Red1

Mine started slipping on boost and at high speed. Couldn't get the car faster than 136. Came back to the pits and the smell of the clutch told the story.

Musche

Ditto on the little springs breaking. Mine even had the plate that holds them in broken off and was just sitting on the drive shaft. Made a nice little jingling sound for a couple of seconds after the motor was turned off as it continued to spin on the drive shaft. It actually wore down the splines. The PO didn't want to spend the $$ to change it.

Crazy Eddie

IMHO This is by far and away the main reason for the 951ts clutch failure
Ask me how I know
I had 2 replaced and just so you don't think it's me, on my earlier car before the TS
I had over 100k miles on the orig. clutch, when I sold the car, and it was still going strong
It's a dirty little secret but its a defect in the design.
Ask me how I know
BTW I had both replaced for free. The second one was over a year and one half out of warranty. But in fairness the car had very low miles
I will say that is why I will always buy a Porsche.
They stand behind their product ..At least they did with me
Regards
Ed

Black Arrow

Heres the famous little clutch spring.

Nr1 reason I`ve changed it, clutch spring.
Nr2 reason John @ VR



This clutch came from a 89 951, with about 120k on the speedo and a 300hp chip.

dacula951

That's the reason I went with the Turbo Cup clutch. It doesn't have the small springs and the operation seems plently smooth without them.

951Tom

I'm doing a clutch now due to the little springs breaking and coming out. 2 of mine were broken. A cup clutch is going in.

Tom
'87 951
'01 330ci

Evan70

Another spring failure here. Clutch was fine right up until the spring broke, then it lasted about 50 miles before it was completely useless. I upgraded to the Turbo Cup clutch, and it actually has a lighter pedal effort than the stock clutch did.

M758

That was the EXACT reason I did my clutch. Nothing locked, but that noise told me something was wrong.

theedge

I guess thats the curse of buying a low mileage 951, the original clutch disc might still be in there.

I took my car apart to find a Cup clutch. Still material left, but I replaced it anyway with another Cup disc and a KEP plate. No spinning THAT combo!

ImagineAuto

My clutch had 4 of the 6 little springs broken and one of them was perpendicular to my clutch disc! Causing it to stay engaged!! Not so good so I went with a cup clutch. Much better. Car now gone after the 2ed turbo blew and I didn’t want to replace it.

mtnman82

Musche - my '89 started making the jingly sound for a few seconds when I turn the engine off after I kicked butt on a Mustang GT one afternoon. I've been wondering what that was - even posted about it way back when and was told to ignore it and drive on .....

When you say it 'even wore down the splines' , was that on the clutch disk, or (hope not but probably so) was that on the driveshaft(torque tube?) itself? And, did this require replacing more than the usual clutch parts??

Musche

Mtnman,
That is not a good sound my friend and should not be ignored IMHO. That retaining plate for the springs basically wore off and flattened the splines on the driveshaft (inside the torque tube) that the clutch disk slides back and forth on. I ended up replacing the whole torque tube assembly with a used one that I got from my pal Lefty. I have no idea how long it had been that way since I tore the whole car apart as soon as I got it. My advice is to replace the clutch asap or you will have to replace your driveshaft as well. I did the Cup clutch replacement on Jason @ Paragon recommendation.

TheRealLefty

Guys, if you want a great DIY pictorial, ask Musche publish his before/after and in between. Mark my words, DE guys, get a good look at this car as it is well on it's way to becoming the Beast Of The East King Daddy track car!

The car was well bought with 150K on the clock. One of the nicest non-garage queen cars imaginable cosmetically, but due for all it's major systems to be refurbed, which Musche then summarily did. I think at one point his family and in-laws were out in the back yard setting fire to dollar bills seeing if they could burn them faster than daddy was spending them on his new jack-stand mounted bird feeder in the garage

mtnman82

Thanks for the heads up, Musche. Looks like I've got some more work to do (and $ to burn) after I'm done re-sealing the front of my engine. I certainly don't want to have to replace the torque tube. And ... would you mind posting/publishing (or just email them to me) you before/in between/after pics? I'd love to see them, as I'm going to be going through my car too. Thanks!!

Musche

Holy Cow Lefty! Now that explains the orange glow I saw outside the garage window on those 1 am late Pooch put back together nights! All the time I thought it was the street light...

mtnman, I'll see what I have. Unfortunately I lost a bunch of my pics when my computer crashed.