Audi 80 1.9TDI 1994

|| I have an 1994 Audi 80 1.9TDI, whic has done 200500 miles on the || clock. As the car has no trade-in value( dealer offer £250, and || loosing any discounts), I am looking at running it to the ground. The || clutch is still the original and therefore wondering how many miles || are still left?. Has anyone done more miles than this?. Major service || and timing belt is also overdue ( was quoted £300). || Is there a way to check what life is left on the clutch?

Forget the clutch and give it a timing belt and oil change if overdue ASAP ! if the timing belt goes at that value, it becomes scrap in a few miliseconds!!! and the turbo doesnt like dirty oil..... Take it to an independant VAG specialist and should cost a lot less than £300 fo an oil/filter change and timing belt. as far as the clutch life is concerned, how long is a piece of string? it could last 1 mile or 50,000 (I have had 250,000 out of a Mercedes on one clutch and a year after I sold it it is still going) The cost of a clutch plate is the difference between inspecting it and fixing it.

Des

A reasonable average seems to be 70-80,000 for average use (say your typical 12K mile per year driver), but like Des says it can vary wildly. If the car is driven by learner drivers (or just bad drivers!)in heavy traffic It could wear out very quickly. If it gets driven up and down quiet motorways by a sympathetic driver with very few stop/start cycles it could last for many hundreds of miles.

There's a few signs of a clutch close to worn out:

1. they'll quite often get heavier.
2. Crunch into reverse gear more than normal (clutch drag)
3. Biting point very high up the pedal, and the cluch only just engages without slipping.

Some of these can be caused by just bad adjustment though.

The answer is to drive it until it slips/grabs/makes horrid noises, and then change it quickly. If the engine or box comes out for any reason, change the clutch unless it's very new.