My car has 25K and has exhibited this problem for the last 20K

miles. It has not gotton worse. It does seem to be a bit

worse when it is hot and in lots of stop-and-go traffic. Over

time, I have learned that you can start out smoothly but

it requires a very deft touch with the clutch (and it is

impossible to do it perfectly over and over).

One other poster here did get his clutch replaced and said the

problem had been fixed (Erick Kobres in a December 98 posting).

In a June 99 posting Joseph Costanzo said he thought there was a

Technical Service Bulletin (TSB) on the T5 clutch. But, he did

not know the bulletin number. Joeseph emailed me that he did

eventually get the dealer to replace the clucth. I don't know if

that solved the problem permanently, though.

I did bring this to the attention of my dealer and they thought

the clutch was working normally (Smythe, San Jose, CA).

The other problem with the clutch is a squeek when the clutch pedal

is pressed. This is fixed by lubricating the clutch pedal shaft

where it passes through the firewall. Apparently, the grease used

in the factory did not last very long. I greased it myself and

the noise went away (nobody else seems to have this problem, though).

My car was an early build (Jan 97) so it maybe they switched grease

types at some point.