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Golf R: RPMs jump and re-catch during acceleration

lamboravi

New member
My stock, unmodified 2012 Golf R has been behaving oddly under throttle the past few days. 72,000 miles on the odo.

With my foot nowhere near the clutch and in 4th gear or higher, medium throttle or more, as soon as the turbo has built significant boost around 3200rpm, the RPMs increase quickly but there is little acceleration resulting.

One might think the added torque from the boost is causing the clutch to slip especially against the higher gears, right? Well, here's where it gets odd.

Full throttle in 1st, 2nd, 3rd gear is no problem at all, no drama. In 4th, when the RPMs reach ~3200, they jump to ~4000 and then immediately back down to ~3200 and the car resumes strong acceleration. Again, only occurs in gears 4,5,6.

After a test drive, local mechanic agrees it is not a simple case of a dying clutch.

Any thoughts or similar experiences? Thanks in advance!
 

Squashdaddy

Go Kart Champion
This makes sense to me, but may be wrong:

Because of the gear ratios in the higher gears, there is more torque being applied to the clutch in lower rpms than in lower gears. When my clutch started slipping it too was only in higher gears. To me, it sounds exactly like a slipping clutch. I don't even know if anything else could cause the issue you are having.
 

sterkrazzy

Autocross Champion
I want to say clutch too. It's all the same gears I had issues with when my clutch was going, but my rpms didn't react the same. Mine just kinda floated in place and didn't go anywhere for a couple seconds, then resumed as normal.
 

TimS

Go Kart Newbie
That's exactly what my car was doing when my clutch started slipping - it held fine in low gears and at higher rpm, but it would slip and catch when boost built up at lower rpm.

The problems went away when I put in an upgraded clutch.
 
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CHerna

Ready to race!
My wife's old Evo did the exact same thing. It was the clutch.
 

ErBall

Measurement Mogul
This is textbook slipping clutch. You're applying more of an engine load in the higher gears and it exacerbates the slipping.
 

Fast-R

Passed Driver's Ed
As mentioned numerous times above, the symptoms you describe articulates exactly what happens when you have a slipping clutch. You haven't described any other symptoms for it to be anything else..

Might be time to get a new mechanic who is bit more proficient. Sticking with that one may lead you to be replacing or diagnosing things that aren't wrong..
 

OlderSlower

New member
I had a similar experience and was certain it was the clutch as I had gone to stage 2 and knew the stock clutch would be iffy. It turned out that the clutch was fine, but the flywheel was bad. Only way to know for sure is open up and see what's wrong. bring the checkbook...
 

bart2278

Go Kart Champion
See I have an issue that sounds similar. I just want to put this out there, so there isn't a sea of clutch comments. Just a quick note that if it turns out to be clutch related please run away from your mechanic, bc the signs, are fairly obvious. Now in 4-6th I have a situation where if I give medium to wot it almost sounds like my dv or wastegate is just dumping the boost. My car accelerates shitty bc of it. I can let off the gas and give it throttle again and it seems like whatever was dumping boost stops and it's fine. Mind you I'm not at low rpm's all the time when it happens. It happens at 3k+ as well.
 

lamboravi

New member
UPDATE: For about 2 weeks now since I took the car to the mechanic and then started this thread, the RPM jumping behavior has almost completely stopped.

Cannot imagine it suddenly getting a bit colder outside has any real effect here...
 
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bebersol

Ready to race!
It's still your clutch, R's are notorious for this. It's not about clutch material, the pressure plate lacks sufficient clamping force. The more it slips, the more it'll glaze the surface of the DMF. Think of it as an early warning. Mine started to do this @ 40K. I have the new clutch at home, but it doesn't do it much or at all in my daily drive. When it starts to happen more frequently I have exactly what I want for the upgrade.
 

lamboravi

New member
UPDATE:
In March 2019, I upgraded to an APR Stage 1 tune and replaced the original clutch/DMF with an ECS Stage 2 clutch/SMF. The slipping stopped for most of a year, and I honored the 500-mile break-in period and never took the car to the track, never used it to teach anyone new. However, since December the slipping has begun again in the taller gears, 10,000 miles later, and this time the slipping is a bit worse.

Even if ECS sends me a replacement clutch/flywheel kit, my fear is throwing hundreds of dollars in labor at the car only to have the slipping problem return again in 1 year/10,000 miles. And this is assuming the clutch/flywheel even is the root cause...:unsure:
 

Fast-R

Passed Driver's Ed
I don't know much about the ECS clutches, but if it is slipping within 10,000 miles, that means the clutch was not heavy duty enough for your set-up. That's assuming you're not constantly riding the clutch or doing 5k launches all the time... I know it sucks, but you'll need to try a more aggressive clutch.

I have a DXD stage 4 clutch and it is what I recommend. It sounds like a crazy recommendation since you're only stage 1, but it honestly doesn't feel much harsher than any other performance clutch and it can take a lot of power and last a long time. I have this exact model of clutch on my R as well as my big turbo Audi TT and I love it..

I'm sure you could go with a less aggressive clutch than the one I'm recommending, but you may run into the same issue again unless someone else has personal experience with a specific one that works at stage 1/2 power/torque levels and lasts a long time..
 
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