I've got a 03 A4 1.8T. I was driving on the highway yesterday and traffic stopped about a few hundred feet in front of me. I wanted to down shift but didn't hit the clutch deep enough. I heard a big grinding noise and was unable to put the stick into any of the gears. The clutch got stuck all the way in the bottom.

I got my car towed and now it's sitting in my garage. I can start the engine fine but I just can't put it into any gears. Even if I can it gets super shaky. Also you can feel the minor vibration when you put you foot on the clutch peddle.

What could have happened here? I think I probably lost a tooth. How much do you think this will cost me? Thanks for all your help.

 

Either the pressure plate took a dump or the disc itself broke. Try the easy thing first, see if you need any fluid on the brake reservoir. If you don't, then you might need to drop the transmission and look inside to see what failed.

 

probably a broken throw out bearing

 

As Dan1969 said, you're clutch definitely failed. I have had this same experience (as well as my friend) in our Evos when the discs just fell apart in the bell-housing.

A spring broke on the disc, causing it to not engage and slow the rotation of the input shaft which also prevents you from putting the car in gear. The shaking sensation is the car trying to engage a gear with the clutch stuck where it is; since the disc is broken, the throw out bearing is lodged into one place, but the clutch could be partially or fully engaged where it sits.

Now I have only done clutch swaps on my Evo (got it down to 4 hours lol) so here is were my experience stops for the Audi.

From my Evo experience, when you have a disc failure, its very difficult to remove the broken clutch. Usually, a screwdriver is inserted into the TOB through an access port which releases the TOB from the plate, allowing you to remove the trans from the car. With the clutch not released and the TOB stuck in place, you won't be able to pull the trans off the car, so you may have to unbolt the pressure plate through the access port.. which by the way SUCKS.

Hope this helped, but the sum of the situation is you'll need a new clutch/TOB.

 

That wont be a problem on the A4. This is because the A4 has a push TB and pressure plate design, the EVO uses a Pull design.

I have broken 2 different clutch kits and the transmission still comes off without an issue.

 

this is sorta what happened to me when my clutch blew last month, i heard a big bang and the clutch just went to butter, i brought it to my school and when we pulled the tranny out hundreds of pieces of my clutch plate started falling out and when i took the pressure plate off the metal from the clutch disc was not only bent but 6 plates were fused together and the springs of the pressure plate were half bent all the way back. my teacher said hes never seen anything like it in his life. i converted it from a dual mass flywheel to a solid, you can get the kit from valeo for only 470 and it comes with a new clutch plate, new flywheel, new pressure plate, alignment tool, grease and all new bolts, and the clutch release bearing. but as for the actual transmission that may have messed up in your case im not sure, luckily i havent experienced anything like that yet...but my engine is now startin to go down the toilet with a ton of problems...

 

Valeo kit is a Less then OEM replacement. So if a OEM is stage 0 then the Valeo is like having a Stage -1 kit. lol