manual tranny clutch engagement

[styleandspeed]

Hey guys, I have an 03 beetle turbo S, and I just had a few questions for everybody about your manual tranny cars. I was talking to another vw owner with the 6 speed tranny (I would imagine it is the same for the 5 speed) and he told me that "the clutch only starts to engage when your pedal is already half way up, but you will still grind if you shift unless you put the clutch all the way to the floor."

He didn't understand why this was, and I didn't either from what he told me, but when you shift very quickly in the car there is some truth to his statement. However I noticed when I am shifting slowly there is no problem whatsoever with getting it to smoothly shift gears with the pedal just over halfway depressed.

This got me thinking that perhaps the master cylinder, or slave just weren't able to flow the clutch fluid fast enough to keep up which is why you have to put the pedal all the way to the floor to kind of "force" the clutch fluid to hurry up. Now, this is just an idea that I got from my LS1 f-body experience where the master cylinder is a restriction and if you modify, or replace the master cylinder with an aftermarket one you are able to shift faster and easier with less risk of grinding gears. I was just wondering if anyone has looked into this before, and what they might have found out? Or does anyone know if any aftermarket companies have looked into it for our cars?

[John Koch]

Originally Posted by styleandspeed

Hey guys, I have an 03 beetle turbo S, and I just had a few questions for everybody about your manual tranny cars. I was talking to another vw owner with the 6 speed tranny (I would imagine it is the same for the 5 speed) and he told me that "the clutch only starts to engage when your pedal is already half way up, but you will still grind if you shift unless you put the clutch all the way to the floor."

He didn't understand why this was, and I didn't either from what he told me, but when you shift very quickly in the car there is some truth to his statement. However I noticed when I am shifting slowly there is no problem whatsoever with getting it to smoothly shift gears with the pedal just over halfway depressed.

This got me thinking that perhaps the master cylinder, or slave just weren't able to flow the clutch fluid fast enough to keep up which is why you have to put the pedal all the way to the floor to kind of "force" the clutch fluid to hurry up. Now, this is just an idea that I got from my LS1 f-body experience where the master cylinder is a restriction and if you modify, or replace the master cylinder with an aftermarket one you are able to shift faster and easier with less risk of grinding gears. I was just wondering if anyone has looked into this before, and what they might have found out? Or does anyone know if any aftermarket companies have looked into it for our cars?

To shift gears with a clutch anywhere other than fully depressed causes the synchronizers to engage and operate at much higher friction and force than is normal. With a clutch only partially depressed and you shifting slowly, it allows more time for the syncronizers to "catch up" to the speed of the next gear. Never, never, ever shift fast or slow in another gear while the clutch is only partially depressed. It will prematurely wear out the tranny, clutch, gears and syncronizers. Even with the clutch fully depressed, changing gears very quickly accelerating, the speed of engagement is limited to the syncronizers ability to speed up the next gear up...When changing the fluid used in any VW 5 or 6 speed manual, use only the correct type as directed by VW service. There are 3 diffferent types of fluid (75W90 synthetic gear lube) The correct fluid that applies to your tranny is only found by submitting the VIN, tranny code, serial number of tranny. All three different fluids are about $33.00 per liter and it will take all 2 to fill completely. After I changed mine the tranny shifted smoother and the syncro's seemed to work smoother and quicker... JK

[styleandspeed]

Cool, thanks for the insight. I don't really beat on my cars tranny, but I am always looking for different ways to improve.