Clutchmasters DSG lightweight flywheel hub failure - did my DL501 xmsn malfunction?

[volvofan]

2013 RS5 with plenty of mods but no forced induction. Bought stock in 2020 with 25k miles, now at almost 60k. In 2022, the flexplate cracked, so we dropped the motor, replaced flexplate AND flywheel with heavy duty Clutchmasters versions, plus did ECS Luft Technik intake, Kline SS catless headers & Inconel exhaust w/ high-flow cats, and JHM lightweight crank pulley. ECM and TCM custom tuned accordingly, she makes 520 HP and ~375 Ft-lbs of torque at the crank on 93 octane.

The car is never tracked and never launched, though she does receive "Italian tune-ups" on a fairly regular basis.

All was running trouble-free since then until a couple months ago. I was cruising on the highway (NOT high-RPM, full-throttle conditions) and lost all gears, with the dash lit up like a Christmas tree. Coasted to side of the road and had the car towed. Engine would not rev past idle and VCDS chucked a bunch of codes, including something about shift forks out of position. I was hoping that maybe it was caused by low fluid level (I suspected a leak in my transmission cooler line as I had been noticing some drips on the driveway a few weeks prior) and that I could simply top things up and she'd be fine, but when I got her up on jackstands and dropped the under trays, I was met with chunks of metal coming out of the inspection hole. No bueno!

Fast forward to this past month as I've been dropping the transmission in a buddy's garage (with a proper lift)... finally got it out today and it's pretty clear why it wouldn't go into gear. The hub of the Clutchmasters flywheel is completely shattered. This was literally the FIRST production one they released, so maybe they hadn't worked all the bugs out of it, but this thing is supposedly pretty well built and should withstand much higher HP/TQ... they're running the same or a similar one in Stage 2 S6s and S7s, after all. So, the question is... is the busted flywheel the disease, or merely a symptom? I don't want to go through all the trouble of replacing it only to have this happen again a few weeks or months down the road. Anyone have any experience with this aftermarket part and/or pushing the DL501 to its limits?

Thanks for any insight you can provide.

-Jon

[hahnmgh63]

Why not just go with the S4/S5/S6/S7 flexplate? They all use the same flexplate and the S6/S7's obviously have quite a bit more Torque. It weights approximately 1/2lb heavier than the stock RS5 flexplate so not sure if that is why Audi decided to try something slighly lighter, with the higher reviing CFSA motor. Many of us here and on Audirevolution have been using them for a few years with no failures, even at that the RS5 failures are fairly rare but it is not uncommon, and that is on something that most would consider any failure is too many.
I'm running the JHM Aluminum flywheel so even with the 1/2lb heavier flexplate it's saving quite a bit of weight, JHM doesn't specify an exact weight but say the Aluminum flywheel saves 10~12lbs. The latest part # for the S4/S5/S6/S7 flexpate is: 06E-105-323-T These were only running just under $300 a year ago but have went up a bit. Not sure if it is already because of the Tariffs as I've seen a lot of parts increasing in the last few weeks. Good news is it sounds like all kinds of countries are knocking on the White House's door today according to the news and want to negotiate. There is even a chance that Europe will completely drop the there Tariffs which will make parts lower cost than ever?? Might want to wait a few weeks if you're not in a hurry.
https://www.audionlineparts.com/oem-...ItMGwtbDQtZ2Fz

P.S.
Clutchmasters has usually been a good company. Hopefully as you mentioned they will fix the issue, maybe make it even better than any other option. Glad you had no damage.

[volvofan]

Why not just go with the S4/S5/S6/S7 flexplate? They all use the same flexplate and the S6/S7's obviously have quite a bit more Torque. It weights approximately 1/2lb heavier than the stock RS5 flexplate so not sure if that is why Audi decided to try something slighly lighter, with the higher reviing CFSA motor. Many of us here and on Audirevolution have been using them for a few years with no failures, even at that the RS5 failures are fairly rare but it is not uncommon, and that is on something that most would consider any failure is too many.
I'm running the JHM Aluminum flywheel so even with the 1/2lb heavier flexplate it's saving quite a bit of weight, JHM doesn't specify an exact weight but say the Aluminum flywheel saves 10~12lbs. The latest part # for the S4/S5/S6/S7 flexpate is: 06E-105-323-T These were only running just under $300 a year ago but have went up a bit. Not sure if it is already because of the Tariffs as I've seen a lot of parts increasing in the last few weeks. Good news is it sounds like all kinds of countries are knocking on the White House's door today according to the news and want to negotiate. There is even a chance that Europe will completely drop the there Tariffs which will make parts lower cost than ever?? Might want to wait a few weeks if you're not in a hurry.
https://www.audionlineparts.com/oem-...ItMGwtbDQtZ2Fz

P.S.
Clutchmasters has usually been a good company. Hopefully as you mentioned they will fix the issue, maybe make it even better than any other option. Glad you had no damage.

Thanks for the reply!

I should have been clearer in the thread above. The FIRST time I had engine and transmission separated from each other was in 2022. The flexplate had cracked. At that time I replaced both the broken OEM flexplate and the heavy (but still ok) flywheel with Clutchmasters billet / heavy duty versions. As you noted with the upgraded s4/5/6/7 flexplate, the billet CM version was a bit heavier, but combined with their LWFW was a much lighter package overall vs. OEM.

This is the SECOND time I’ve had to separate transmission from engine, due to the failure of the hub in the Clutchmasters LWFW. The upgraded Clutchmasters flexplate seems fine. I’m trying to determine if the hub failed outright due to design flaw or manufacturing defect, or if its failure was merely a symptom / collateral damage due to some other root cause like low fluid level, mechatronic failure, or some other internal xmsn failure. Looking for any other experiences or advice on the subject.

-Jon