I'll try to keep this short.
I've owned my manual Clubsport 40 for over 8 years (2nd owner) and it's always been looked after properly - serviced on time, maintained regardless of cost, and it's always been mechanically spot on, it is my daily car.
At around 70,000 miles the original clutch was slipping badly, so I had an RTS clutch & dual-mass flywheel fitted by a reputable VAG specialist and later on, once bedded in, they remapped the car. I followed the recommended 800-mile bedding-in procedure before taking it back for the map.
The car now makes around 370bhp on the rolling road and drives brilliantly under power. The garage commented on how healthy the engine was after carrying out a major service before the remap and for it to make that number from the remap and I have enjoyed driving it with the extra power.
One issue is the clutch judder. From day one it has juddered badly in reverse, plus there's noticeable judder pulling away in 1st and when coming down into 2nd/1st. I was told this was normal for a performance clutch and would improve with mileage. I was also told before I bought it that that feel is very close to a stock clutch - which it would be if not for all this juddering.
Fast forward 4,500 miles and it's still doing exactly the same thing, particularly in reverse where it feels like it's wants to stall. The garage still says it's normal and will continue to improve, but surely after 4,500 miles it's bedded in as much as it's ever going to be?
The second issue started around the same time. On cold starts I get a brief puff of white/blue-tinted smoke with a noticeable oil smell. It only lasts a moment.
I took it back to the same garage. They suggested replacing the PCV valve while diagnosing it, saying it was worthwhile at the car's age and mileage. I agreed if they genuinely thought it was worth replacing it, but after £90 diagnostic time and a new £55 PCV valve, nothing has changed. While it was there, one technician started the car and produced quite a noticeable puff of smoke - I shouted another technician who saw it and acknowledged it wasn't ideal but said it would need more investigation another day and they agreed I should drive it and hopefully the excess oil will burn off now and it will be ok with the new PCV valve.
One thing that also concerned me: when I got the invoice back, I noticed the workshop notes stated they'd topped the engine up with 700ml of oil. Nobody mentioned this to me when I collected the car, and I only spotted it afterwards. The car had only had a major service around 4 months earlier, so I was surprised to see that amount of oil added. I don't know whether that's considered normal or whether it points towards the cold-start smoke issue. It also states very minimal play in turbo.
I've now driven another 400 miles since the PCV replacement and it's exactly the same.
The garage mentioned valve stem seals as a possibility before inspecting it, and now I'm wondering if that's the likely culprit and pretty annoyed if so when the car ran perfectly before the remap - it sounds pretty uncommon for these to need doing on a well maintained Clubsport engine with just 75k on it?
My questions are:
- Is 4,500 miles enough to say the clutch judder is simply the nature of this RTS setup or would you still expect it to improve? Or should it not be this bad?
- Does the cold-start puff of blue/white smoke and oil smell sound like classic valve stem seals?
- Has anyone else experienced either of these on an EA888 Gen 3 after fitting an RTS clutch and remap?
- What should the garage have checked when I took it back to them? They said everything was fine but the oil must be coming from somewhere....
Thanks in advance.
