B8.5 3.0T Clutch Issues

[stemiday]

Hey YÂ’all!!

Was driving home yesterday and something is up with the clutch pedal. It got stuck to the floor and IÂ’d use the front of my shoe to lift it. Was able to drive the car gently home and park it.

Before I take it to the shop wanted to see if it is something I can fix and praying itÂ’s not another Throwout bearing issue.

Couple background info

Manual Transmission was replaced roughly about 3k miles ago with JHM LWFW and South Bend Stage 2 Clutch and new flex plate.

USP Stainless steel braided line
Slave cylinder replaced when the Transmission was replaced.

Any ideas?

[carrrnuttt]

I had this exact issue with almost your exact setup. The main difference is I have an ECS LWFW. The issue turned out to be likely defective forks on the Southbend clutch.

I switched to a Sachs Xtend kit that served me well for a while, but it is rated at only about 15% over stock power and now, after only a couple of thousand miles, it's slipping badly on me when I get aggressive with 1st or 2nd. My car is at a shop right now getting a Spec Stage 3 clutch that is rated up to 595ft-lbs.

I haven't dyno'd my car yet, but I am APR Stage 2++ with the Utracharger and 93 octane tune and cooling mods. Someone else with that exact setup in this forum dyno'd at 497awhp, IIRC.

[stemiday]

I read your thread when you had this similar issue.

In there you mention the plunger mod to the slave cylinder. I think I’ll order that now with the master cylinder and see if that helps the situation.

https://www.audizine.com/forum/showt...rmarket-clutch

[carrrnuttt]

I read your thread when you had this similar issue.

In there you mention the plunger mod to the slave cylinder. I think I’ll order that now with the master cylinder and see if that helps the situation.

https://www.audizine.com/forum/showt...rmarket-clutch

Good luck.

The longer rod only helped for a little bit. Mostly because the issue turned out to be a defective clutch.

At least it's not a big gamble, since the slave cylinder rod fix is relatively cheap and easy. Here's hoping that that's all you need.

[hahnmgh63]

Obviously you've checked your Master cylinder fluid, it takes the fluid more from the top so it is much easier to get low fluid in the clutch system before it gets low enough for the brakes. Since your Slave cylinder was changed I would first suspect the Master cylinder or something internal with the clutch itself.

[stemiday]

Good luck.

The longer rod only helped for a little bit. Mostly because the issue turned out to be a defective clutch.

At least it's not a big gamble, since the slave cylinder rod fix is relatively cheap and easy. Here's hoping that that's all you need.

I am pretty sure its the Master Cylinder fluid is the cause of the issue. The current level looks like this.

Waiting for all of the parts to come in, I wonder how easy the Master Cylinder is to change. Hopefully it is not time consuming.


Let me know how the Spec stage 3 clutch works out for you. Eventually I'd like to move away from Southbend. This is my second set in 4 months.

[hahnmgh63]

How many miles on your car? Master cylinder should still be good on a B8.5 unless it's just a fluke. Make sure the reservoir is pressed down into the Mastercylinder well, just mounts with a front & rear grommet. Look around the Master cylinder and Slave for any fluid seepage. Since your slave was swapped out maybe it's leaking down there?

[stemiday]

I have 102k on the car. I'll be under the car tonight see what I can find.

[stemiday]

Finally took a look at it and it was the slave cylinder. It failed probably due to not seating properly on the clutch fork. I had the push to start issue and the car would rev to 1.1-1.2k rpms when put into first gear.

I installed the extended slave cylinder from JXB and bled the system and problem solved. The clutch feels smoother, no more random revs in 1st, and engages where I expect it to.

Hopefully this ends my clutch issues for a while. Thanks everyone for your help.

[carrrnuttt]

Finally took a look at it and it was the slave cylinder. It failed probably due to not seating properly on the clutch fork. I had the push to start issue and the car would rev to 1.1-1.2k rpms when put into first gear.

I installed the extended slave cylinder from JXB and bled the system and problem solved. The clutch feels smoother, no more random revs in 1st, and engages where I expect it to.

Hopefully this ends my clutch issues for a while. Thanks everyone for your help.

Glad to hear.

Still waiting on my car with the new clutch. Shop sent my flywheel out to get resurfaced so they were waiting on that.

[stemiday]

You should think about switching to the jhm lwfw. It has a replaceable surface that the clutch makes contact with, not sure the cost of resurfacing but the replacement is 90$ a pop.

Keep me posted.

[carrrnuttt]

You should think about switching to the jhm lwfw. It has a replaceable surface that the clutch makes contact with, not sure the cost of resurfacing but the replacement is 90$ a pop.

Keep me posted.

Hmm. I just might for my next clutch install/upgrade. I didn't know that about the JHM flywheels.

I got the car back and it seems to be fine so far. I can't push/launch it for now as I am waiting for 500 miles to let it break in. That might take a while, since I work from home.

[flyfishing]

Finally took a look at it and it was the slave cylinder. It failed probably due to not seating properly on the clutch fork. I had the push to start issue and the car would rev to 1.1-1.2k rpms when put into first gear.

I installed the extended slave cylinder from JXB and bled the system and problem solved. The clutch feels smoother, no more random revs in 1st, and engages where I expect it to.

Hopefully this ends my clutch issues for a while. Thanks everyone for your help.

Dang that sucks! I have had southbend stage 3 clutch/flywheel for about 3 years now and it's all good.