New Clutch - Flywheel resurfacing

[ieatfishburitos]

I'm having a new clutch put in my car in the next week as the old one exploded . I've got all new oem clutch parts and will be sending the new disc to south bend to be "upgraded". BTW southbend no longer sells a kit for our cars as they can no longer get the parts from germany. He said that he can take the oem disc and upgrade the material which will make it about 30% stronger for $250. This is the route I'll be taking.

I didn't buy a new flywheel since they are $700, and I've read on here that I should be able to resurface my old one. Now has anyone on here actually had their flywheel resurfaced? I've read that it requires a special bit that most people don't have. I'd like to find a place here in the southwest that can do it. My independent Audi mechanic doesn't want my car sitting around his shop for two weeks waiting to get the flywheel resurfaced. Any feedback on people that can do this would be greatly appreciated.

[ginkof]

when you say the OEM disk are you talking about the clutch disk? not the flywheel im guessing....

[jbrown7815]

Let me know how this goes.


I think my clutch just went out last night...

[ieatfishburitos]

when you say the OEM disk are you talking about the clutch disk? not the flywheel im guessing....

Yes I was referring to the OEM clutch disk, which will be upgraded.

Regarding the flywheel; generally I'd throw in a new flywheel without hesitation but since these are $700 each I'd rather resurface it.

[PenguiN]

my clutch has been acting weird too...

[cam]

as has mine, sucks that southbend cant get the kits for the v8's anymore

[GFRRS3]

How many miles did you have on it, whats the ussuall normal driving lifespan of these clutches?

[ginkof]

How many miles did you have on it, whats the ussuall normal driving lifespan of these clutches?

that is a good question! with the exception of the 2 times I've dragged my car i have been engaging my clutch at 900-1000 rpms. I just hit 40k miles yesterday and it seems to be alright.

[Stevelev]

Unless your flywheel has high mileage or really trashed, you should be able to get it resurfaced. Southbend can do the flywheel resurfacing and did mine "no charge" when I upgraded my clutch on my B6 A4 BT.

[ieatfishburitos]

that is a good question! with the exception of the 2 times I've dragged my car i have been engaging my clutch at 900-1000 rpms. I just hit 40k miles yesterday and it seems to be alright.

My car has 45k miles on it. I don't drive the car too hard, but it's a frign sports car. I mean honestly, there are people with $20k mustangs that bang every gear on their car all day long and never have issues.

I took off a few times at the drag strip at 4500 - 5000 rpms and it became very difficult to get the car in 3rd gear. After the first time down the track I could smell the clutch and see some faint smoke in the car :).

On the 3rd time down the track the clutch just went to the floor and made a nasty noise when I tried to put it in 3rd.

[ieatfishburitos]

My awesome independent Audi tech pulled the broken clutch out of my S4 today. He was shocked to see the entire ring of material on one side of the disk had separated from the disk and broke in two pieces. Surprisingly everything else looks pretty good in there.

I'm shipping my current flywheel and brand new oem disk and pressure plate to Southbend for a 500hp clutch upgrade tomorrow

Oh yeah, he found a broken motor mount in there as well.. Leaking some gooky fluid all over the place..

Here is a pic of the one side of the clutch disk that separated from the disk.

[cam]

how much did the oem setup run you?

[fitzS4]

i wish i had a picture of mine when it blew up....it was dust no pieces to it......

[ieatfishburitos]

how much did the oem setup run you?

Bought the parts from genuinevwaudiparts.com as many have recommended on here.

Disc: $159.57
Pilot bearing: $35.90
Pressure plate: $135.29
Release bearing: $41.30
Release fork: $9.32

Total: $381.38 + $25 core for pressure plate.

Southbend pressure plate and disc upgrade: $250
Southbend flywheel resurface (with above upgrade) $25

I'll have roughly $660 into parts when it's said and done. Not a bad deal at all. Labor will be around the same, not counting the engine mount that needs to be replaced.

[UGwagen]

flywheel iirc, is a dual mass flywheel, and it takes more than a special bit. It takes specialized equipment to resurface a DMF. Spec Clutches have the equipment to do this, AFIAK

[ieatfishburitos]

flywheel iirc, is a dual mass flywheel, and it takes more than a special bit. It takes specialized equipment to resurface a DMF. Spec Clutches have the equipment to do this, AFIAK

Southbend told me they could resurface a DMF. I guess we will see.


I steer clear of Spec Clutches. When I was upgrading my 86 asc mclaren coupe's clutch I read a ton of horror stories about Spec not standing behind their product. I ignored them and walked into a mustang shop and they recited more stories about why they quit carrying spec clutches.. Ended up with a heavy duty centerforce instead. It was more than enough of a bad rep for me to steer clear.

[H0LLYW00D]

Southbend told me they could resurface a DMF. I guess we will see.


I steer clear of Spec Clutches. When I was upgrading my 86 asc mclaren coupe's clutch I read a ton of horror stories about Spec not standing behind their product. I ignored them and walked into a mustang shop and they recited more stories about why they quit carrying spec clutches.. Ended up with a heavy duty centerforce instead. It was more than enough of a bad rep for me to steer clear.

Interesting,

A good buddy of mine only runs Spec clutches in all of his cars due to his great experience with their products. He has a spec clutch in his 1200whp race spec iroc camero (soon to be swapped from supercharger to bi-turbo, for around 1600whp). He also told me that with his past audi's (b5 a4 stage III and b5 s4 stage III) he has loved the spec clutches.

My clutch doesn't grab like it should. 55k and I think it might last until 60. I will probably buy a spec clutch, but interesting to hear about your experience with them. I want something that i can drag with, and that will support a supercharger if i decide to go that route when the time comes. How long ago did you have this poor experience with spec?

And thanks for the info on all this, keep us posted, there are a number of us coming up on a clutch swaps and southbend looks to be one of the only options besides spec.

[ieatfishburitos]

Hollywood, I personally didn't have a bad experience with spec clutches. It's all word of mouth, forum reading, and advice from a few mustang shops in the local area. The mustang shop was speaking of several issues about a year ago, in which spec wouldnt replace parts that failed immediately after install. I obviously don't know the whole story though but they are a nationwide aftermarket mustang parts dealer and see quite a bit of volume..

There is a post on this forum in the past where a person purchases a spec clutch for a b6S4 and the parts did not fit properly, and they ended up going with OEM.

http://www.audizine.com/forum/showth...ghlight=clutch

Here is a thread / quote that also influenced me to stay away from spec:

http://www.audizine.com/forum/showth...ghlight=clutch

I'd stick with OEM for now. I've just heard too many horror stories about the spec clutch...

http://forums.audiworld.com/rockymtn/msgs/78091.phtml

http://forums.audiworld.com/a4/msgs/2149514.phtml

http://forums.audiworld.com/s4b6/msgs/363873.phtml

http://forums.audiworld.com/s4/msgs/2406071.phtml

http://forums.audiworld.com/s4b6/msgs/351105.phtml

http://forums.audiworld.com/s4/msgs/2221514.phtml

http://forums.audiworld.com/s4/msgs/2210853.phtml

http://forums.audiworld.com/s4/msgs/2193058.phtml

http://forums.audiworld.com/s4/msgs/2149022.phtml

http://forums.audiworld.com/s4/msgs/2137578.phtml

http://forums.audiworld.com/qclubflo...gs/56035.phtml

and on and on and on...