4CE FED NOGARO

I have a 2011 S4 with a manual transmission and all of the APR 2+ mods.

I barely ever really launch my S4 hard but the other day I decided to give it a shot and really launch it hard. When I did I took off the traction control, brought it up to about 3500-4000, and basically side stepped the clutch (Do not do this!!! LOL). Basically the tires did not spin at all, the clutch slipped in first and then in second after doing this. I eased off the throttle and babied it home. Once it cooled down it smelled for like an hour or two but I haven't noticed any problems since or any other clutch slipping problems. All seems normal.

Will this cause any serious problems if I never do it again?

What would be the best way to launch this thing if I were to go to the track?

skiracerblah

Time for a beefier clutch...

BaLLZDeePNYC

It is well known that with Stage 2 the car potentially needs a clutch upgrade. Guys have had slipping clutch with these cars after stage 2. Solution for this right now is the clutchmaster setup. There are some other potential solutions on the horizon as well. JHopefully with the dawn of stage 3 APR throws in a special clutch/flywheel package because it would be counterproductive to have power without a way to put it down.

sakimano

seems the B8 clutches aren't holding up nearly as well as the previous generation clutches. The B8 S5 guys do lots of complaining, especially the supercharged TTS cars (although they're making about 120 WHP more than even a stage II 3.0T car). TinS5 on here was saying even 4.2 S4 guys with stock or mild mods were complaining of slip.

richib886 has a bunch of power mods...how is his clutch holding up?


p.s. according to one tuner the B8 S5 clutch is a pain in the *** overall. Going to be more expensive than aftermarket B7 S4/RS4 clutch/flywheel kits for a few reasons I don't quite remember.

is the B8 S4 setup the same as the S5?

helix139

Richi has a clutchmasters FX400 setup and it's holding up fine for him. He actually had a bad seal on the input shaft on the OEM clutch which was leaking oil onto the friction plate that was causing a ton of issues for him when he was still on the stock setup. He didn't know it until he switched.

And yes, the B8 S4 clutch setup is similar to the B8 S5. The problem is there is a stamped plate behind the flywheel that connects everything to the flex plate. The tooling required to stamp that out of a single piece of steel is ridiculous.

RobC

FWIW, in my Stage 3 B5S4 with stage 2 clutch, I always launched with clutch slip at the drag strip. Sticky summer tires x 4 is an awful lot of sudden torque to deliver (mine dyno'd at 460 lb-ft at 3500 rpm at the flywheel), and if the tires don't break loose, you experience what happened to you.

I think it was folks with the race 6-puck clutches that were doing clutch drops.

sakimano

oh he got a new clutch already...I missed that.

When I was in Detroit at a meet with some of the JHM guys when they did the engine pull on a B8 S5 last year there was lots of headscratching at the design. The JHM guys couldn't understand why they did things the way they did. Again though that was a B8 S5 4.2, so I'm not sure how closely related the trans is to the B8 S4 3.0T or S5 3.0T

helix139

That flywheel setup is very, very similar, and that is where the problem lies.

DrGP

I've experienced the same issue with my car which has no tune but only when in Dynamic mode. I believe the OEM clutch is not strong enough for the stock engine. With a tune it will just fry.

Foogie

Guess we need to find out what APR is running on their car. That said, popping any clutch at high RPMs is bound to make any clutch unhappy for a bit. But hey, could be a warranty item at low mileage if we break them right ?