Clutch jutter, variable engage, sticking in gear
 

I am having some weird problems with my RS LWF clutch installed 12k miles ago. I have never had clutch problems before, so I'm not sure what these symptoms indicate. I searched and did not find any info on these symptoms:

1. The point of engagement varies from high to low
2. Occasionally when I re-start my car, it is stuck in gear and requires quite a bit of umph to get it out.
3. When it is stuck in gear, the car will not roll even if the clutch is to the floor.
4. The car jutters in reverse.

We replaced the clutch hose, as it was leaking a little. We thought it might have been air getting in the system. But the symptoms returned after a week. I am taking it back to the shop that installed the clutch. But I want to be armed with some information before I go. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. I am really stressed about the thought of having these sorts of problems after spending so much cash less than a year ago. Gheez....

I wonder if it's the clutch slave unit? If it's not fully extending, that might affect the point of engagment and the shift stiffness (clutch not fully engaging).

There were some posts here on the gearshift sticking in gear w/ LWF cars and it was because the input shaft needed grease. I'll see if I can find anything.

Adrienne:

Eric made a good point; I hope they replaced the slave cylinder when the RS LWF was installed. For me anyway, its SOP at every clutch job,....:)

The other possibility is a burr or a little rust on the input shaft that makes the clutch disc hang up on the shaft. At each clutch replacement, we burnish the shaft with crocus cloth and apply a little Optimoly (Porsche factory lube) to prevent these problems.

Hope this helps you,

Sorry to hear this Adrienne, it does sound like the slave or something with the clutch mechanism that is not allowing the clutch disc to fully disengage. When they replaced the hose and bled the sysem you said the symptoms went away totally for a whole week? If so then the points to the slave and not the internals of the clutch since why would that vary when a hose if replaced?

Best of luck and keep us informed....and yes these car do gobble up the cash.....

Cheers,

Mikes

Well, I guess it's good news if it's just the slave cylinder. But I sure hope I didn't ruin the clutch in the process. I looked at my records, and the slave cylinder was not replaced.

Thanks for the help guys!

Don't fret about the clutch. These a tough units... in fact they are the same unit as used on the GT3 and GT3 RS. They can take quite some abuse.

Good luck.

I would venture to say its the disk hanging-up on dirty, dry or rusty input shaft splines. My car does the exact same thing right now with only 25K miles on a new clutch.

When installing a clutch, is it important, like Steve mentioned above, to clean the splines well. Wire or nylon brush, Scotchbrite etc. Then lubricate with thick grease much like the Optimoly stuff.

I'm pretty sure this is what's been happening with my car. It just went in for a LWF since the labor to R&R the trans is most of the way there (why fix when you can upgrade :-) ).

I'll report back on what they find when they open it up and will make sure they clean & grease.

Adrienne,

My 97 C2 also has one of the same symptoms as yours which is "The car jutters in reverse." but only when normal operating temperature is reached. I replaced slave cylinder as well as clutch hydraulic hose but it didn't cure the problem. Please keep us posted with your finding.

Thanks,
-pguy

I'll let y'all know what we find. Thanks for all your help!

An update - I went to visit my car in the shop. Didn't see the clutch itself since I was in a hurry but did check out the input shaft, which was greased and clear of rust so I'm thinking that wasn't my problem.

The job includes a LWF and new slave cylinder so unfortunately I won't have any data that shows which of those was potentially faulty, but hopefully the car will drive better after all this!

Thanks for the update. I'm dropping mine off this weekend to figure out what's up. I have noted this week that if the clutch engages low to the floor, I can push the pedal back down, and it will engage higher again. Maybe a sticky input shaft is the problem. We'll see.

Wouldn't the fact that Adrienne can "pump up" the clutch pedal (See post above) with repeated pumps be more indicative of a hydraulic problem (slave cylinder) as opposed to a clutch disc hanging input shaft?

With that added bit of info, most certainly! First course of action would be a thorough bleed.