Round 4 now Stage 4

[A4 TSCHUSS]

Well, myself and my clutch have been in a never ending battle. I had the South Bend OFE SS for about 30,000 miles while I had the GTRS in my car and it worked great the whole time and then I started hearing some noise. I took the clutch out and found one of the friction disks had began to seperate from the center disk.




I then replaced it with the South Bend FE SS when I rebuilt my engine to 2.0 and put on the GT3076. This clutch lasted about 1200 miles and then welded itself to the flywheel after doing a burnout and then began to stage the car at the 1/4.





That was then replaced with the South Bend 8 puck ceramic disk clutch with the SS pressure plate still. I ran that clutch for about 700 miles and one day cruising in 5th gear at about 70mph I layed on the gas to accelerate without downshifting and it started slipping. It has slipped ever since then if I run more than 17psi or if I shift hard from 1st to 2nd.




This brings me to Round 4 and my new Stage 4 clutch from Clutch Masters. I now have the Clutch Masters FX400 6 puck clutch and their lightweight steel flywheel ready to go in so we will have to hope and pray this is my savior.

I got a great deal on this from DTHAUS (The company of Mike2ptzero and 400hpa4).

Here she is

[dougyfresh]

Holy s**t David!

I didn't realize your latest SB clutch took a dump too. I hope this CM clutch holds for you.

My SB OFE SS is holding strong with about 15k on it. The hardest I ever drove it was last week when I was doing donuts in an icy and snow covered parking lot. Dropping the clutch at 5krpm in 2nd gear and just spinning around in circles for about 15mins. I smelled some stuff afterwards but couldn't tell if it was the tires or clutch. It still feels fine after that evening.

[yoogene83]

man, i bet you could do a clutch job in less than an hour now

[absolutegtr]

wow, your luck has been bad.

Why didnt you go with the twin clutch plate setup that greg offers?

[dirtybrd]

$$$$ I'm sure.

[A4 TSCHUSS]

man, i bet you could do a clutch job in less than an hour now

Nah, it still takes time to do. If i bang through it the tranny comes out in like 1.5 hours maybe a shade under. Then putting it back in about the same.

[A4 TSCHUSS]

wow, your luck has been bad.

Why didnt you go with the twin clutch plate setup that greg offers?

I talked to Cluth Masters and they said that clutch is really a race clutch and not so much for street use and that the FX400 6 puck would hold 450whp just fine.

[A4 TSCHUSS]

$$$$ I'm sure.

Not really, it would have cost only a few hundred more from this clutch up to the FX600.

[7speed]

so why the 6 puck and not the 8 ? I still gotta get mine installed

[A4 TSCHUSS]

The less pucks the more aggressive it is. And I like the more surface area of each puck to grab and hold. Like you can see, I will be taking out the IDENTICAL clutch disk (8 puck) that you have. The Clutch Masters pressure plate is just different. They have a different clamping style that allows for a light pedal feel. That way it doesnt put stress on the thrust bearings in the crank which can cause the crank to loosen up and move around which is called crank walk.

[7speed]

hmmm maybe Ill wait a little bit and see how this goes for you, I may have to exchange

[asalviob5laser]

looks nice

[A4 TSCHUSS]

Well hopefully it works as good as it looks. I have driven a friends car with the FX400 4 puck in it and it grabs good and is a pretty nice engagement. I will definitely put the clutch through the paces once I put some miles on it so we will see what it's made of!

[shop.dthaus.com]

Looks good David, glad it showed up on time and I cant wait to hear a review of how you like it once its in your car. I think the reason more A4 1.8t owners haven't gone to the 6 puck setup is because too many people say its way to on/off, but the fact is that its actually not that bad once you get used to driving the car with it installed. This is the type of setup all the BT/BAT guys should be using if they like to launch the car but still want to use the car as a daily driver, for racing only the twin plate would be the way to go.


If anyone is interested in this same clutch/flywheel package, we have a special going till the end of Feb for $170 off our normal sale price. Feel free to send an email if you have any questions

[dirtybrd]

My clutch was very on/off until I got used to it and it was broken in.