Good news for anyone who remembers me, intermittent short fixed, it doesn't die randomly anymore. However, now comes the time I've been dreading. Clutch change. Yeah, I'm exaggerating. I've known I've needed a change for awhile, but it's still been drivable over the past few months, would only slip if I put it in 4th or 5th and gave it the boot. Now it's having trouble even in first or second, so it's time for a change and I'm doing it myself with my father. Anyone have any tips or useful bits of advice? I'm planning on changing the timing belt and other parts that are changed with the major while I'm at it. Reason it's eating the stock clutch and needs something tougher is because Norwood Performance put a turbocharger on it around 5 years ago or so I believe for one of the previous owners. The stock clutch new can handle it, but it quickly degrades.
Cam there is a lot of info on clutch changes. You may want to go through the search area and then run some prints of the how to articiles. I am wondering though how the trubo is degrading the clutch. Is it just the need to hit the loud peddle and slip the clutch more or was something done to the clutch/flywheel asm. when the conversion was done. How many miles did you get on this last clutch. Just interested in the data here to get an appreciation on clutch life. Thanks
I'll dig up the service receipts, I have a whole binder full of them, from the POs too, so I'll be able to find when the latest clutch job was. And it slips because it's just worn and I press on the gas, and the turbo boosts the power enough for the flywheel to break loose from the clutch, which degrades it yet more. I can hear it when it breaks loose just because the RPMs rise but the car doesn't change its speed, and I immediately let off and let it re-grap. It's not even on vicious throttle applications, just slips sometimes.
The stock clutch is only good for about 275 hp. The Norwoods turbo mod puts the engine right at or above the stock clutch's ability to handle it. Norwood knows this & normally would upgrade the clutch when they do the turbo mod, don't know why it didn't happen in your case. I strongly recommend you get a pressure plate with stronger springs, and a kevlar, or carbon fiber clutch disc. They'll still be quite streetable, & will take the extra hp. Norwoods sells clutch upgrades, as do several other companies(search the current & old fchat for 'clutch' and 'kevlar' or 'carbon'). Nick's Forza sells a multi-plate clutch with an extra light flywheel. It's a nice looking system. I haven't driven one, so can't comment on it's streetablity.
Thanks for the info, I'll look into what Nick and Norwood have. Digging through service receipts from the POs I found one without a date that had the clutch relined, but it did say it was done at 63k miles, Car is now at 66.7 k miles, but then again, it was only 50 dollars to have that done so I question the quality of the reline.
