I could use some guidance on expected clutch life for 996 turbo. I realize it varies greatly so its a hard question.

After replacing my accumulator once again and this time replacing the slave, the dealership is now telling me that they are failing because my clutch is bad.

The car has 31K miles on it and has only been to a couple of track days.

I have never experienced any slippage but I understand that may not mean the clutch is still good.

Dealership is asking for $4300 to replace it and I don't know how to decide if they are increasing their margins (since the accumulator + slave are under warranty) or if I really need a new clutch.

thoughts?

Thanks in advance for any input or help

Jay Connelly
2001 996 Turbo
2006 Dodge Viper
2001 BMW 3301

 

Price is definitely high. Why not go to an indy that specializes in Porsches? Not only can you confirm the diagnosis but you can get another quote. There should be a few places near you. You may also be able to upgrade the clutch if you want.

 

996 116 015 88: disk: $312.00
996 116 027 51: pressure plate:$491.00
950 116 080 08: release bearing:$166.00
time: can be done in 4 hours (+-2 including bleeding of the slave)
The clutch wear got nothing to do with the slave or the accumulator....The total price of a clutch replacement should be far from $4300.00????

 

Way high and probably not related. There are guys on here with 100k on their original clutch. Have them fix the warranty items then go to a different mechanic.

 

With no need to have gone through a clutch R&R on my 03 Turbo (thank goodness) I have not had an opportunity to delve into the Turbo clutch much.

It is possible I guess that if the clutch were really worn (and I have had reports of clutches wearing to the point the flywheel face gets grooved from the friction disc rivets contacting the flywheel yet the clutch didn't slip it just juddered when taking off from a stop so they can get really really worn) the piston in the slave cylinder may be traveling in an area it has never been in before and this could damage the slave cylinder, its piston/seal.

This ties in with the caution on brake bleeding if one is doing it the old way and having someone press down on the brake pedal to not push the pedal all the way down as this will have the brake piston in an area of the cylinder in which it has never been before and it could encounter dirt, or rust and this can damage the brake piston and its seal.

With a non-boosted clutch the clutch pedal pressure goes up as the mechanical leverage is lost as the friction disc becomes thinner and that something is going on is obvious to at least someone with a familiarity with how healthy and worn clutches feel.

In the case of the Turbo the boosted clutch system masks this situation.

This could also result in the boost system being over stressed and leading to an early or premature failure of the slave cylinder and even the accumulator.

So what the dealer is telling you is plausible if my analysis has any validity.

I guess it boils down to whether you trust the shop or not.

 

Whoa, $4300 for clutch parts + install? That's way too high. I recently had my clutch replaced by a private shop and the total charge was $2700. Even that price is on the high side, but I didn't have much of a choice at the time. The break down from the invoice was $1500 in labor and $1200 in parts.

 

find a new stealer.

 

+1 sounds like they're looking to rip you off unless they are also replacing flywheel and pressure plate as well which is another big ???

These cars have an inherent issue with accumulators and clutch slaves breaking/leaking, even without any sort of clutch problems. The dealer should know this. Probably does know this, but looking to take advantage and tell you it's the whole clutch.

Do you have any severe imbalance in the clutch you can feel through the pedal?

If not, just leave it in. And another note of advice: next time the accumulator or slave fails (it will and as said it's a well known issue on 996TT) - instead of repair just immediately step to the regular Carrera solution w/o assisted clutch and you won't have to deal with it again. This so called "GT2 slave mod" as it's called adds a little work to convert because you have to replace the slave and master to the Carrera/Boxster/GT2 version, flush the system to use DOT4 instead of Pentosin and plug off a couple of feeds from the power steering reservoir (they share the fluid), but no more 996TT slave and accumulator issues.

 

Thats out to lunch. Some of these P-car stealerships are crazy out to lunch.

Mine quoted me over the phone $900 for a MAF sensor and they told me it would be about 1.5 hours labor to swap it out. All I said was Right!!!!! Sure!!!!!!!

 

I see you're in Austin. Cool, another Austin member.

You should check out TPWS on N. Lamar. I had them do my PPI. They are clearly not fans of modding cars but they really know their stuff when it comes to the stock setup.

 

HUGE rip off...

Buy the gt2 conversion and have it done and be done with it.

 

HA! I got a Bosch OEM MAF on Amazon for $175 and it maybe took 1.5 minutes to replace.

 

Sounds to me like there bending you over.

 

Like most folks have suggested here, I'd be suspicious of this too. The accumulator and slave often need replacing well before the clutch goes bad. I had mine done under CPO when I first bought the car, and 30K miles later the clutch is still going strong. I think you'll usually see some other indications of the clutch going bad (e.g. slipping under load in higher gears). Also, as others have stated, the price is high. However, I've also been quoted prices in that range by dealerships, so I can't say it's out of bounds of dealer prices. You're just better off checking with an indy on the clutch and saving yourself a couple thousand dollars.

Good luck.

 

The other handy thing about working with a good Indy is they can install a different clutch setup as well. If you ever plan on a turbo upgrade the clutch will be quickly behind that mod. So do it once/right if possible. Just had my accumulator swapped this year as I began getting the Pentosin leak by Drivers-side front tire.