I have about 25 miles on my new spring centered clutch. Two things that disturb me:

1) I am getting way more driveline noise (sounds like syncros when I slow down). When I accelerate in first or second, the syncro noise is at it's worst. Noise stops when I depress the clutch pedal and go to neutral. Is this normal going from the rubber hub to the spring centered disc??

2) When I am in gear, and I take my foot off the gas, I am still noticing a slipping, where the car lunges and slows. I thought a new clutch would stop this from happening?

I was about to call my mechanic, but wanted to see if I was being over-critical of a loud, 16 year old car?

Thanks.

 

I would drive it at least through a full tank of gas to break it in and then see if you still find it awkward.

True to its spring centered disc, this type of clutch should feel a bit longer engaging and disengaging, but in my relatively high miles (146K) S2 I haven't noticed any noisiness after replacing it. YMMV.

 

Changing to a spring dampened clutch plate will make the drive line a little noisier. Drive the car for a while and let the clutch "break in". After a tank or so of gas you should notice a difference.

For the slipping, make sure that there is 1mm of free play between the clutch pedal push rod and the clutch master cylinder piston. The slipping could be caused by pressure in the hydraulics.

 

The noise is definately normal with a Spring center clutch.

-J

 

Sounds like a large tractor trailor truck going by!

 

Who was it that said these things are built like tanks?

 

As long as the noise doesn't mean my tranny is self-destructing, or my new clutch, I guess I'm OK with it.

 

I have a new spring centered clutch (maybe 700 miles) and I've never experienced slippage, but yeah, the drivetrain makes a lot of noise.

 

I noticed some additional noise and shifter vibration after I replaced the clutch in an '84 NA. It was my first 944 clutch, but I've done clutch jobs on other cars, so I knew pretty much what to expect as far as the mechanics go.

What I hadn't considered was that the original rubber centered clutch is by design going to have better broadband vibrational damping than a spring centered clutch.

The rubber center acts like a sound isolation, just like the rubber sound mounts the US Navy uses in its submarines, and you know how those guys feel about noise!

On the other hand, a spring centerd clutch will actually transmitt more noise because the springs form a direct mechanical path for audible vibrations to travel between the engine and drive line.

 

That makes sense, I just didn't know it would be THAT much noise compared to my old clutch!