Reggie

Good luck David.
We had to rebuild the diff on the A4 that I gave to my daughter in Seattle - and that car was never abused and no posting in 14 years on them being a issue. Sometimes it just happens.

TjcM3

Too many people having these clutch issues - there's some kind of design or quality issue here....

mcleanda

Agree, would love to know how many RS4 owners have had issues with the transmission

s4master1

see the adjustment in the picture, is at the limit.
this clutch only had 300 miles, the shop who installed didn't check/replace the flywheel, notice how the flywheel is off center.
car was shifting erratic specially when hot and driven hard, returning to normal when driven slower until eventually develop a high vibration.

amiodarone

Thanks to all who have posted. I hope there is not some newly discovered flaw with the clutch in all of our cars, in the vane of DRC and the dreaded carbon buildup. All I can say for sure is that something is not right with my clutch at present. I am having the clutch hydraulic system flushed and the slave cylinder checked today. Will post-again when I have the car back and know more.

In the meantime, here is a recap of what happens with my car.

1. Normal commuting: no issues with clutch
2. Spirited drive (under 7K rpm): shifts fine, no issues
3. Hard driving (shifts at redline, 1-2, then 2-3), then repeating, as if you were driving on twisty and fun road: clutch suddenly becomes heavy, engages immediately off the floor, and develops 4 inches of free play in travel where nothing happens. Resolves completely in next few shifts and seems back to normal. No clutch slipping, no burning smells.

Will post again later this week. The discussion at Audizine referenced above seems to be for the same issue.

jd

TjcM3

I find the image of the clutch assembly (two posts prior) very intriguing. I've never before seen a pressure plate with the 4-leaf clover looking component with the 4 fingers that nest between the actuation fingers.
Interesting because it appears to be a helper spring of some sort to increase the return force of the pressure plate... guess Audi felt the return spring force needed supplementing.

mcleanda

Issue resolved with my clutch.

Finally got the car back on 6/15 and the issue was the the connection hose between the master and slave cylinders collapses when under vacuum, this apparently was a known issue with the early 2007s RS4s. so the hose needed to be replaced. Transmission is still intact and did not have to be dismantled.

The story however behind how this was figured out is a long one and worth retelling as it reinforces a concern I have about Audi Service. While there is no doubt in my mind that these cars are technologically the best, I have had less than satisfactory experience from the Audi dealerships in my area (NJ) to deal with service issues on my cars.
My car was towed in on May 25 and did not hear back from the dealer till June 1 that they were ordering a master cylinder, then not till June 7th to tell me that this did not resolve the issue. It was now 2 weeks at the dealer and issue unresolved and they want to take down the gear box to further investigate and if it is the clutch or wear and tear item I would be responsible for the cost of the labor (12+ hours) and the parts. They needed my permission to do this and I refused letting them know that I would get back to them. Fortunately I had a loaner so was in no rush to get my car back until I did some research. I felt is was very unlikely that my clutch had failed as my car has only 28K miles and I am the only driver and original owner and learnt to drive a stick at age 17 and the majority of my cars have been manual transmissions so I am very aware of how to treat a clutch.

I found a link to a similar discussion ongoing at www.audizine.com : http://www.audizine.com/forum/showth...ticking-at-40K
and there was a post that referred to this issue in the early 2007 RS4s

"“Right, turns out the problem is a Vacuum Pipe that is matalicised rubber, or rubberised metal, that forms part of the clutch assistance. The pipe isn't strong enough in construction to withstand the vacuum that forms and it collapses temporarily and that causes the clutch not to return quickly.

I guess the pipe weakens slightly, does it once and that weakens it more so it does it easier next time...”
1. “There is a known problem on early delivery RS4s with the clutch vacuum assist line. This needs to be replaced. Basically the line is too week and colapses, pinching off the vacuum. One way to see if you have the problem safely is to place your transmission in neutral and depress the clutch petal twice rapidly in succession. If you have the problem, on the second press, the clutch petal will stiffen up and be almost impossible to press to the floor. But, any kind of change in clutch operation on the 2nd press is a problem. If you have this, then you should take it to the dealer and tell them that you have the clutch vaccum hose problem and that the hose needs to be replaced with the new part.

This problem was fixed in manufacturing in the August time frame last year. I took delivery of my RS4 in July of 2006 and it had the problem. After having the hose replaced, the clutch has been flawless. "

I emailed the dealer service manager this info and insisted that they call the Audi Field Manager to review the issue with my car before taking out the transmission. He emailed me back and told me that he did not think the issue of the collapsing hose was relevant to my car. I however insisted that they not take the transmission out until the Audi Field Manager (AFM) was on site to review what they were going to do.
I then got a call June 13th to tell me that the Field Manager was on site and he felt that the hose maybe the problem and the AFM did some research and could not find any evidence that the faulty hose was replaced before shipping as I believe the majority of cars coming to the US did before they shipped.
The hose was replaced the next day and Problem Resolved, they kept the car overnite and drove it for 80 miles to test and I picked up the car on 6/15, I put 150 miles on the car yesterday and drove in some heavy traffic coming home so was stop and go for about 45 minutes and the clutch works beautifully.
Lesson learned for anything that is less than straightforward ask for a 2nd opinion, Audi Customer Relations is very good as they are your advocates and I really think the dealers pay attention when you get them involved.
Our cars are very special and they are also a very limited production so the experience any 1 dealership has in fixing them will be limited as I said to the Audi Customer Relations person if I had a choice I would ship the car back to Germany back to the factory to have them fix it as it concerns me that there are probably very few individuals with significant experience fixing an RS4

I owe a great deal of thanks to i_eat_staples from Wilsonville OR for putting up that post on the Audizine forum

That is my story

TjcM3

McLeanda - thanks for posting the update on your car. I need to have a look under the hood and near the slave cylinder this weekend to make sense of this vacuum line.
From the pictures I've seen, there's only one line that runs to the slave cylinder, what I would call a pressure line.
In the post by i_eat_staples the dealer states to him "there is no vacuum lines in the clutch assembly but offered to replace the line (hydraulic?) in the clutch assembly for like $80 bucks".
I can't figure where, or why, there would be a vacuum line in the system. Perhaps it is the pressure line that collapses and restricts flow, slowing the clutch action. It just seems odd since the line would see significant pressure and you would assume it wouldn't collapse in normal use. Perhaps this line can collapse due to some other combination of forces.. routing (tight bends), exposure to high heat? This is an interesting mystery to me - I'll try to have a look and maybe post some pictures.

mcleanda

TjcM3

Not sure if it is a vacuum line or pressure line but reading the comments the tech entered into the work order and what was said to me by the service managed the line between the master and slave collapsed and did not allow for the free movement of the hydraulic fluid.
I can verify the part number that was replaced and post it if this would be helpful

David

TjcM3

Yes, the line between the master and slave cylinders is the one I would call a pressure line and the only one I believe exists for the clutch. The fix makes more sense to me now. If you could post the PN that would be great.
I'm still curious to have a look at this line to try and figure out why/how they collapse.
Thanks David - very helpful.