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Could the transmission itself or components cause repeated clutch failure? (020 4K trans)

1K views 3 replies 4 participants last post by  '88Jetta16v 
#1 ·
This weekend I lost all pressure in my clutch pedal and it dropped to the floor during stop and go traffic on the freeway. I had been driving for about 1.5 hours and I wouldn’t say that I had done anything particularly abusive while driving before the pedal dropped so I’m kind of at a loss here. No grinding between gears, no burnt clutch smell, etc. I shut it down and restarted several times in an attempt to get it going and it was intermittently catching gears and stalling out when I did. I was basically coasting at a roll at that point and wasn’t really having luck with 1st gear at all. I might have caught 2nd or 3rd more. It was clunking HARD at times.

This is also my SECOND clutch in the past 2 years and maybe 6,000 miles if that. The last time it was slipping having trouble disengaging to change gears, but was still more or less driveable at that point. I had a new clutch, pressure plate, and throw out bearing installed at the time. I also did a shift linkage bushing rebuild with the Missing Linkz kit and a weighted shift rod and short shifter.

At this point I have to wonder if something is wrong with the transmission and it’s effecting the clutch?

Selector or shift fork issues? Something wrong with the input shaft, etc?

Does that make any sense?

Frankly I do not feel comfortable or capable of doing my own clutch replacement and I don’t have the space to drop the trans, etc. I’d hate to have another clutch installed and have the same problem come up again in such a short time frame if the root cause is really something defective in the trans itself. I’m also concerned about reliability here, and generally speaking I like to actually DRIVE my car and take it on longer road trips to shows, etc. I want to have confidence in it again to do that and not fear an annual clutch replacement.
 
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#3 ·
No, you do not have an issue in your actual gearbox that is causing clutch related components in the bell housing to be affected. The first time you had an issue 2 years back when the clutch was slipping and engagement was rough was due to issues with the clutch/pressure plate components.

This time, your issue with the pedal going to the floor is a hydraulic pressure related issue. Your slave cylinder is likely failing.

These are two separate issues that just happened to occur in a fairly close proximity of time. Your mechanic should have replaced the slave cylinder along with the other components when the clutch, etc. was replaced. It would have likely prevented the issue you are facing now.

Your transmission internals themselves are not the issue.
 
#4 ·
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