Clutch Not Engaging / Disengaging - Clutch Not Working

[ricardo44751]

Hey Everyone....posting this hopefully in the right thread now:

I have a bone stock 2017 Golf GTI SE, with not even 40k miles on it. The car has mostly given me no problems but randomly as I went to go start it this morning the clutch pedal felt weird when pressing it down. And come to find out my clutch is just not working at all. I can start the car just fine in neutral but I can't put it in 1st gear after starting it in neutral. Similarly, if the cars off and I put it in 1st gear and then try and start it, it stalls right away.

I'm more just curious if this is a common problem or not? It just seems weird that my clutch has never given me trouble, was working perfectly last night, and now all of a sudden is just broken? Any thoughts/insights are greatly appreciated!

I'll be getting it towed to a Volkswagen dealer on Tuesday next week and will share the findings. Thanks!

 

[hans611]

Seems to me the master cylinder or the throw out bearing are done... does the pedal sometimes get stuck on the floor?

 

[ricardo44751]

Thanks for the reply @hans611 - no the clutch pedal does not get stuck to the floor. When pushing it to the floor there's a weird resistance that occurs and it's harder to depress it to the floor but you're still able to.

The service advisor hasn't called me back (has only texted me) but he's saying that they had to remove the transmission and the whole clutch needs to be replaced which is $5,200 (it's a Volkswagen dealership in San Francisco). This just seems off to me...a car that's only ~7 years old with less than 40k miles that is a daily driver that I've never taken to the track (or really pushed that hard at all) needs the entire clutch replaced when it was working perfectly fine the night before? It's just not adding up you know?

 

[hans611]

What's not adding up is that $5,200! Its actually not rare to need a new clutch at that mileage with these cars, but normally they are tuned.... im guessing yours is stock?

Get the actual estimate with the part numbers and in detail the work they plan to do... there is absolutely no way that a clutch replacement can add up to that amount... It should be less than half... Also note that you always have to remove the transmission to replace the clutch, thats nothing special.

An OE clutch disk and pressure plate is ~$700, the flywheel is ~$800.... while you are at it, its good practice to replace the throw out bearing, that's another $100... book rate for the job is 8h or so... San Francisco hourly rates should be like here in Miami... $175/h.... how the f*** are they at $5,200??!!?

Even with tax included, should be no more than $2,300... they are either doing a lot more work to it, the service rep is confused, or are straight up trying to steal from you.

 

[ricardo44751]

@hans611 I wish I knew you had replied to this, for some reason I didn't get a notification so apologies for the delay in reply! But yeah the car is not tuned at all.

I ended up getting the repair and spending $5k - see the attached work order/receipt. I actually got the same quote over the phone from a different Volkswagen dealer in Colma, CA (just south of San Francisco). I'm sure it would have been cheaper to go through an independent repair shop but I didn't shop around admittedly.

What I still just don't understand is what went wrong. I attached the photos of the clutch (flywheel, pressure plate and disc) and all they told me was that the pressure plate is blue so it somehow got super hot and was the reason for why it couldn't disengage/why I couldn't put the car into gear. to be honest I don't think it looks that blue, and everything kind of looks normal to me (sure some wear and tear but nothing appears abnormal).

I've never driven this car that hard, nor have brought it to a track, etc. I haven't even replaced the brakes on it yet (or even the spark plugs which is recommended at 40k miles which I'll do soon) and I just bought new tires for the very first time a couple months ago.

What are you thoughts? I'm chatting with a rep from Volkswagen tomorrow. I already chatted with them via their messenger on their website and they refused to do anything so I doubt the call will go anywhere but all I want to know is what went wrong so I can avoid this happening again. Any thoughts greatly appreciated!

 

[hans611]

Thanks for following up!

Clutch shows signs of slipping and overheating but definitely no "blue spots" The diaphragm looks fine. Maybe there was some contamination? very odd, glad its worked out though.