Burned clutch in under a week?

[Shin_Kudo]

I picked up my car, with a 5spd swap and new clutch, on friday. On monday, it quickly started slipping, then stopped geting any clutch traction at all. today, my mechanic calls me and says I burned it up. I don't see how that could be possible. Is it true, or is he BSing me? Is it really possible to burn a clutch up in three days?

[Pepperoni]

Did you smell funny smells? Did you try adjusting it (under the dash) urself before taking it to a shop?

[phrozen]

u might be leaking oil from ur rear main seal onto ur clutch assembly, it could also be ur master cylinder not returning pressure, clutch fork may be bent? I actually had all of those problems... so it could be a number of things

[Andrew Bohan]

was the clutch broken in properly?

[aznpoopy]

Originally Posted by phrozen

u might be leaking oil from ur rear main seal onto ur clutch assembly, it could also be ur master cylinder not returning pressure, clutch fork may be bent? I actually had all of those problems... so it could be a number of things

agreed... do you see oil leaking from the space between the tranny and the engine?

i taught my girlfriend how to drive stick on my 240sx and she slipped it plenty... except for my bad t/o bearing the clutch is still fine. back in the day when i had my camry and was learning how to drive stick, i used to let the clutch slip to downshift instead of rev matching... even then it took me a year to destroy the clutch. even if you were revving it really high and slipping it like mad i can't believe you would burn out a whole clutch in a week.

[Shin_Kudo]

I smelled the clutch once or twice, but that's expected, seeing as how I'm a newbie manual driver. Still, I've never heard of anyone burning the whole thing up so quickly. Could it have been improperly installed, causing it to burn up somehow?

One thing, though, I don't know how to answer about being broken in properly. What's the correct procedure for that? I just started driving, maybe that was the problem.

[mikeroy420]

My brand new spec clutch slips bad, I had it checked and the shop said it was fine. I can smell burning once in awhile.

[candypainted 240sx]

Breaking it in means not taking it over 3k rpms or dropping the clutch to spin the tires for at least the first 1,000 miles.

[kcolyer27]

Maybe your car just has too much power for the clutch?

[Natty]

I am almost certain it's the clutch freeplay adjustment. Look it up in the FSM and it'll tell you how to do it. Pretty easy and mechanics always overlook it.

[Shin_Kudo]

I don't think it has too much power. It's a stock S14 KA24DE with an RS*R EXMAG.

Anyway, though, I had a feeling it was something improperly adjusted. My mechanic, of course, insists it was me. Of course, what the hell does he know, he's a freaking ricer who thinks my car is fast because it's faster than a Honda, and whose advice in regards to a manual transmission was to always drive with one hand on the stick. It's not like he's going to admit that it was his fault causing a 150 dollar clutch to burn up.

Can anyone recommend a shop around LA who knows what the hell they're doing when working on 240s?

[S14DB]

You could have been riding the clutch the whole time if you didn't know it. But you would have smelled it. Even if it was a bad ajustment it would have stunk driving. I agree on the oil or something on the plates.

Get us a pic of the disk.

[aznpoopy]

Originally Posted by S14DB

You could have been riding the clutch the whole time if you didn't know it. But you would have smelled it.

didn't even think of that! like s14 said, if u burned it that hard that fast out you would've smelled that shit everywhere you went. burning a clutch (edit)*smells* REALLY bad...

[thx247]

Probably just needs to be bleed again. Do it yourself, you'll be surprised how easy it is to work on your car.

[Replicant_S14]

Originally Posted by Shin_Kudo

Is it really possible to burn a clutch up in three days?

Sure it's possible. I had a driver working for me one time that toasted a clutch in 2 days. He didn't want to tell me he'd never driven stick so he just took off and figured he'd learn the hard way.

Also, I have had my clutch 'glaze' over from being abused at auto-x. It took a couple of days regular driving before it was right again.

[Shin_Kudo]

I know I haven't been riding it, I made that mistake once and was harshly corrected. Since then, when I'm not shifting, my foot is on the dead pedal.

But, honestly, aside from about 20 mins of heel-toe practice, the hardest shifting I've done to it was at rush hour on the 405. I just don't see how I could have burned it into unusability in a couple days.

And while I'm a beginner, it's not my first time driving stick. I've driven other manuals enough to figure out how to do it right.

[420sx]

it sounds night to impossible. gotta be the clutches defect, if you didnt break it in properly it still, technically, shouldnt slip like that

[TheSparo]

if he is replacing it make sure you get the old disc so we can look at it, maybe it just needs to be adjusted, or maybe it wasnt bled correctly, cuz in 3 days?? sounds unpossible

[Shin_Kudo]

Clutch is already replaced, but he's giving my clutch to me to look at it. He says it's not just burnt, it's shredded, and shredded up the pressure plate along with it. He'd never heard of the freeplay adjustment, but insisted it wasn't the problem. He insists I've been riding the clutch and driving the car too hard. Which is BS, as the hardest I've done was one touge run, and I run quite conservatively, and as I said before, if I'm not actively shifting or about to shift, my foot's off the pedal. And I never smelled anything burning, except the few times when I screwed up a shift or whatever.

I'll post some pics when I get the clutch and flywheel back this afternoon when I pick up the car. I'm half expecting to find out that he "burned" the clutch with a blowtorch and a grinder.

Can anyone recommend a mechanic to replace these guys? I unfortunately can't do any work myself, as I live in the hills on a narrow road, so no working in the street, and my garage is filled with my parents' crap, plus the driveway is hardly as long as the car and is insanely steep.

[aznpoopy]

that is BS. who did the work? they deserve to get a bad rep so don't feel bad posting the name of the shop... and yar put up pics of the clutch so we can see!

Originally Posted by Shin_Kudo

Can anyone recommend a mechanic to replace these guys? I unfortunately can't do any work myself, as I live in the hills on a narrow road, so no working in the street, and my garage is filled with my parents' crap, plus the driveway is hardly as long as the car and is insanely steep.

neither do i. in fact i don't even have a drive way. that's why one of my credentials for a girlfriend is having access to a house or other with a nice flat patch of asphalt. ^_^

[Brian]

wow, whatever it is, thats some messed up stuff.
note, i was gonna use the f bomb in place of "messed" and the s word in place of "stuff"

[S14DB]

Did he resurface the flywheel before putting on the new clutch?

[Shin_Kudo]

Originally Posted by S14DB

Did he resurface the flywheel before putting on the new clutch?

He said he was going to, don't know if he did.

The shop is KBP Auto in Valencia. They do great paint and body, but, while they've been doing great mechanical work for almost 20 years, they recently can't seem to do anything we ask them to, and do a pretty crappy job. I think they've just shifted to the body side of the business, and the owner, who was a great mechanic, got injured and had to hire mechanics to do the work, and they're just not as good as he is.

I've got the clutch and pressure plate, the flywheel had to be sent in as a core for the new remanufactured one, I'll take some pics.

[twong85]

Wow that place sounds like it does some pretty shady mechanical work. I learned to drive stick on my car 2 years ago and still havnt had to replaced the clutch. I drive on the 405 everyday and I don't think I've ever gotten to 3rd. Looking for a new mechanic? What city are you in?

[Shin_Kudo]

I'm in Universal City, anything east valley / Burbank / hollywood is good for me. I'd really like to find a mechanic who is less of a general mechanic and more of a 240 / drift shop. (Kinda like that one place down towards LAX that specializes in Miatas, or like Racing Beat or Mazdatrix who specialize in RX-7s.) I'd like to find someone kinda soon, so I can take my car to them ASAP and check to make sure of no problems with the new clutch.