So it started when I was on my way home yesterday, driving down Park Presidio in the city between California and Clement. I was coming up to the light at California St. when it turned yellow so I floored it to get through the light. In the middle of the intersection was a slight rise, or more like hump followed by a violent dip. I was going about 50 when I hit the hump and was really light on the wheels when I went into the dip. About a block in front of me on Clement, a car had slammed on its brakes because the car in front of it had slowed to make a turn and had come to an almost complete stop. Seeing this I slammed on the brakes. My tires still light on the ground from coming out of the dip, I slid for a good half a block leaving a huge cloud of smoke behind me and the acrid smell of burnt rubber.

Thing is, when I got home 10 minutes later, the car still smelled like burnt rubber. I figured this was because some of the smell still hadn't filtered out of the car yet.

When I drove back from work today and got out of the car the smell was still there, faintly. It was gone within 5 minutes of turning off the engine but nonetheless it was there.

I'll be checking my belts and anything else rubber but I'm guessing either two things. Optimistically there might still be some burnt rubber smell floating about the car, but on the other side of things my clutch could be going out and theres a torn chunk of rubber spinning around inside my bell housing. When I hit the brakes the night before the car was still in gear so I probably tore up the rubber pretty bad.

So now I'm looking forward to having a new clutch!

 

The clutch centre just shears and if its gone you will notice slack in the driveline as the clutch centre twists on the spline until it engages the steel tabs. The rotation is about 1". It feels like a lot more when you either engage the clutch or back off the throttle.