Imsorry

Can anyone comment on the normal life of a C2S clutch?

I bought my CPO a year ago at 23K miles and only put on 2K miles so far.
Took the car out today and drove it hard, and noticed significant clutch slip and smelled nothing but clutch for the rest of the drive.
Drop the clutch at 5K and the clutch slipped all the way and went no where.

Any advise or comments is much appreciated.

Quadcammer

that is a very short life. The previous owner probably didn't drive very well.

Unfortunately, as a wear item, I don't believe that will be covered by your warranty.

And stop dumping the clutch, this ain't a mustang.

Steen Jensen

I replaced my clutch at 27k miles. I was 3rd owner so it is impossible to say how the clutch had been treated previously.

If you search around the internet you will find quite a few examples of pressure plate failure. It leads me to believe there may be a problem with 997 pressure plates.

Hella-Buggin'

I had a smilar situation. I blame the PO but dropping the clutch at 5k will significantly shorten it's life. These cars aren't really designed to launch like that.

Palmbeacher

Coming up on 30K (bought with 21K on it) my clutch is fine. Hoping it will wear out in time to change the IMS bearing before 50K

997driver

The clutch lasts very long if used properly. I have 47k miles and the clutch still feels good. I suspect i'll be changing it out around the 50k mark, but wouldn't be surprised if it lasted even longer.

ADias

Driven properly a 997 clutch will last 100k+ miles.

Mike1982

25l, 27k, etc, how are you guys driving to wear out a clutch that fast!!??? I could see if you are going to the 1/4 mile track all the time or even racing the car all the time, but daily driver???....

chago996

118k miles on my 996 before i traded. It had no sign of slippage or stiffness. Original owner

stevepow

I have never replaced a clutch on any car I've had in the past 30 years. Had to do a throw-out bearing on a 325e, but that's about it. Never went much past 50k miles though on a car. Of course the last 4 yrs, with SMG and PDK don't count.

axhoaxho

It all depends on how the previous owners drove the car. I had a 944 Turbo which original clutch was over 120,000 miles when I sold the car, and the clutch was still good to go. I expect with the right driving, the 997 clutch would last similarly.

Regards,

Mike1982

My 944 Turbo had the original clutch in it when I sold it. That is 140k miles with a bigger turbo/exhaust/maf/etc...

Steen Jensen

To my knowledge , it is usually the disc that wears in any car with a clutch. That's what it is designed to do. The friction linings wear just as brake pads do.

In my situation there was plenty of friction lining left thus indicating the springs in the pressure plate were no longer able to hold the disc firmly to the flywheel which of course manifested itself in slippage. I don't know if it is possible for those springs to be damaged by abuse. The spring is either engaged or not so I don't see how it could be damaged by hard driving or even by someone who excessivly slips the clutch with each shift.

I'm no engineer so maybe someone who knows more about clutch design can explain. I understand the 997S has a self adjusting pressure plate that takes up the slack as the clutch disc wears.

Edgy01

I think you already know the answer. Most owners who flip cars with little mileage are hard on them. Any car that has seen 3-4 owners before it hits 100,000 miles will probably have been abused somewhere along the line.

As an original 911 owner a couple of times those cars have always delivered high clutch life--above 100,000 miles. I would think that an S would do better than a straight Carrera as well because of the self-adjusting clutch, too.

If you drop the clutch at 5000 rpm you simply pay for it. Just start putting 50s in a jar every time you have to do that. I have never dropped the clutch on my 997. It's because these cars have extremely serious tires out there--the tires will not slip--but something else will--like the clutch plate. And once you start to abuse one, its life will go quickly downhill. To be frank, some people just don't understand a clutch. I didn't on my first Porsche 35 years ago, but I quickly learned. From then on--never a premature clutch failure.

Steen Jensen

Edgy

I agree. The clutch plate (disc) will take a beating. I have seen the centre of a clutch disc ripped apart from the plate from such abuse.

I think I understand clutch mechanics pretty well. I still don't understand how the pressure plates diaphram spring can be damaged by abuse. It's either engaged or not engaged or more simply the spring is compressed or released ...on or off...there are really no moving parts in the pressure plate other than that spring cycling. Springs wear out over time after being compressed through many cycles but I would argue that vigorous release of that spring would have little effect on its longevity.

So I tend to lean towards my 997 pressure plate failing due to being defective rather than being abused although I readily agree with your theories on previous ownership. Anything is possible there...

It would be interesting to see statstics on 997 cluth replacement from Porsche to see if there is an abnormally high rate of failure or not.