The Flywheel needs to go!

By Clinton HulleyGolf 5 GTI Project Car
BFI Single Mass Flywheel
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I haven’t done a lot of km on the BFI single mass flywheel and clutch kit on my 2006 Golf 5 GTI. I have driven it like this as long as I could but the flywheel needs to go! From a performance standpoint, this was a great clutch. Because the single-mass flywheel and clutch setup is lighter than the duel mass setup the engine is quick-revving. Since I had the Black Forest Industries clutch install the clutch has not slipped once. So what is the issue you may ask?

The issue is all the extra sounds that come out of the drive train. Some people may like it and I thought I would get used to it but it was just too much. If you install a single mass setup on your TFSI engine but retain the standard engine mounts then I think it will not bother you that much. The sounds would be something you can get used to.


If you have upgraded engine mounts like I had the story changes completely. When you install the upgraded engine mounts your car cabin becomes like a speaker box. The engine sounds that usually get absorbed by the soft mounts now get transmitted into the cabin. If you are a petrol head these sound will make you enjoy your car just so much more. Installing a single mass flywheel changes that.

So what changes?

Over the years cars have been developed to get it as quiet as possible. One of the things they have done was to increase the weight of the flywheels to dampen the gear chatter on the gearboxes, By doing this they could reduce the cost of the production of gearboxes. They got to the point that flywheels got to heavy. Engines were slow revving and although they didn’t lose power the cars felt underpowered.

This is when the dual mass flywheel was born. They could reduce the flywheel weight and add a dampener system into the mix. This removed all the sounds that the gearbox generate from the pusses of the ignition cycles of the engine.


By fitting a single mass flywheel to the engine you remove the damping system between the engine and the gearbox. If you have upgraded engine mounts all these sounds get transmitted to the cabin of the car. You hear it on idle, it sounds like a rattle, almost like something is loose on the engine. This I could still live with but the thing that drove me insane was when you are on higher revs and you tap off the throttle. On deceleration, it sounded as if the engine or gearbox is coming apart. It was a really loud sound. This made the car very unpleasant to drive,

Looking for solutions.

I started doing some research on clutches for the GTI. This was the main reason I changed the setup in the first place. I wanted something that doesn’t slip, something that can hold the power\torque.

I got in contact with the company that I bought my D2 Big Brake kit from Formula Friction. They were very helpful. The guy I spoke to gave me the option of fitting a hybrid clutch they do for the Golf 5/6 GTI’s. It is a standard dual-mass flywheel with a clutch kit they modify. They change the diaphragm pivot point to increase the clamp load of the pressure plate while not increasing the pedal stiffness to mutch from standard.

The main change was they make up a custom clutch plate. This was a mix of a standard clutch plate and a button clutch.

Standard clutch plate vs the Hybrid plate

So how does the hybrid clutch plate work?

What is nice about the hybrid clutch plate it drives like a normal clutch without the shudder of a button clutch. When releasing the clutch pedal the organic lining gets in contact with the flywheel first and gets the gearbox to start turning. Then as you release the clutch pedal more the buttons get in contact with the flywheel and it grips. So now you get the best of both worlds. You get the comfort of the standard clutch and the grip of a performance clutch.


Receiving the kit

I was so impressed with the theory behind the kit, I just had to get one for my Golf 5 GTI. I placed the order and a few days later it was delivered. As it was a local company that did this kit it was great as I didn’t have to wait too long.

Standard Dual Mass flywheel for Golf 5 GTI
Hybrid Clutch plate and modified pressure plate.

Conclusion and first thoughts.

My first impressions of the kit when I got into the car after the kit was installed was really good. The clutch pedal was so soft in comparison to the leg breaker kit I had in the car.

The was one downside on this clutch kit. The bed-in period of the clutch is terrible. They tell you that for the first 1000km must not put full power on the clutch. That wasn’t a problem. The issue you have is that the first 1000km the clutch shudders like crazy. When the clutch is not bedded in it isn’t nice to drive.

It also doesn’t help you go for a 1000km long trip. You need to do 1000km city traffic driving. You need to change gears frequently so that the clutch can bed in properly. That bed-in period was really bad but I knew that once it was bedded in the would be great. I did my 1000km and slowly but surely the shudders got less. Clutch engagement got smooth and the clutch was nice and sharp,

Once the clutch was properly bedded in I could do hard launched with the car without any clutch slip. The car was a real pleasure to drive now. I was grateful to the guys at Formula Friction with coming up with this setup that will retain normal drivability while having the grip of a performance clutch.


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