Sudden clutch failure ?

[8690q]

My wifes car had to be rescued by a recovery lorry yesterday due to what seems to be sudden clutch failure.

Its a 1998 a4 2.8 30v quattro avant with 5 speed gearbox and has had a new clutch fitted not long before we bought the car.

No signs of impending doom, car drove great with no slipping, crunching or strange smells or noises.

Driving along and went to change from 3rd to 4th when the clutch pedal stayed on the floor and unable to select any gears, luckily I managed to coast to safe spot to stop.
Once stopped the pedal returned to normal position and feels fine and gears can now be selected again but when you let the clutch out the car goes nowhere.

I managed to get it raised up a bit today for a look underneath and all seems present and correct. No leaking fluid from the slave cylinder, clutch plates look brand new through the inspection window and as far as I can tell all cv joints and the prop are still connected.

I'm wondering if anyone has any other possible causes I could be looking for ?
I'm thinking if something has failed inside the bellhousing it'll have to go into a garage to get repaired, I don't have the facilities. I would like to check the simpler stuff first before getting my wallet turned inside out though.

Cheers

Michael

[sam80quattro]

The smae happened to my b6 quattro and it had ripped all the material off 1 side of the friction plate

[kompressorgolf]

could be two most likely things. Either the clutch slave gave out, or the plastic pivot for the shift fork let go, causing the slave to over extend, and explode... I had the plastic piece for the shift fork snap on a road trip and the clutch slave popped. I limped it to a nearby parts store that actually had a new one, swapped it in a friendly fellows driveway, first time I hit the clutch the new one exploded. Drove the car home (300 miles) and had to pull the trans.... crappy trip!

[8690q]

Sorry been without internet, thanks sky.

Problem with the car turned out to be all material had fallen off the friction plate.

New clutch had been fitted 2000 miles before we bought the car but that was 2 years ago so car has done plenty of sitting about so I'm assuming it had partially seized to the flywheel at some point.

Thanks for the suggestions.

[macspring]

Thanks for updating.

While a new clutch is not a cheap fix, it is a good 'straightforward' fix. A new clutch is always an improvement over a tired or worn clutch.

Hopefully, you get to drive the car regularly going forward, which will help you forget about the grief.