tonyakavw

We just bought a 2001 225 HP quattro TT (with 49,000 miles) a couple weeks ago and last Thursday my wife was driving on the freeway when the clutch pedal decied to go to the floor and stay there. This left her stranded in the middle lane of one of the busiest freeways in LA (405). Luckily a CHP officer came and pushed the car by hand over to the side of the road where she had it towed to the local dealership. They took the car for a test drive the next day and could find nothing wrong with it. They gave us the car back and then it happened again this Saturday. It seems to be caused by driving in stop and go traffic (i.e. using the clutch a lot) so seems to be heat related.

I did some searching on this forum and found that the clutch hydraulic system seems to be a somewhat common point of failure. Then I discover that the master cylinder (and slave too I think) are made from plastic! Anyway, to make a long story short I'm going to remove and replace the master cylinder tonight after work. I bought a vacuum style power bleeder and have all the service manual instructions on how to do the replacement. Are there any things I should keep in mind for this job?

Also, has anyone attempted to replace the OEM master cylinder with something else, maybe something made from metal? I have read about numerous people here who have had the master cylinder replaced 2-3 times, seems like a better replacement part would be desireable.

-Tony


2001 Audi TT 225HP/6spd/quattro
1970 Porsche 914 1.7
1974 Porsche 914/Subaru 2.5 conversion

CWK_Marin

The slave cylinder is inside the transmission. When mine went out on my 2002 TT 225 Coupe, the dealer had the car for three days and the transmission was taken out and taken apart. After repair there was an annoying vibration, so the car went back in to the dealer for repair. It was a misaligned motor mount. I always thought that must have happened when they had the transmission out of the car.

In any event, when the clutch sticks to the floor it may be the slave cylinder rather than the master cylinder to look for as the initial culprit.

Also, it is possible to pull the clutch up off the floor when it sticks down. Mine would come back up if pulled up with my toe, or by hand. The car was driveable to the dealer when the slave cylinder went bad.

tonyakavw

For us, pulling up the pedal didn't work. It would return to the floor with no pressure. After a couple hours of cooling off, it works fine again. I'm hoping that its the master cylinder, but I realize that the slave could well be the culprit. At least I will be able to rule out the master cylinder by replacing it. The slave as far as I can tell is a huge amount of work to replace.

-Tony

2001 Audi TT 225HP/6spd/quattro
1970 Porsche 914 1.7
1974 Porsche 914/Subaru 2.5 conversion


-Tony