My 1999 1.8T (AGU)  60,000.

Clutch initial drive take up is not as smooth as it used to be, and I would say it is worse when cold

Symptoms could best be described akin to pulling away in half a gear higher, requiring a bit more revs than was previously required, over 2k rather than 1.7K

If you pull away with some enthusiasm everything seems normal.

Strangely if you drive until car is up to temp then let it cool a bit say for 30 mins then drive it again the clutch feels normal with smooth drive take up

There is no noises from the clutch, engaged or not.

There is no clutch slip, and gear selection is normal.

 

I changed clutch fluid, no change

I changed Gearbox mount, no change.

I changed spark plugs, no change

 

I considered that if the AGU has a dual mass flywheel that it may be wearing.

I took it to VAG independent specialist to check out who reported that they consider that there is no fault from their driving of the car, and that clutch function is normal.

 

Does AGU in Octavia have a DMF ?

Are my cars symptoms consistent with DMF wear.?

Is there anything else to that I should check ?

 

I have had this car since 2000 and therefore know that the mileage is correct and that the clutch is the original, car was chipped 9 years ago.

 

 

 

I had a vr6 golf that did exactly the same, it took me ages to find it but the clutch hose to the slave onto of the gearbox had gone porous and was allowing moisture into the hydraulic circuit so it would only exhibit faults when the fluid was hot.

I will try and check this, but I fear that this may not be the cause, as there was no improvement after changing the clutch fluid. I can here some noise from the slave cylinder if the clutch is operated with the engine off.

Yeh you will hear something, it's just the pushrod acting on the release bearing lever... Thing isvif the dmf was hangin' you would hear it clattering especially at low speeds.

I have no direct experience, of a DMF failing, but the view seems to be that it's failure would be accompanied by some kind of noise. Now in my case there is no noise, but the clutch is much sharper than it used to be. I guess I will have to wait and see if this develops or not.

 

Still not even sure if the AGU with 5spd box has a DMF or not, If I can not put up with clutch feel I may have to have new DMF (if it has one) and clutch fitted, but I don't want to do this until I am convinced that this is the cause, especially since the garage has said that they find the clutch OK 

Yeah they definitely do have a dual mass flywheel fitted, and they are quite expensive too, it is possible to retro-fit a solid flywheel from an earlier model with a vr6 clutch kit as an alternative which seems to be the cheaper and more reliable option.

Well, to update. I am still not fully satisfied with the feel of the clutch.

So I had another look, after removal of the airbox I checked slave cylinder and hydraulic line

Everything looks OK.

Noted that on top of clutch housing there is a rubber cap, I removed it  to have a look, can't see much

there is no apparent movement in the flywheel, but not really sure if this is a valid observation.

 

Anyway, I concluded that the sharp clutch feel, may be due to clutch friction plate contamination, so 

I squirted some turpentine substitute into the clutch (a bit unorthodox) and the clutch feel improved

I have been driving it with the rubber cap off, to allow the turps to fully dry off.

 

After a couple of days the clutch feel although not perfect has remained less sharp than it was. Considering

that the VAG independent that I use reports that the clutch had no problem, prior to this action, maybe I can

accept this condition until the clutch really needs replacing.