Clutch Stickiness ONLY after medium-hard right turns.

[SpongeBob]

I'd pull the sump and check if there are any marks on the flywheel. You could have someone push the clutch pedal in and out and see if the flywheel moves side to side. Filter the oil to see if there are any metal particles or send some oil off for sampling.

You might get away with pulling the arch liner off the driver side and see if there's any end float at the crank pulley though I'm bot sure if that's possible with the clutch still attached and the timing belt on,

Quite a few mk7's have had the same issue, again with an uprated clutch so maybe check the mk7 forums for crankwalk issues. Symptoms are the same, clutch sticking on right turns.

Here's a link to the thread on our local car forum with the guy who had this issue with his mk5. Pages 4,5 and 6.

https://rmsmotoring.com/forum/threads/i-bought-back-my-old-mk5-gti.223480/page-4

[OllieVRS]

I'd pull the sump and check if there are any marks on the flywheel. You could have someone push the clutch pedal in and out and see if the flywheel moves side to side. Filter the oil to see if there are any metal particles or send some oil off for sampling.

You might get away with pulling the arch liner off the driver side and see if there's any end float at the crank pulley though I'm bot sure if that's possible with the clutch still attached and the timing belt on,

Quite a few mk7's have had the same issue, again with an uprated clutch so maybe check the mk7 forums for crankwalk issues. Symptoms are the same, clutch sticking on right turns.

Here's a link to the thread on our local car forum with the guy who had this issue with his mk5. Pages 4,5 and 6.

https://rmsmotoring.com/forum/threads/i-bought-back-my-old-mk5-gti.223480/page-4

Fantastic insight, thanks for that. I felt a bit lost when I googled 'sticky clutch pedal when turning right' because nothing relevant came up. Googling 'crankwalk' immediately reveals it to indeed be a symptom.

There's no marks on the flywheel. I have dropped the sump on multiple occasions, each time as a result of inadequate oil pressure, so there were metal particles obviously. But impossible to tell if they were from thrust bearings or from any other moving parts. So I don't think I'll be dropping the sump again, good tip though. Back in May the flywheel was scratch free, so I doubt it's changed since then if the symptoms are still the same.

You might get away with pulling the arch liner off the driver side and see if there's any end float at the crank pulley though I'm bot sure if that's possible with the clutch still attached and the timing belt on,

Nice one, I'll give that ago when I get the chance.

Here's a link to the thread on our local car forum with the guy who had this issue with his mk5. Pages 4,5 and 6.
https://rmsmotoring.com/forum/threads/i-bought-back-my-old-mk5-gti.223480/page-4

The one post I couldn't find with my useless Google search. Thank you 

The engine is on 131k miles, I assume the clutch has been done at some point in the past, but the engine was unmodified and not mapped when I bought the car so I assume a standard clutch was put back in. I'm hesitant to conclude it's crankwalk, but not sticking my head in the sand either. I'll do some more digging. And I'll see if I can fit another shim in the gearbox.

Cheers 

[OllieVRS]

Pressing the clutch in and out with the engine off, in gear:

Pressing the clutch in and out with the engine on, neutral:

Doesn't seem to have any movement with the engine off, just a little whine from somewhere.

With the engine on it's hard to tell if there's any movement because of the vibrations of the car and my camera work not being too great. Maybe 0.5mm of movement or it's placebo. And I got my Mam to press the clutch pedal in and out for me so not sure if she was pushing it all the way down.

Ordered the end cap for the gearbox so I'll be reattempt to insert more shims into the gearbox next week.

Any thoughts?

[pudding]

Definitely no crank walk there. You would absolutely know it if there was    It would move out like 5mm in severe cases when the thrust bearing is practically gone 

The whine is either the cam belt engaging in the sprocket teeth or one of the idler pulley bearings. I wouldn't worry about that. Even a brand new VAG timing belt kit made the same noise on mine.

[OllieVRS]

Took off the gearbox end cap, no play in the shaft. Went ahead anyway and took off the lock ring, put in another shim but I couldn't get the lock ring back on. So no more room for another shim.

So it's not crankfloat, it's not the gearbox shaft play issue and there are no scratches visible on the engine size of the flywheel.

What else is left?

 

[OllieVRS]

Clutch fluid bled and replaced, the stuff that came out was dark and groggy.

Unfortunately no noticeable affect on clutch feel or the pedal stickiness issue.

Guess it's down to flywheel or clutch now