no clutch

[s3matthewd]

hi this morning when having a bit of a drive in the s3 went to change into 6th gear and the clutch pedal dropped to the floor and 2 bits of plastic came from somewhere to, can anyone help me please do i need a new clutch or can i just fix the clutch pedal

 

[Welly]

Just the clutch pedal mate, very common problem. Normally a repair at a garage is about £100 all in.

 

[Smokey_clark]

This is a safety function to stop the pedal snapping your ankle in a front end collision. Audi seem to have underestimated the fatigue they see so they break quite often. You will need a new pedal i'm afraid as i don't think it can be repaired.
You might want to consider bulking up the welds on the metal piece which breaks away although do so at risk to your ankle!
Hope that helps.

 

[Alais DJA]

This is a safety function to stop the pedal snapping your ankle in a front end collision. Audi seem to have underestimated the fatigue they see so they break quite often. You will need a new pedal i'm afraid as i don't think it can be repaired.
You might want to consider bulking up the welds on the metal piece which breaks away although do so at risk to your ankle!
Hope that helps.

Wish Honda designed this in the EK9 - i'd still have my left ankle otherwise - ( instead of the titanium alloy one i now have

 

[vfr800]

Hi

I just had a look at my clutch pedal this evening. Looks like it has been 'repaired' by the previous owner.

Has any one got a picture of what an original should look like and what a decent repair should look like?

For some reason the clutch sensor switch is in NO danger of getting touched by the clutch mechanism on mine.

Looks like the previous owner was taking the car to a complete bunch of muppets to get repaired. Alternator bolt loose. Dog bone bolt snapped, missing bolts here and there, wrong coolant, jeeeees.

Liam

 

[Customboy]

I have had this happen to me over 5 times!!

 

[ben.w93]

Had this happen to me, ended up welding a plate on the end of my clutch pedal, I have some pics if you want them. Bought the new clips and repaired it properly, but it went again a few days later. It can also be an indication that there are clutch issues ahead.

 

[Paradox1]

This happend to me last month in the way to work.I got it towed,took the pedal out then took it to my michanic who welded the broken metal back in place. He aslo compressed the spring and cable ties it so make it easier for installing again. Give it a try yourself

 

[murran]

when the clutch itself gets heavy, the pedal breaks. its not a safety thing at all! jesus people are so ill informed! how is it a crash safety thing?

beef up the pedal with weld, it'll work, but the clutch will still be heavy. change the clutch.... itll be feather light as from new.... pedals not guna break then!

 

[s3matthewd]

thanks for the replys got it welded on the end where it had snapped 2 little spot welds is all that holds it together just got to fit the ****** now

 

[s3matthewd]

does anyone no an easy way to reinstall the clutch pedal and bits ie,spring ,push rod

 

[ben.w93]

I ended up taking the lower dash out to do it, lots of torx screws holding it in place. Think it is then a case of trying different angles of trying slot in back in. It will go in eventually. Hope that helps a bit.

 

[s3matthewd]

thanks ended up doing the same taking bottom of dash out finally managed it what a **** of a job only problem now is when i change gear the revs go up any one else had the same problem

 

[vfr800]

thanks ended up doing the same taking bottom of dash out finally managed it what a **** of a job only problem now is when i change gear the revs go up any one else had the same problem

Have you repositioned the clutch switch and the funny plastic clip (which is the stop for the clutch switch)?

I found today that the plastic thing wasn't there on mine, got a new one (and a spare) from TPS for about £2.50 each. Fitted it, then found that there was no change in the over revving, VCDS showed ... switch doesn't work either. doh!

Never rains but it pours ...

Liam

 

[ben.w93]

Did you put replace the plastic clips after it was welded. I had to file down the white clip that the clutch switch goes into to get it to fit after it got welded together again?

 

[murran]

lol. yeah..... get this tho..... we originally bought one new one at work a few years back when these broken clutch pedals came to light, then we took the customers old one and repaired it, kept it in stock... when the next one came in we charged the customer for a new pedal but fit the past customers repaired pedal, then repair that one........ sort of an exchange basis thing hahaha......
to date i think ive fitted 9/10 of them.....

 

[ROBBerto84]

This happened to me last Saturday at Toddington services on the M1. I had to get recovered to my mechanic who replaced my clutch pedal. While they had it all out they noticed the master cylinder had a "kink" in it so I had that replaced too. Proper scared me when it happened!

 

[murran]

the ball jointed link from the pedal to the cylinder often gets bent when the pedal fails, i just put a ring spanner on it and hold it with a pair of mole grips to straighten it, its quite soft metal, easy to put straight. no need to replace it.

 

[ROBBerto84]

well it's a bit late now as it's in like Flynn! But I think it was an issue before. Since owning the car going into second was always a bit jerky at low speeds, now it's sweet as a nut

 

[Rudz]

Sounds like it could do with a throttle body clean out, very common problem on these.

thanks ended up doing the same taking bottom of dash out finally managed it what a **** of a job only problem now is when i change gear the revs go up any one else had the same problem

 

[Smokey_clark]

when the clutch itself gets heavy, the pedal breaks. its not a safety thing at all! jesus people are so ill informed! how is it a crash safety thing?

beef up the pedal with weld, it'll work, but the clutch will still be heavy. change the clutch.... itll be feather light as from new.... pedals not guna break then!

When this happened to me the RAC recovery bloke said that in a front end collison the pedal is designed to snap here rather than staying intact and pushing backwards with the engine and bulkhead etc. This also explains why audi have designed a couple of holes allowing you to put through a bolt temporarily fixing the clutch pedal if it should break until you can get it repaired. Seemed to know his stuff plus he used to work at Audi.
Why would i doubt this? How do you know it's not a safety feature??

 

[Welly]

How do you know it's not a safety feature??

I question it myself to be fair. The only other car I know of to suffer from this sort of thing is the Mazda RX8. That was claimed to be a safety feature as well, however you don't hear of these things happening on many other motors.

I suspect that both parties involved here have realised that they haven't mad the pedal's welds strong enough, and then claim that it's a 'safety feature' to avoid a recall.

 

[Smokey_clark]

lol! Granted this may be the case but i don't know of any other reason for the holes that you use to fix it temporarily?

 

[ben.w93]

I had to push my A3 across a set of traffic lights when it happened to me, nobody stopped to help, I ended up getting recovered by my grandad and his Land Rover, I lost faith in the car a bit after that.