2002 Jetta TDI clutch help

[mckinney249]

We are trying to figure out what is wrong with my car. It sticks when you press the clutch and is really difficult to get in gear, but will go once you get it. It is almost undriveable. I was thinking about replacing the clutch in it's entirety with the flywheel. Could it also be the Master Cylinder?

[takirschner]

I just had a similar problem, I replaced the clutch, flywheel and release bearing. The old pressure plate was cracked. I got it back together and still had a problem. It turned out I missed a bent clutch fork. I had to tear it back down and compare it to a new one to find out for sure. I would have been way ahead to spend the extra thirty bucks the first time around. Your problem could similar or could be a bad master or slave cylinder. There is a plug on top of the bell housing, I used a bore scope to see in there ( motor off of course)and had someone push in the clutch so I could see if the slave cylinder rod seemed to moving the clutch fork properly. It was so I went ahead and replaced the clutch. If you can't see in there you may be able to probe in through that hole with a wire or something and gauge how far the clutch fork is moving. Getting the transmission out is a little tricky, there is a good article in the how to section that helped me out a lot.