vw GTI clutch problem, Please help!!!!!

2003 Gti 20th AE, 13,004 miles on it, Car won't go into gear, tow it to the dealer, they take apart my clutch assembly: my clutch shredded apart.(prematurely, and I do mean Shredded!) Dealer says "not covered, outside of the 12 month 12,000 mile wear and tear warranty. My problem is, it blew apart, I don't beat on the car.

Anyone have any similar problems or stories? I'm in contact with VW of america and I need all the evidence of dective clutch/assembly I can get. I can't afford a new clutch on a car that's 5 months old with 13k miles on it.

Any stories will help!?!

my girlfriends bro has a 2001 golf 2.0, his pressure plate on his clutch cracked, and i mean completly broken in 3 places after about 60k miles. but he did beat the hell out of it.

How were you driving the car? Trying to make burnout marks and sidestepping the clutch dosen't do much to improve the car.
Shit happens.
But hey, what an excuse to put a sport clutch in.

i think you should investigate the "outside of warrenty" claim, especially if its only 5 months old unless its 12000 miles or 12 months in which case go for a sports clutch much nippier although you will have to learn to drive again

03 20AE GTi, 21,450 miles......clutch started losing pressure gradually over 2 days.....till it starts sticking to the floor. By the time I get to the dealer last Friday morning....it was engaging at the very last inch of travel. Can anyone guess what the service guy tells me? Yeap!... "we need your authority to drop the transmission...looks like its a worn clutch and its not under warranty." That total BS. FU! Been driving manuals for 15 years....never replaced a clutch, but I do drive real hard. Besides, clutches don't go bad in 5 hours. The Anyway, thinking it might be a hydraulic problem...ie: master cylinder issue. Either way...I know they are not going to cover it. Saw some posts of 1.8T 5/6-speed owners who had the same sort of problem, but discovered AFTER they paid for an entire clutch assembly that it was the master cylinder after all!

Anyone have thoughts/advice?

Already told the dealer if they tell me it is the clutch....I WANT THE PARTS in my trunk! As a law student....I will have my first practice case against these idiots.

I feel your pain. I had a 2002 GTI 1.8T and the cluch is gone after 2yrs. It had 39K on it. I loved this car and babied this thing. My brother has the same car and he dogs his and he hasen't had any problems. As for the 2 year 12k mile thing. Any cluch is going to get through that. I ended up getting rid of it and got something else. I didn't like the fact that i called VW the 1-800 # and they told me they can't do anything to help me and it's been only 2 yrs although the service guy that was helping me was trying really hard to give me a price break. I just feel really bad that i really liked this car and VW didn't do anything to back up their product. Oh they told me it will cost anything from $2500 to $3k to fix it. Keep us informed with what you do.

Sounds like I'm not the only one with a bad clutch. After Days of swearing at VW of America and giving them a piece of my mind they decided to send out a district manager to take a look at the parts because the pad itself had been shredded by a rivet that popped off the pressure plate, not worn out. they ended up paying half of the $1200 it took to fix it. Now I have problems with the synchros, took it in already once for third gear problems and now second gear synchros are off. I'm about ready to give up on this car, but I love to drive it when it's running right. I ran a Porsche the other day on the expressway, didn't do a bad job of keeping up with him until I hit 4th Gear, ooohh that thing took off. It was much fun though.

my 01 GTI 1.8T seems to be wearing down on its clutch... I guess VWs just wear out their clutches faster than most cars.

I'm glad VW did help one of it's customers. That's good they at least spotted for it. As for me as i said earlier they didn't want to do anything for me. Mine was good for a while until that 2 day span where you can really feel it losing pick up and then you will know to bring it into the dealer.

My bro's cluch just went bad same year 02 but this one has 60k miles on it

do you know if you guys had hte Luk or Sachs clutch?
ive done a bunch of clutches this year and they were all the Mk4 style ones. seems like they dont last as long as the Sachs..

Any one Else with a cluch problem?

Uh yeah I guess someone forgot to tell you that the 1.8T clutch is renowned for going out. Not being a smart ass but that's the case. If you wanted a inexpensive replacement I have seen people put SACHS VR6 clutches in their 1.8T's or you could go to ACT, Spec, or Center Force but I don't recommend Center Force. A friend of mine had a stage 3 on his 97 neon and that died after 6 months. Yeah he drove hard but a stage 3 should last longer under the same hard driving that the OEM clutch did. Oh well good luck hey atleast this would be a good excuse to puta lightened fly wheel in.

Too bad my trans in the 20th anniversary edition is from the "tougher & sronger" audi 6 speed. tougher and stronger supposedly anyway.

Clutches are covered under the 4yr 50K warranty! Unless your car is modded alot, In which they have reason for failure. My dealer has seen many gti's w/ the clutches that explode like that (actually happened to me on a test drive of a GLI VR6)
No fun! But I dont know why a dealer wouldnt want to warranty that anyway unless there techs dont like dropping trannys. Or the dealer doesnt like making money.
Every GTI that has come into my dealership has had the clutch replaced before 50k. Doesnt that say something about GTI owners. Or maybe its just poor quality clutches.

i dont know about the newer GTi's but i have a 87 MK II GTi with over 200,000 mile on the clock and only changed the clutch once, and the only reason why i changed it was cause i was replacing the trans. (it kept jumping out of 5th gear) as a auto mech. for a litte over 16 years now i have never seen any warranty ever cover a clutch disc in any kinda car...now the flywheel and pressure plate is a diffrent story.... just about 3 months ago i had a customer with a 03 Mits. EVO come in with a blown clutch...he only had 10,000 miles on the car.....some people just have a very heavy right foot i guess.

I'd love to know how and where you got a clutch covered under the 4yr 50k mile. The clutch and the brake pads and any other item vw deems is only covered under the 1yr 12k mile "wear and tear", I'd love it if the clutch were covered outside of that period but in black and white it tells you what items in your vehicle are "wear and tear" and unfortunately for me the clutch was one of them. But hey if you got it covered give me the dealership name and the rep you talked to, I'll give him a call like I said I'd love it if that was the case.

Thanks for the info everybody. I really think they are putting in weak cluches in it. I think VW knows about it but dosen't want to do anything about it. It's a lot of money and time to get this job done.

Yeah, they know there clutches work but yea, it makes them lots of money when they go out! I dont know how my dealership goes about warrantying clutches, but they do... we have warrantied sooo many!