[ambyrr22]

Hello all,

Newbie here....just posted about my brake thumping last night. Well, now my car has been towed to the VW dealership . I don't think it's a related issue.

I was driving down the road when I noticed that my car was losing power. It was like I had it in too high a gear and it wouldn't "zoom". It would eventually get up to speed, but it took longer than it should. Once I got it on the interstate, it would only maintain a speed of 75 if the road was flat. I had to go up a pretty steep incline, and it just wouldn't maintain speed. It feel below 55mph, so I went to shift into 4th gear. It wouldn't go into gear. I couldnt' get it to go back to 5th either. I pulled over on the shoulder and came to a stop. I pushed the clutch in again, and it stayed on the floor. I was able to lift it up with my foot under it and then push it down again, but I couldn't get the car to go into any gear. I finally tried to put it in reverse with the clutch pushed in, and it went into reverse but it lurched and then wouldn't come out of reverse. I gave up at this point and just had it towed.

Is this my clutch that has gone out or something else? I am sooooo bummed! I bought this car just a week ago!!!!

Thanks

Erin

 

[Seatman]

It doesn't sound to good at the moment but you'll just have to wait and see what the story is but I think there may be more than one thing here, it sounds like your turbo cut out which is probably just limp mode and not so bad and the clutch could just be the slave or master cylinder needing replaced or maybe leaking.

 

[chittychittybangbang]

It doesn't seem related but that is certainly very unfortunate timing. Where did you buy it from? Private party is normally as-is.

The clutch thing could be low clutch fluid which could also be low brake fluid. But the clutch fluid normally doesn't leave the system unless it leaks out the brakes or clutch cylinders. Could this be behind the brake noise? Maybe? Low clutch fluid will certainly cause the shifter to fall to the floor but that could also be caused by a broken clutch lever or slave cylinder.

 

[slickfast]

I had this type of thing happen to me in my bimmer, except when I got out of the car for a jazz festival it was working perfectly, and when I got back to it the clutch went to the floor. I ended up using the starter to get the car going in gear, and rev-match shifting for the entire 100 mile drive back home.:annoyed

Do the sensible thing: replace both your master and slave cylinders. This might also be a good time to bleed your brakes. The seals in each part are very delicate, and the piece of mind you'll have by doing both is completely worth it.

Though I'm really not sure how you got it into reverse... that kind of flies in the face of my theory. Loss of clutch hydraulics should prevent you from getting into ALL gears AFAIK.

The loss of power, I think that's pretty obvious limp mode behavior. Though you're going to trace back why that's happening. Between this and the brakes it sounds like you're going to really have your hands full. Good luck!

 

[ambyrr22]

Thanks for your input, everyone. The VW Dealership says it's a shift boot and they want $669 to fix it. I have no idea if that's a reasonable price or not. I assume I'm paying a premium with the dealer. Is it the kind of thing I could trust someone else to or should I just cough up the bucks and have them do it?

 

[Seatman]

I'll answer that when I figure out what a shift boot is

 

[slickfast]

I'll answer that when I figure out what a shift boot is

Seriously haha... what the heck is that? OP I would yank my car away from the stealers, and do the work myself. You'll learn something, and you'll save a ton of money doing it.

 

[Seatman]

I would have a look through this faq for removing the gearbox, it has some pics of the box, shift linkage etc in it, compare what you see in the faq to what you can see on your box. You might just spot something obvious.

http://www.myturbodiesel.com/1000q/a4/transmission-removal-mk4.htm

 

[ambyrr22]

Seriously haha... what the heck is that? OP I would yank my car away from the stealers, and do the work myself. You'll learn something, and you'll save a ton of money doing it.

Well....I think I'll figure out how to change the oil first before I tackle something major like that! I thought I was doing pretty good when I jacked up the car myself and removed the wheel. I am soooo not a mechanic, although I'm really getting into doing some stuff on my own. I think replacing the clutch is a project for when it goes out the next time...hopefully not for years and years.

UPDATE - I had gotten some incorrect information the first time around (relying on a friend to be my liaison to the dealer because I'm out of town). It's the master and slave cylinders. She made up the shift boot thing....I don't know where she got that, LOL. I think I'm just going to have them do it. I know it's probably a lot more expensive at the dealer than if I were to shop around, but I don't really have a relationship with a mechanic and wouldn't want to trust my car to just luck of the draw.

 

[slickfast]

Well....I think I'll figure out how to change the oil first before I tackle something major like that! I thought I was doing pretty good when I jacked up the car myself and removed the wheel. I am soooo not a mechanic, although I'm really getting into doing some stuff on my own. I think replacing the clutch is a project for when it goes out the next time...hopefully not for years and years.

UPDATE - I had gotten some incorrect information the first time around (relying on a friend to be my liaison to the dealer because I'm out of town). It's the master and slave cylinders. She made up the shift boot thing....I don't know where she got that, LOL. I think I'm just going to have them do it. I know it's probably a lot more expensive at the dealer than if I were to shop around, but I don't really have a relationship with a mechanic and wouldn't want to trust my car to just luck of the draw.

Yay, I guessed right! And omg, if there is a job you should do yourself as a nice step up, this is a GREAT one to do. The clutch hydraulics (as I learned just last September-ish) are actually insanely simple:

Your foot presses on the clutch pedal. The pedal is attached to a piston (this is the master cylinder) that moves about 2 oz of liquid through a hydraulic line. This fluid then enters another piston (this is the slave cylinder), which pushes a rod, and actuates the clutch fork (it's a lever.). THAT'S IT.

All you need to do is unscrew each piston (the fluid will come out, so you'll have to catch it in a bucket or something), and then replace each part. After replacing, all you have to do is fill back up with fluid and you're good to go.

I'm sure there are DIYs for both cylinder replacements AND how to bleed the clutch fluid. Go for it!:nana2:

 

[Seatman]

I would try flushing the system with clean fluid first, it might cure it and not very expensive to try.

 

[slickfast]

I would try flushing the system with clean fluid first, it might cure it and not very expensive to try.

True... might be a little air in the system.

 

[Seatman]

If it looks anything like mine it could be dirt I'll be at it soon but last time I was going to try the bleed nipple seemed well stuck and it felt like the housing was going to break so I'm going to take the slave off and get it in my shed and see what I can do.

 

[slickfast]

If it looks anything like mine it could be dirt I'll be at it soon but last time I was going to try the bleed nipple seemed well stuck and it felt like the housing was going to break so I'm going to take the slave off and get it in my shed and see what I can do.

Haha ruh roh... could also be a seal on it's way out (grainy seals?)

 

[ambyrr22]

The saga continues.....

They replaced the master and slave cylindars and are now saying that it didn't completely fix the problem. Apparently the pressure plate and fly wheel are also bad. My question is this.....is there a situation in which the pressure plate/flywheel issue could not be diagnosed WITHOUT first replacing the master and slave cylinder? And my other question is, how much of an overlap is there in the labor to replace the master and slave cylindars and also the pressure plate and flywheel?

I'm getting at 2 things here:

1. I think they should have been able to diagnose the total extent of the problem before just jumping to the conclusion that the master and slave cylindar replacement would fix my issue. I'm thinking they never even looked at the pressure plate and fly wheel until the first fix didn't fix the problem. I am also now questioning if the master and slave cylinders were bad to begin with.

2. If they had comprehensively diagnosed the total issue before fixing anything, I assume that my total labor charge would be less than independently fixing the master and slave cylinders and having to go back in and fix the pressure plate and fly wheel.

If anyone can offer their perspective, I would greatly appreciate it. I am going to try to negotiate with them, but I want to be armed with accurate information.

Thanks,

Erin

 

[chittychittybangbang]

There is almost no overlap in replacing the cylinders vs. replacing the PP and flywheel. They're in there pretty far and it's hard to fully inspect them. If there was an issue like a broken fork which caused the slave to shoot out and fail, that would make them think the save had failed at a quick glance/ I wouldn't have replaced the master though without further testing.

2. Slightly lower but not by more than a half hour-hour. It is really easy to replace the slave cylinder. The master is more complicated.

At this point, the next logicial thing to check is the clutch fork. It cannot be replaced without removing the transmission. I don't know how long you plan on keeping the car but IMHO, it's worth replacing the clutch-flywheel-pressure plate with a single mass flywheel and clutch kit. They're pretty cheap, are very reliable, and it's not more than 1 hour for sure additional labor. Here is some more reading for you: http://www.myturbodiesel.com/1000q/clutch-kit-FAQ-VW-Audi.htm

 

[chenena]

no se que signifique eso de esta pagina yo la verdad nomas quiero el inche vdv de navegacion del passat asi k si me lo quieren dar que bueno y si no ni modo a la verch con uds

 

[Seatman]

Trate de traductor de google

 

[ambyrr22]

Update and question...

I took my car to a 2nd mechanic because I had lost confidence in the dealer after their initial diagnosis turned out to be at least incomplete and possibly even entirely wrong. Boy, did I find out some stuff! The new mechanic said that the slave cylinder on the car is my factory part and the part they handed me as the "old" slave cylinder was, in fact, a brand new part. So they never replaced it but charged me for it.

I'm now in the process of trying to get my money back from the dealership for the entire repair. My contention is that neither the master or slave cylinder ever needed to be replaced...they were just making guesses and throwing parts at the problem. I need to see if I can test the old master cylinder, though. Does anyone have a DIY idea for rigging up a way to test the master and slave cylinders now that they have been removed? One guy I talked to suggested hooking them together with a hose and putting pressure to the entire assembly. I'm not sure how I would go about doing that. Does anyone have any ideas?


I have another question too. The dealer mechanic said that once he "replaced" the master and slave cylinders, the car would then go into gear. Is it possible that this improvement could have been a result of something that happened that was incidental to replacing the master cylinder? I'm thinking that they probably had to flush the fluid as part of the replacement and do some other stuff too that might have resulted in the car then being able to go in gear. Any thoughts on this are much appreciated.

Thanks!

Erin

 

[chittychittybangbang]

I don't know how to test it but the hydraulic pressure is pretty significant and you would have to bolt the cylinders to something or else they would move. The slave cylinder might also shoot out as soon as it sees pressure if there's nothing to work against.

It's possible that you had a big air bubble in the system. There is no adjustment on the rods or anything that would have been fixed.