Heavy clutch, is this normal?

[tinman]

cant agree. my valver was 4 when i got it and its always been heavy. i also test drove one of the last ones in 91 and it was equally heavy. i also drove a friends 16v all those years ago and found it exactly the same. i must of driven three duds.

[AudiA8Quattro]

Did you drive one with a brand new clutch and cable fitted?
Its certainly very light compared with the vr6  

[jettaTx]

yeah mine is so much lighter since i fitted a new clutch on it!   

[tinman]

Did you drive one with a brand new clutch and cable fitted?
Its certainly very light compared with the vr6  

strange, i test drove a VR6 just after they came out (revenge for the dealership charging £5 to refill the windscreen res during a service on the 16v).

the vr6 had a much much lighter clutch.

[GTI EDITION (aka LTD)]

A few thing to consider :
                                  1: The clutch can feel heavy if the cable has worn ( over time )through the nylon inner casing .
                                  2: If the clutch is VERY heavy it can break the quadrant in the end of the gear box ( behind the green circular plate on the end... quite easy to replace )
                                  3; In extreme circumstances the center release shaft/rod ( which slides inside the input shaft ) can punch a hole through the center release plate in the clutch assembly ( I have seen a few that have done this ) . This makes it a right bu66er to get the box out as the release rod tends to get stuck  and you  can end up bending the rod and knackering the small oil seal and bronze bush in the end of the inputshaft.
  N.B. I would always recomend replacing the oil seal and bush when replacing the clutch assembly ( a small price to pay compared with replacing ( an oil contaminated  ) plate a few days later !!!   

[rubjonny]

Replace the cable before you do anything else. Get yourself down to Halfords the manual cables are on clearance, I got one yesterday for £5!!

Edit: The clutch on my MK2 driver was quite heavy, but not too bad.  I fitted the clutch spring from a MK2 16v and it was better.  I also replaced the cable and it was much lighter for a while, but gradually went back to normal (non genuine cable from GSF)

[Mr Blue]

ive had a few gti's and all the clutches seem to be lighter than newer cars

someone was telling me that a heavy clutch could be related to the release fork/bearing. is this true ?

[Veedubgt18v]

i used to think my clutch was light and it is compared to marks 16v but then i had a new clutch fitted. but the other day i drove an audi a3 brand new and damn the clutch weas like a button made me realise how old our cars are getting.........

and it had weird adaptive steering bollies

[the_GTI_new_guy]

Where should the bite ing pount be. Mine is 1/2 to 3/4 way up. Works fine just wondered if this is the norm.

[MR.V]

i had this take out the clutch cable oil/grease it and then put it back problem solved!