Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

worn clutch

G

GeekGod

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 31, 2008
6
0
the clutch and flywheel was just replaced on my '07 Mitsubishi Eclipse after only 19,000 miles. very upset about this. have driven manual for many years and never had this problem. only thing I can think of was I didn't always depress clutch to floor but just disengaged it. was this the problem? could shift faster this way. I do drive hard and fast.

also dealer replaced battery--said it was leaking. only covered partially by warranty. very unhappy having to spend >$1500 on a car this new.

any advise on what I can do to make new clutch last longer? TIA,
 
Don't sit at lights with the clutch depressed and the transmission in gear. Take it out of gear and your foot off the clutch. That's a biggie.
 
iGary said:
Don't sit at lights with the clutch depressed and the transmission in gear. Take it out of gear and your foot off the clutch. That's a biggie.
Click to expand...

been there, done that. never leave it in gear at light. but thanks for the quick reply.

GG
 
Yeah, that seems too low, regardless of technique. My Acura's clutch went about 110K, and I'm not particularly easy on it.
 
Depress it all the way when you shift. You probably created a fair amount of slip as the pressure on your clutch pedal probably wasn't enough to completely disengage the pressure plate. It doesn't take that long to properly shift, so unless you were racing there's really no need to do stuff like that.

Oh, and... take better care of your car. ;) But I'm sure you already figured that out by now.

Sorry if this question sounds condescending, but I'm entirely serious - do you know how a clutch works?
 
Luftwaffles said:
Oh, and... take better care of your car.

Sorry if this question sounds condescending, but I'm entirely serious - do you know how a clutch works?
Click to expand...

I really do take good care of car except for fast starts and driving way too fast. change oil regularly, watch gauges, check fluids. it's a convertible and I live in FL. the babes love the car and so do I.

know basic operation of clutch. seat and steering wheel are such that when I'm most comfortable can't fully depress clutch. so found that only doing it part way seemed to disengage it. probably not wise. am depressing the new one fully.

GG
 
GeekGod said:
I really do take good care of car except for fast starts and driving way too fast. change oil regularly, watch gauges, check fluids. it's a convertible and I live in FL. the babes love the car and so do I.

know basic operation of clutch. seat and steering wheel are such that when I'm most comfortable can't fully depress clutch. so found that only doing it part way seemed to disengage it. probably not wise. am depressing the new one fully.

GG
Click to expand...

Well, the clutch acts almost exactly like the disc brakes in a car, except they give the wheels power instead of stopping the wheels. The clutch plate has a surface similar to a brake pad, and that makes contact with the flywheel and connects it to the transmission. If you don't depress the clutch fully, there's a chance that you won't completely remove the contact between the clutch plate and the flywheel, so the rate of wear on the clutch plate and flywheel is alot higher. Imagine driving 75MPH down the interstate with your E-brake engaged.

And I can definitely see things from your point of view. Girls love cool cars, I drive a 2000 Ford F-250. Hard starts are going to kill your powertrain components alot faster than simply neglecting to change the oil or letting it run hot.

Plus, the type of girls who are attracted to the cool car and nothing else really aren't worth $1500 repair bills. :)
 
ok,
did you actually notice the clutch slipping?
and you shouldn't have had your flywheel replaced. they last quite long.

dealers are oasdijfa;osdijfa;osdhafsoh

this is an easy way to see if your clutch is slipping,
put your parking brake on all the way.
put it in first,
and see how far you can let the clutch engage,
of course you need to press the gas though, but no like 8k and then drop the clutch.

i had a worn out clutch and i could tell all day driving, but i drove on it for an extra 20k miles before i got enough money.
you can drive on a worn clutch practically tell it blows up,
and that takes a lot of use and abuse.

o and most clutches have an electronic controller,
so not fully depressing the clutch does absolutely nothing.
the controller just sees how you drive,
and if you don't depress it all the way,
it will fully disengage the clutch at that time.

try driving your car really hard and shifting bad,
you will see the clutch learn how to deal with your lskdjflskdj shifts,
ten drive really slow and smooth,
and the controller will still think your driving like a jack hole and keep the clutch engageing at odd points,
and you will think your driving smooth but the car will be all jerky and nasty.

for instance on my car,
1993 328i
they even sell little stops on the bottom of the clutch so you think your drepssing it all the way and keep consistant, and then the controller will learn and you'll be fine.

and to keep going,
unless your dropping your clutch at 7k
and constantly prodding your clutch to slip
12k is a really really short amount of time for a new clutch.
i would ask them if you could see the clutch and flywheel they took out.
 
GeekGod said:
know basic operation of clutch. seat and steering wheel are such that when I'm most comfortable can't fully depress clutch. so found that only doing it part way seemed to disengage it. probably not wise. am depressing the new one fully.

GG
Click to expand...

That was your problem right there, most definitely.
 
benlangdon said:
ok,
did you actually notice the clutch slipping?
and you shouldn't have had your flywheel replaced. they last quite long.

dealers are oasdijfa;osdijfa;osdhafsoh
Click to expand...

noticed it was slipping--would step on it and it would whirr before catching-- but after only about 50 more miles, totally lost 4th, 5th. stopped, shifted into 1st, and was able to limp the mile to my house. next day I tried to back it out of garage, and had lost all gears.

dealer gave me flywheel. said it was scored and couldn't be resurfaced because of the configuration. am taking parts to aamco to see what hey say.

agree about dealers. they just found problems not covered under the b-2-b warranty.

When I shift, I usually skip 4th; go from 3rd directly to 5th. when I go around a corner, usually downshift from 5th to 3rd, accelerate out of corner, and upshift back to 5th. not sure if these are problems as well.

GG
 
GeekGod said:
\

When I shift, I usually skip 4th; go from 3rd directly to 5th. when I go around a corner, usually downshift from 5th to 3rd, accelerate out of corner, and upshift back to 5th. not sure if these are problems as well.

GG
Click to expand...

And you do this all the time? If you consistently drove it like you stole it, it's not exactly shocking that your clutch only lasted 19k.
 
Riding the clutch would be the biggest reason for it burning out. Leaving it in gear does not ride the clutch and thus is not bad for it. If you drive really hard that would cause it to wear out quickly, but 19k is a bit low. Maybe you didn't break it in correctly and it wore unevenly. Thats about all i can think of.
 
adk said:
And you do this all the time? If you consistently drove it like you stole it, it's not exactly shocking that your clutch only lasted 19k.
Click to expand...

Actually, it's not bad to skip gears without using the clutch as long as you do it correctly. When you skip a gear and it starts grinding but you pound it into gear anyway, that would be very bad. And you don't need to push the clutch all the way down once your past first gear. As long as you disengage the clutch plate far enough to shift you're fine. But ya, 19k is pretty low for the clutch to be going out.
 
Leaving it in gear is fine for a car that disengages at the top, but for a car that does it at the floor taking it out of gear is easier and prevents those luxury floor mats you have from being a problem.

For the floor disengaging cars, they tend to also tire the legs out more ... so popping out of gear tends to save the legs and the clutch.

Dealers tend to resurface clutches and brakes because of policy, when a shade tree mechanic might not do either and get one more set brake/clutch pads out of the vehicle before replacing the more expensive parts.

Scored might still be good, but a dealer cannot take the risk of somebody suing them. We've had two cars now that have dragged rotors on the ground due to tire shop stupidity, and the brakes didn't get changed (real bad when car doesn't even make it out of tire change lot before dropping.)
 
ok well for your future clutch here is a good technique to get used to and use.

ok just about everyone has heard about shifting without the clutch.
we are going to use that principle but use the clutch also.

1. this saves your synchros
2. it will help improve the wear on the clutch.

ok i don't know if i should get to into the mechanical side of this or not,
but when you drive try this is 2nd gear to 3rd and do not grind, if you grind its not at the right rpm or you let off the gas too early or not fast enough,

so,
in second gear,
accelerate to around 3k rpm,
at that point feel the stick,
let of the gas slightly,
and you will feed the gear pop out,
it should be quite smooth,

now we are not going to get it into the next gear without the clutch,
so right now your in neutral,
now clutch it,
put it in third,
and release the clutch,

now this is the perfect rpm to shift at,
your rpm will be different when your feel it smoothly come out but it should be around there.

when you do this right, the rpm's should not drop so much that you need to blip the throttle but the rpm's should drop a little as to match the speed of the next gear.

ok, im not the best at explaining, i could clarify more, but this is by no way a technique you get down once and your good, but when you get it the first time you will know, you will definatly know,
so perfect **** happens like this
come up to perfect rpm,
let of the gas and while doing so slide the gear out,
and now press the clutch,
and move it into the next gear,
and release the clutch and the rpm's should be matched,

ya. questions?
 
jonbravo77 said:
Actually, it's not bad to skip gears without using the clutch as long as you do it correctly.
Click to expand...

There are even cars that are engineered to encourage you to do this for fuel economy (Corvette is an example). I don't see how anything the OP is describing falls into the "driving it like you stole it" category that I can see.

Given that you have a good amount of experience with driving a manual transmission and are not a newbie, it really sounds to me like the clutch failed due to manufacturer issues (are these OEM parts, including the flywheel, or were they added after the fact?) and you're getting unfairly denied your warranty coverage. Your battery too -- at 19,000 miles, the modal driver hasn't even looked under their hood more than a couple of times, let alone done anything with their battery. If it leaked, they should be covering it.
 
mkrishnan said:
There are even cars that are engineered to encourage you to do this for fuel economy (Corvette is an example). I don't see how anything the OP is describing falls into the "driving it like you stole it" category that I can see.

Given that you have a good amount of experience with driving a manual transmission and are not a newbie, it really sounds to me like the clutch failed due to manufacturer issues (are these OEM parts, including the flywheel, or were they added after the fact?) and you're getting unfairly denied your warranty coverage. Your battery too -- at 19,000 miles, the modal driver hasn't even looked under their hood more than a couple of times, let alone done anything with their battery. If it leaked, they should be covering it.
Click to expand...

I drove 2 different Hondas with manual transmission over 50k miles each without clutch problems.

bought car new and all parts OEM. battery covered 100% for 2 yrs, 50% after that for a period I don't recall. bought car in 8/06, so just over 2 yrs. and you are right, I never thought battery would be a problem so never checked. had no problems starting.

any suggestions as to what I can do to get them to cover? have already appealed to the 800 Mitsubishi number and they denied my claim. unfortunately bought car from manager who has since gone over to Toyota, so he can't help.
 
I dont know much about cars, but When/if this clutch flywheel combo fails upgrade it, dont use the OEM one because it obviously isn't working.
 
GeekGod said:
any suggestions as to what I can do to get them to cover? have already appealed to the 800 Mitsubishi number and they denied my claim. unfortunately bought car from manager who has since gone over to Toyota, so he can't help.
Click to expand...

I dunno, actually... that's a good question. Corporate warranty analysis usually believe it or not is really interested in identifying these kinds of failures (to the point that they'll sic resources on them, rather than trying to cover them up or avoid paying for them). When I was a fuel systems engineer, Mitsubishi at one point wanted me to fly to some podunk town in Nebraska or something to try and figure out why a customer's fuel pump and tank were not cooperating (ultimately I think we just replaced it and I got it back at my plant to analyze). But I don't know any way really to get you in touch with someone who would take that kind of interest... see if Mitsubishi of America has any kind of e-mail addresses that you could hit up in the way that displeased Mac owners e-mail Steve Jobs, perhaps?

Clutches don't wear out that easily. The first car I owned with a clutch was a 2000 Ford Focus. I did beat up that clutch a bit in the first month or two of owning it, because I had to basically learn how to drive a manual transmission on it. A couple of clutch parts were replaced in a recall sometime in the first 40-50,000 miles, but there was no functional problem before the recall. After the recall, I drove the car till about 130,000 miles without any clutch problems ever, or needing any kind of transmission maintenance. My Mazda6 I've driven on its original clutch from 30k miles to its present 64k miles. I'm not saying it's impossible to wear out a clutch, but I am just skeptical that there's anything you can do that's so severe that it would allow you to wear a clutch out through abuse in under 20k miles. I've never heard of that.
 
Another thing that will really help the life of your clutch and transmission in general: learn to double clutch every shift.
 
thats pretty fast to wear out

i replaced my clutch over the summer for the first time after 108,000 miles

it was at the point i couldnt step on the gas without the rpms climbing with no speed increase lol. hard topass on interstate

it only costed me around 600 bucks to get an entire new clutch kit installed with the flywheel resurfaced
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back