I've recently been teaching some newbies how to drive manual on my Z, yes yes i know shame on me, but I don't want to be the only person in my family who can drive it. Anyways, last night, someone was trying to drive aggressively before they had mastered manual driving and burnt my clutch for a good 3-4 seconds at about 4000RPMs. Anyways, I smelled the clutch smell very strongly and could still smell it when I got home and parked my car in the garage. Anyways, my question is, how do I know if the clutch is bad or needs to be replaced?
I noticed that the clutch now catches earlier or sooner than it used to. Like it used to catch when I let out the clutch about halfway, now it catches when I let it out a quarter of the way. It seems slightly weak too.

I just wanna know if Ill have to be replacing it soon, or does it still have a good number of miles on it? BTW I have 6k miles on the car.

And sorry mods if this post isnt in the right section.

 

Well, my car needed the whole transmission replaced because it was grinding in 3rd gear. It started happening at 3000 miles but I see your already passed that marker. Are you having this problem? From my experiences with MT cars, when someone else drives the car, your tranny adjust slightly to match the drivers shifting habits. I haven't let anyone drive the Z so I've had no problems of this nature. Give it a couple days and it will adjust back to your shifting technique, always used to work for me. Hope this helps!

 

clutch should be fine. its not helping its life, but should still be ok. if it burns alot, and seems to slip even when fully engaged, then you got problems, get it fixed fast, or youll have more problems.

 

I agree with Ares. There is no way a couple of newbs could shred a clutch is that short a time.

But just to be sure, try and start the car from a stop in 3rd gear. A solid clutch will be able to start in 3rd. One that is starting to give up will not. That's how it was explained to me. Take care and good luck.

Dan

 

In answer to your question, when your clutch is worn out you will be able to tell by one simple test:

drive your car as you normally do. If you find that your car seems to be over reving (significantly so) in order to accelerate at all, then it is typically due to a slipping clutch plate that needs to be replaced.

As per the burning smell - Hopefully the Z's clutch is sufficiently durable to withstand such treatment (time will tell), but anytime you get a burnt metal smell from your clutch then you have mistreated it and worn it if only slightly.

 

How to test your clutch.

From a light, launch the car hard in third gear... if you bog your clutch is fine. (Downside, VERY hard on the clutch)

Another EASIER way on a vehicle, find a steep hill. While climbing at a low speed put the car in 5th and floor it. If again the car bogs your clutch is fine.

In EITHER circumstance if the car just revs without movement, this is called "Slipping" and the clutch is starting to go.

 

how do u know that the tranny is messing up? like when a gear grinds, i would think that its my fault and not the car's fault.