turbo prof

Hi everyone! I just moved from Kansas to Los Angeles, and sadly now my clutch is starting to slip. I have a 2003 turbo with about 50K miles. When I bought the car it had some mods on it; it looks like it has a very early version of the EvoMS stage 3 kit (tune, blow-off valves, intercoolers, etc.) but with the stock exhaust.

In any case, the clutch can't hold the power, and I have read on Rennlist and elsewhere the stock clutch on these cars can fail relatively early if the car had mods. So, I was looking to upgrade to a Sachs performance clutch since the clutch needs to be replaced anyway.

I've called around to several independent shops here in LA, and they are quoting me around $7K or so for the job. Most places indicate the need to replace the flywheel as well, and the recommendation has been to go with a single-mass flywheel since it needs to be replaced anyway.

The price seems a bit high to me; my indy in KS would have done this for about 4.5K, so I am getting a bit of sticker shock. I thought I'd check with the forum to see if anyone has any recommendations for shops in the LA area and to see if the price is around what I should expect to pay. I'm currently living in Westwood, but I'd be happy to drive a fair distance for good work at a somewhat lower price!

Thanks so much for any advice or info that you have!

"02996ttx50

Reach out to Sam here who runs "by design" -custom tuning/parts and advice, at no extra charge.

Make friends with him and also reach out Dan at Speed Gallery in North Hollywood. Best race prep and general maintenance shop in LA County.. the prices you were quoted are outrageous.

HBdirtbag

Talk to sam!

bradthe

call James at Redline-it's Orange/ Anamalheim which is a bit of a drive but he's fair and won't rip ya a new one...tell him Brad sends you, and ask him if mine is ready yet? 714-289-0326

NoEardGoat

Don't forget to pin or weld the coolant lines while you have the motor out and as those before me have stated talk with Sam.

"02996ttx50

the motor doesnt need to come out for a clutch r&r and no need to add another 3k$ in repair costs for "proactive" coolant lines retrofits, unless ya want to.

also.. you don't KNOW you need a new flywheel until you get eyes on the existing one to see how much material remains. that determines whether to replace. or not.

lastly, the advice to go with a LWFW rather than the OEM DMFW is a "choice", not a requirement. depends on your intended usage. LWFW's are faster revving ( obviously ) but also they chatter at idle. and relatively significantly, at that.

you REALLY need to reach out to vendors here that also facilitate work on the cars. e.g. kevin at UMW ( here ) and sambo@bydesign ( here) . I mention him not only because i have used his services many times on purchases ( and that *free* advice ) but also cos he is LOCAL ( maybe sam will surface? he sees all lol )

in any event. get some advice. and dont neglect to look into my recommendation of speed gallery in NoHo. dan knows his sh*t, like few others do.

oh, and WTH? did you move to LA for? ( never mind lol ) good luck.

turbo prof

Hey everybody! Thanks for all this fantastic advice.

I wrote Sam at ByDesign and we can definitely do this cheaper. I wasn't planning on doing a lot of pro-active stuff on the car; I don't think the coolant lines particularly need pinning (this is my daily and I don't track it). I was also seriously considering LWFW vs. DMFW; give it is a daily that I don't track, maybe DMFW is the right way to go. I think I might do the exhaust though, because people have pointed out that the exhaust would help a ton with the other mods I have on the car (and I don't doubt that is true).

Anyway I am getting great advice from Sam, so thanks to everyone who suggested him. I called Dan at Speed Gallery before I wrote Sam, but did not get a chance to chat with him yet.

As for why I moved to LA? I just got a job at UCLA! People seem to hate on LA sometimes, but for me so far its working out great...

"02996ttx50

btw Dan and Sam, you cannot go wrong. i got my kline exhaust from sam and he always has them in stock and its awesome. btw. sam and dan have worked together for years so its a great way to coordinate both parts AND repairs. GL with the repairs.

as to LA? you know what "they" say! you're not in kansas anymore LOL

John D II

I have a brand new dual mass flywheel that has been sitting in my office boxed for a few years...I was going to use it on my car, but require a much stronger clutch than the typical upgraded OEM options, so I have no use for it and will sell it cheap. Great way to save some money on a brand new OEM DM flywheel! Message me if interested...

mffarrell

Brantley

I'm in Orange County. Had my clutch done at http://autostrassecorp.com/. I don't have the receipt in front of me but it was in the $3600 range. They dropped the tranny to do it. They reused the flywheel. But, this also included replacing the slave cylinder.

"02996ttx50

think of it this way. 8-10 ( MAX ) hours labor plus cost pf parts.

turbo prof

Thanks again to everybody for all of the responses. I actually got in touch with Sam at ByDesign based on everyone's feedback, and we've worked out a much better situation than the original prices I was quoted. I'm also getting my exhaust done at the same time, and so this has all been worked out beautifully.

Thanks to people who were willing to sell me some of the components, but I have been waiting so long for my car to actually feel like a 996tt should that I just decided to pull the trigger on the parts Sam had.

It seems there is a great community here in SoCal with lots of great options. Extremely excited to be out here!

"02996ttx50

you'll be glad you did. GL with it.

Brantley

Exactly right... 8 hours is what I was billed for tranny R&R. Remaining was for parts...

Glad the OP got everything figured out!