2000 Jetta 2.0 liter Clutch Problem

[drbueno]

My daughter drives a 2000 Jetta and had an experience where the clutch plate imploded and blew a hole right thru the bell housing of the the transmission. It lost all of it's fluid to say the least and then froze up...of course. But the horrable thought is the possibility of the clutch plate part blowing thru the floor board and into the driver or one of the passengers. That didn't happen that God, but it did leave her stranded about 125 miles from home. Now both the whole clutch assembly and the transmission need to be replaced. Has anyone else experienced this problem or anything similar?

[veedubmechanic]

2000 jettas use a dual mass flywheel (simple terms its 2 flywheels locked together with hydraulic fluid inside kind of like an automatic torque converter) they usually split apart but dont blow apart like that. Its actually kinda cool wish I could see it, good thing nobody was hurt. The only reason the flywheels break is due to abuse, see it alot on GTI's.

[drbueno]

Thanks for the information...but as it turns out, I was wrong on the engine size. It is a 1.8 liter. And as a result, the clutch is only single mass "if that's the right term". And also, my daughter doesn't bull this car, she has a lot of respect for the cost of fixing them since she covers much of the cost and is a very passive driver, so I seriously doubt that there was any abuse. No one else drives the car but her. It was a freak occurance...and I'm glad she wasn't hurt. I sure hope it doesn't happen to anyone else.