bigdog88

I was driving on the expressway on thursday. Open road hardly anyone on the road so i decide to speed alittle . i get up to about 101mph. or so... WHEN out of nowhere a shity honda civic comes flying out of an exit ramp on to the freeway crossing about 4 lanes of highway. i had to swurve out of the way and something happened. i dont know what i did but when i got off the highway. my z starts stalling i get off the road. i ended up having to get it towed to the dealer.

Dealer calls me today and said they had a specialist from nissan check it out . He said the clutch was totally burnt out , not covered under warranty, but b/c it only had 948 miles he decided to replace it no charge.

What i wanna know is what the hell happened techniqually speaking????

BILL T

Once the clutch is released (and is not slipping) there's virtually no wear. If the clutch is pushed all the way in there's no wear. It's the stuff in between
that wears a clutch out. My guess is you like to rev up to 3k plus then pop the clutch out as I used to do 30 years ago - a good way to burn a clutch but it sure was fun. A bad rear main bearing seal will do it also (if puts oil on the clutch) but they usually aren't bad from the factory and you'd notice a small amt. of oil coming from the weep hole of the bell housing - ditto if the front tranny seal is bad.

Chebosto

iTrader: (43)

in an emergency situation, i normally just push in the clutch and brake, but sometimes, out of bad habit, i heel toe it as well, and i blip the gas pedal--

this might have happened to you, but unless you were stomping on the gas and the clutch half way, there is no way you can burn out the clutch that soon, UNLESS, you learned how to drive on that clutch and needed a little more 'constructive critizism' than normal to get the shifting technique down....

imho. your dealer is trying to pull the BS flag up... ask him to see the clutch...
if the clutch disc is toast, so will your flywheel. Normally if you're over reving alot, the flywheel will have heat scores in the metal.. sorta like miscolored oil botches on a smooth surface or like a marble type color scheme... if that happens. there's nothing you can do and you'll have to eat the price of a new clutch.. that sucks.

Merli

948 miles!!!!

I must say, that it's virtually impossible to wear out a clutch in 948 miles.

I can only think of two scenarios where this would happen.

1. You learn't to drive manual in this car. (even still, you'd be VERY hard pressed to wear out a clutch in 948 miles... Most learner drivers let the clutch out too fast and stall, which isn't too hard on the clutch)

2. Do you rest your foot on the clutch pedal as you cruise along? or do you remove your left foot and put it on the footrest to the left of the clutch pedal? If you rest your foot on the clutch pedal as you drive, you'll slightly disengage your clutch, causing it to slip, and wear out.

3. Manufacturer error. Perhaps the clutch wasn't fully engaged when you let the clutch pedal all the way out, causing the same symptoms as Number 2.

In any case, I think you're set a world record for the "fastest clutch killer"

g35or350z

how long will a clutch last for the average user?

Inova

good question! i want to know as well.... and how do you know if you burned your clutch? is there an easy way to tell?

tmount

Most drivers will never have to replace a clutch. You should not fret about it wearing out. I had an rx-7 and 300zx both go to about 80.000 miles before trading them in and did not have any clutch problems with either. I will drive hard at times and will start off from high revs pretty frequently. That clutch was either faulty or the driver was "riding" it full time to burn it out that fast.

2003z

iTrader: (7)

I had an 83 sentra as my first car, and went through them every 20000 miles,but that wasn't normal.

I did have a funny thing happen a couple weeks ago at a group meet. We all took off from the light fairly quickly (8 z's), I was at the rear, revved it and let the clutch out, the clutch pedal physically stuck at about the midway point, and I got a lot of slippage, along with the burnt smell. I pumped it a couple times and it released, and hasn't reoccured.

skwez

I have a 91 Acura Integra with 175K miles - original clutch.

I'd have to think you'd really have to TRY to kill a clutch in under 1000 miles!

SunsetZ

I had an 87 RX-7 and went thru three clutches in under 75k miles, this was noted as the weak spot of the car in consumer reports. I have a friend that had a 300ZX and went 110K miles, and sold the car with the original clutch. So hopefully Nissan has better clutches than Mazda used to.

nosuchsol

When I sold my Z it had 88k on it and probably around 2-3k left on the clutch. My integra has over 100k and it's still pushing the stock clutch - many freeway miles and no slipping... then again it have a little over half the power of the Z and less than half the amount of torque.

happypants

I had an '88 Mustang GT and had over 100,000 miles on the original clutch. I only did a couple burnouts early in the car's life, otherwise treated it nicely since it was a daily driver.

spf4000

Burning the clutch in less than a thousand mile sounds like the driver was either driving with the clutch only half way engaged (really really riding the clutch), or there was a mechanical problem with the clutch, and it never engaged properly. But it'd be very noticeable if the clutch wasn't engaging properly.

SD350ZEE

yeah that does seem strange. And has anyone smelled the 350z's clutch burning? It's a horrible, horrible smell. I had the misfortune of smelling it the other night while parrallel parking on a hill.

hoopjones

Hmm, reminds me of a post not too long ago...

WayneTN

Don't get that started again...........

WayneTN

zeroday

Me too! Alot of integras around here?!! I've got a 91' integra ls with 95k on it, original clutch. Looks like it has many many more miles to go. Honda sure knew how to build em back then.

krinkov

I dont care what the situation is, if you really burnt a clutch out within 1000 miles you would have been smelling overwhelming burning clutch EVERY TIME YOU DROVE!! There has to be some other resaon, ask to see the old clutch disc, are you sure he knew what he was talking about? I used to be a tech at a dealership, the communication lines between the techs and the service writers can become a bit skewed depending on the competence/motives of the service writer.

ares

iTrader: (2)

I know someone with a focus SVT that burned his clutch out in 1600miles... cant comment on his driving skills because he doesnt live around me, only know him on the net, but I asked him and he said he knows how to drive... he launched it a few times, but that shouldnt destroy a clutch, not that fast...

he also killed the flywheel while he was at it.

he used to drive a ford festive with a 4 speed, so he had driven manual before and not burned out that clutch...

so maybe some clutches really are just faulty.

krinkov

regardless, theres no way it wouldnt stink constantly