I have a friend who seems to know about cars in general. Well, today I let him drive my Z on the way to lunch ('06 Roadster). I told him "go ahead, drive it like you mean it.." So he did. And it was all good and fun. But then, at a stop light waiting to turn left,

he starts reving it to like 5+ a couple times as the left arrow comes on (I thought he was gonna do a little burnout -- ok... might've been fun). Then he proceeds to let the clutch out slowwwwly on these hig revs and proceed to turn. Now the clutch lever is fully released and we are half way into the intersection with revs at 4-5, but we are barely moving -- and he is sitting there with this dumb look on his face like "I don't know why we're not moving..." (Mind you this is all happening over the course of 5 seconds). Finally he gives the throttle a break and the clutch gets a grip and we go on through the turn and proceed to the parking spot in front of the lunch place.

Of course next there was this horrible stink (still stinks tonight) of cooked clutch. Well, so far so good it doesn't seem to have wrecked it. But I guess he took a few thousand miles of it! WTF!? ...Never do that again.

So how can I start to tell if the clutch is about to go? And what's it gonna take to replace it ($$$)? I thought it felt a little tough pushing it into gear a couple times tonight - or am I imagining that?

Thoughts? Comments?

 

you're fine......don't lose sleep over this. ppl who drag race should be familiar with this smell lol....

 

I've torched my clutch a few times too (the most horrible smell). Still works good after 46k miles. I guess it's a lot tougher than most.

 

dont worry about it. its all in ur head

 

Not a big deal. Could have been worse imagine him revving it high RPM then half way through the turn dumping the clutch sending you into oncoming traffic. FYI I don't let anybody drive my Z let alone my HS friend.

 

lol as i was reading it thats what i thought was going to happen...

yeah don't worry about...

 

Ok - I won't worry. But can somebody explain what happened? I mean, I guess I get it: He got the clutch going into a sort of "clutch burnout" I guess. Never heard of it -- but when I saw what was happening, well, there it was! I've been driving M/Ts all my life -- never experienced this before. It was weird...

 

Don't worry, after a few thousand miles you'll have to replace the transmission anyway.

 

Yeah dont worry bout it. Its just shaved a layer off your clutch plates, they are big heavy chunks of metal.

 

I'm guessing he wasn't very comfortable with the z's high release point on the clutch, and he started giving it to much gas before the clutch was engaged. He probably got a little panicked, and never fully released the clutch while staying on the gas...

 

No biggy, but the only time you should start to worry is when you feel the clutch slip.

Say you're cruising and you give it some throttle and it's revving while you barely started to move. That's the only time I think you should start the get worried.

I remember the day my cltuch went out. It just started to slip and acouple hours later it wouldn't even move from 1st gear.

 

Don't worry about how much it's going to cost you to replace it, it's not your concern. It's your buddys'.... J/k

 

Umm don't let anyone other than your mom drive your Z. Moral of the story.

 

dang sometimes i smell that smell too. right before my clutch gave out it smelled really bad for like a week. once i got my new clutch, my friend said i didnt break it in and it smelled for like 2weeks straight. it doesnt smell now about 1000 miles after the new clutch, but im worried. you should be fine as long as it doesnt smell for more than a few days.

 

if nothing's broken, i wouldn't trip over this $hit.
It IS you, who let your friend to drive your Z after all.
Slightly damaged the clutch, lesson learnt. Move on.

 

He must not have been in 1st. Probably 3rd.

 

Not sure, but I don't think so. He didn't have to shift to get things straight again. Besides once the clutch did engage at <3mph, wouldn't it just die?

Whatever was going on, I didn't know one could do it. My only thought is he really doesnt know how to drive MT and was essentially riding the clutch -- but he swears that by the time we were in the intersection he had fully released the clutch. So, I guess the thing got so hot that it couldn't engage and was stuck in a kind of clutch burnout. New concept to me. Even when I was a green shifter I never did such a thing...

 

make him buy you an aftermarket clutch/flywheel just to be on the safe side

 

It's possible that the clutch stuck and it wasn't his fault. I (along with others on this forum) have been having problems with the clutch sticking in my 06 when doing a launch at varous RPMs. Have you launched it much?

 

Sticking or slipping? Not sure what you mean....

Sure -- I've launched it all different RPMS. Never a hint of a problem ('til someone else was driving).