips a little and makes a screetching sounding that sounds similar to tires chirping. I can usually avoid this is I engage it right at 800 RPM, but then the car crawls away from a stop and that sucks. Also there is a little bit of chatter to overcome driving this way. It doesn't slip on a hard shift or under heavy load in any gear. I'm assuming this noise is from slippage, but I could be wrong. Whatever it is, something isn't feeling "solid". It's not so undriveable, it's just annoying and embarrasing. So anyways, when I had it in the shop a few weeks ago for a wheel bearing replacement, the shop drove it and suspected an issue with the pressure plate. Does this make sense? I'm thinking if it is the pressure plate, it really makes no sense to just put a new one in. If I have to pay for the labor and parts, I might as well put in a whole new clutch eh? I guess I won't know until we pull it all apart. But I was just hoping to be able to take care of it as quickly as possible. I'm wondering if it could be a damaged flywheels somehow. Just thinking out loud. I guess the good in all this is I can have the shop get to my cat and put my test pipe in while they have the tranny out of the way.

 

When I drove it, I seem to remember that it was slipping while it was making that noise -- but really, I was so embarassed about doing that to your car that I might have been panicking !

It feels like you're going to have to take it apart to diagnose the problem either way. But then what? Other than fixing this problem, is it worth changing the clutch just to get a sprung disk rather than the unsprung one that you have? (Actually, is it possible that the noise is from vibrations that would otherwise be dampened by a sprung disk??)

Clutches. Bah! I'm happier with my clutch at the moment, but that's just because I have power steering and DV issues now.

 

but I want it taken care of right away so I need to order the parts. It's weird because it doesn't happen every time. It happens 95% of the time, but sometimes it just doesn't happen. I think I'm just going to order the sprung disk this time and have the shop rip into it.

 

Bad spring on PP causing some chatter and loss of grip.

Bad spirng on clutch same symptoms

Over heated PP or flywheel

Could be as simple as a quick resurface on the flywheel, or as bad as a flywheel/PP and clutch

Ganna have to tear it down and see

 

I was just hoping to do it all in one day. I wonder if I can order all the parts and return what I don't use.

 

if the squeal and chatter don't lessen or go away. Do a search here on clutch squeal and you'll see many folks have experienced it .. OEM and after-market. I did on my first SPEC clutch/OEM flywheel. I could make it go 'away' for a while by launching (>3500 RPM) the car a few times. The current LWFW/Spec sprung hub is smoother and quiet thus far.

 

well maybe not a few hard launches in a row...something to do at lunch I guess. I talked to David at SPEC and he admitted the unsprung clutches were a little noisy and the dyno incident probably just worsened it. But it isn't slipping so I guess I'll see how long I can live with it before throwing in the appropriate sprung clutch. I have a feeling sooner than later. Should be easy for the shop to throw in the test pipe if they have the tranny out anyways :>P

 

...especially if you're wanting to upgrade to the sprung disk at the same time anyway.

 

then change it.

If you're going to change it, might as well have a little fun beforehand


After my clutch "incident" I was getting ready to tear it apart, but it started working again. I'm just going to beat on it until it starts slipping really bad, then surface the flywheel, and get a new disk. I'm curious if the pressure plate can be reused?

 

Just curious. Mine is sprung.