billthe3

Well, killed doesn't do it justice. More like slaughtered.
Pardon my description if none of this makes any sense - I've only been driving the car for a month and a half now, and it is the first manual I've owned (only practiced on the friend's focus ocasionally), so I don't have the terminology or knowlege.

I was out driving saturday night and upon constant bitching from my friend (not present at the time) I decided to try to do a burnout.
**Yeah, you can see where this is going, please hold all laughing and/or flaming until you've read the whole post.**
Anyway, do brake and gas and I thought I was completely off the clutch, but now I'm not sure. Engine was slowly bouncing off the rev limited, car was creeping forward at maybe 2mph, if that. After maybe 5-10sec I realized there was no squealing, nor smoke, so I stopped. Started to think "oh ****" at this point. Decided to turn around to make sure - low and behold the road was completely tire mark free. Around that time is when the smell first hit. From what I can tell I basically was sitting there frying the clutch instead of the tires. Started driving slowly (well, at least accelerating and shifting slowly) back home, but after about a mile I wanted to see how bad it was. Did a 4-5k clutch drop start, the car did its usual wheel hop/tire chirping and then went off, so I thought I wasn't too screwed.

Anyway, I'm realized how bad I killed it now. Its 4 days later and the car still smells like burnt clutch when I go drive it (well, while sitting still). The clutch pedal is still as heavily sprung as before, but its almost like there is no fluid to it - my best description would be that its like a car with bad struts. I can press the clutch in and out (with the car in neutral) with the same amount of force from the spring as before, but there is no dampening so I'm able to push it in and out really fast. Driving the car around has become a lot easier (unfortunatly) because of the clutch slipping while accelerating and whatnot. There isn't noticable slippage during acceleration or anything, but while in motion when there before were noticable "lurches" when you'd press or let off the gas, it is much smoother now and hardly noticable (at least compared to before).


What exactly do you guys think I've killed? Obviously the friction plate, but could I have done in the hydraulics or anything else as well?

Also, any recomendations for new clutches? For no real reason I was thinking of doing a centerforce dual friction clutch, anybody have experience with it?

From the change in how the car was driving to how it is driving now, I'll probably have to get the clutch done in the next 5k mi or so. What all shall I get replaced, and would this be a good time to get some new torsion bars installed? I also have front end stuff to do, but I'm debating if I want to do this at the same time as the rear work. Although running stiffer torsion bars and koni yellows in the rear while having a stock front suspension isn't really an appealing thought for any long period of time - the car is already way to rear end happy with only the konis in the rear.

Anyway, proceed to laugh/flame/give suggestions.

PorscheDoc

You burned/smoked/glazed the clutch, flywheel, and pressure plate. You get to do the entire job

A standard sachs clutch is fine if you aren't going to act like a ________. You can fill in the blank.

Phi1720

I hate to nag, but if this type of start is "usual"? What were you expecting?

Good luck. As long as you are under there, it would be a good idea in my book to go ahead and do master and slave cylinders as long as the car is apart.

-Scott

azmi951

expect at leas $2500 for that mistake. If you have someone do it (recomended).

a 4 to 5k rpm clutch drop is not a good idea. I have never heard of people breaking anything in the trans by applying power like a sane person but I have heard of plenty of stuff breaking from clutch drops. It is the impact that kills stuff, not the load of steady acceleration.

testarossa_td

Now is the time to do all that underbelly work

Of course if it still drives, you could always just drive it until it won't go no mo

Rock

I clutch dropped my first N/a. Never done that to any of my cars afterward.

toddk911

If it drives and you are able to shift and get it in gear fine, then keep going until it is needed to be changed.

rberry951

When I first got mine I did a few clutch drops, one of the springs broke, new clutch job. But it was original and almost gone when I got the car and I intended to replace the clutch anyway. But still, I didn't know what other damage I could have done at the time. So after I learned these things I launched like the clutch was 2" in diameter. They will hold a LOT of power for their size, but the car will not tolerate high rev clutch drops. It's just not a dragster.

D944tech

The best clutch setup is the six puck copper ceramic clutch in conjuction with the KEP PP Stage I or II , you will need a need flywheel and bearings, you are looking at $ 1000.00+ in parts plus labor. Let me do you a favor and buy the car from you, I am local and I can pick it up. Let me know how much do you want for the car.

95Juan

yep, you glazed it.

hopefully it wears off and you get normal useage in another couple of days.

one day i was out and i shifted into 5th while mashing on the gas in between the shift, and revs went up but no forward movement. a few days later, the clutch was back to normal, but i think what you did was a little more serious..........


4-5k clutch drop?

oh lord, when i did that, it was the first day i had it and i was like "this should be cool"

no

wrong.

too much power. i ended up needing new CV joints cuz of that one......


hope it turns out ok.........

Zero10

As with posters above,
I trashed my CV joints doing hard launches at the track. In an attempt to shave a fraction of a second off of each run at the auto-x I would wind it up to 3000-4000RPM and almost dump the clutch to make a quick start. I got some tire spin every time and it did save me a tiny bit of time. That said, the time was not worth $400 for new CV shafts.

Easy on the starts. That 1/4 of a second you save by making a nice start is more than made up in what you save on maintenance costs.

toddk911

If I plan to get on it I try to do a slight roll out, 3-5mph, then bang on it. My rational is this is a lot better than a sudden clutch drop and as posted above, I don't think it is that much slower to launch like that than droping the clutch.

chrly924s

I'm just finishing a clutch job. (or it's just about finished me!!) This baby's getting pampered. Then again, I have never been hard on clutches.

toddk911

So what is more damaging, a cluth drop or to slip the clutch some???

gstreev

I will do clutch drops like that on motorcycles, the friction disks cost like $50 and can be
replaced in a half hour. Never on a car though unless you have some serious racing clutch in it.
I hate that smell too. I'd keep driving it, but go easy on it. It might get a little better,
maybe just enough to uload it. But now everyone here knows the story
See if your friend will pay half