Clutch and Flywheel Kit with a Gearbox Oil Change in Uprated

A clutch and flywheel: the manual gearbox oil while the box is on the bench, which the group calls a lifetime fill and which is not.

We are an independent parts supplier. We are not Volkswagen, Audi, Seat or Skoda, and we are not appointed by any of them. Those are their trademarks and what we sell are parts that fit their cars. The useful thing about this group is that four badges share platforms and share parts, so the same component fits a Golf, an A3, a Leon and an Octavia and costs four different amounts at four different counters. We list it once, at one price, and tell you which platform it belongs to.

Specification and fitment

• Fits: Golf Mk5 Mk6 Mk7 Mk8, Passat B6 B7 B8, A3 8P 8V 8Y, A4 B8 B9, Leon 1P 5F KL, Octavia 1Z 5E NX, and the other group cars on the same platforms with a manual gearbox
• Platform: chosen above. This part is shared across the group. The Volkswagen, the Audi, the Seat and the Skoda all take it, it is the same component in four different boxes, and the price here is the same whichever badge is on your car. Choose your badge above for your records, not because it changes anything.
• Engine: 1.6 and 2.0 TDI, 1.4 1.8 and 2.0 TSI. This group changes specification mid production and does it on a platform basis rather than a model year basis, so two cars registered the same week can take different parts. Send us the VIN with the order and we check the part against the build data before anything is dispatched. It takes two minutes and it is the difference between a part that fits and a return.
• Production dates: 2003 to 2022 depending on platform
• Quality: the revised part number, which on this group matters more than on most. A great many of these components were superseded because the original failed, and the listing says exactly what changed and when
• Part number: cross referenced to the group part number for your VIN and confirmed before dispatch. We do not print one number against a listing that covers several supersessions, because on this group the supersessions are the whole point
• The failure this addresses: a judder as the clutch takes up, a rattle at idle that disappears when the pedal is pressed, a biting point that has crept to the top of the travel, or a smell after a hill. The rattle is the dual mass flywheel and it is the part people try not to replace
• Labour time: five to eight hours, and longer on four wheel drive
• Coding: none required. Fit it and drive
• Also needed: a rear main seal, a spigot bearing, gearbox oil, new flywheel bolts which are single use, and a clutch alignment tool which is in the kit
• Torque: flywheel bolts are single use and are torqued then angled, and the figures are not the same as the pressure plate bolts
• Interval: not scheduled. A clutch lasts as long as it lasts, and a dual mass flywheel usually decides the timing rather than the friction plate
• Weight: approximately 30.4 kilograms
• Warranty: two years or 24,000 miles, whichever comes first
• A DMF cannot be machined. A single mass flywheel can be skimmed and a dual mass cannot, and anybody offering to is skimming the friction face of a worn assembly that has free play in it
• Solid conversion: available, and it is noisier at idle. On a car driven hard it is sensible and on a quiet commuter it is not
• While it is out: rear main seal, spigot bearing, gearbox oil and the slave cylinder. All four are cheap and all four are the same labour
• Four wheel drive: the propshaft comes out and the Haldex unit is right there, so this is the moment to do the Haldex fluid

What arrives

• the clutch plate, cover and release bearing
• the dual mass or solid flywheel
• single use flywheel bolts and pressure plate bolts
• a rear main seal and spigot bearing
• a clutch alignment tool
• the labour where the fitted option is chosen

Fitting

Five to eight hours with the gearbox out, longer on four wheel drive. Do the rear main seal, the spigot bearing and the gearbox oil while it is apart, and on a four wheel drive car do the Haldex fluid too, because the unit is right there and the alternative is paying to get back to it.

Which version to buy

The decision that costs people money is trying to keep the old dual mass flywheel. It cannot be machined, it wears internally, and a new clutch bolted to a worn one judders within weeks and puts the gearbox back out at your expense. If the free play is past specification, and at 90,000 miles it usually is, the flywheel goes with it.