My clutch completely went at 53,888 miles.
This is a great car, and until the clutch dying, I had no problems with it. I originally took the car into the dealership because the "MIL" light came on. They ran a diagnostic on the car, but found nothing. They blamed the light coming on due to the gas cap not being closed all the way as is the case now with the "closed" system for the emissions. On the drive home from the dealership, my car suddenly would just "rev" but would not accelerate. I had the car towed back to the dealership and was told that the clutch went out. This was a certified pre-owned car, but of course with my luck, the clutch is considered a "wear part" and was not covered. My car supposedly was put over a "128 point inspection". So how did they miss the bad clutch?
VW 1.8T clutch failures are not uncommon. You may consider lucky, because some people have had their clutches fail with under 10,000 miles. Look on this website at other Jetta/Golf/New Beetle 1.8T owners and you will read more complaints regarding early clutch failures. Usually the clutch disk, pressure plate, and flywheel all need to be replaced during a typical 1.8T clutch failure - all to the tune of $1200 - $1800. The culprit is "dual mass flywheel" that VW uses on the 1.8T cars... for some reason it's been said to wear out the clutch faster or whatever. www.2002vwjetta.com was a website that was devoted just to this topic.
Enjoy your Jetta though, aside from this, it's a great, good looking car, that, with a good dealer and proper service, you will enjoy for a while.
BEWARE... I purchased a 2001 Volkswagen Jetta GLS... That is when my nightmare began. I had engine problems, oil consumption problems and window problems. In the entire year I owned the car, it was in the shop more than it was on the road.
Volkswagen made good and replaced mine with a newer model. I had the same situation. Please DO RESEARCH Volkswagen before you purchase one... Don't make the same mistake I made.
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