I have an intermittent issue with a sticking clutch. The flywheel, clutch, pressure plate, and slave are all less than 10k miles and 1 year old.
I'm on an LUK stock clutch from Summit, making stock power with 285-section PS4S squared tires.
The issue seems to start when the car is warmer then 1st thing in the morning. However, it can still be hit or miss, with a 70% failure rate when it's any warmer. For example, I drove it to work (a 12-minute drive mostly stop signs) and the clutch and trans felt better than ever. Then I drove it on lunch, and the first few stops were fine, followed by a consistent issue occurrence.
My symptoms are: from a stop, I push in the clutch, go to put the car into gear, and it won't take. If I push hard enough on the shifter, the car creeps forward slightly, but none of the gears will take.
If I keep pressing and releasing the clutch, sometimes it'll let me go in, but most often I have to turn the car off, put it in gear, start the car, let the clutch out, and go. While driving, sometimes the gears can be a little slow to take, but it's drivable with mostly no issue.
The clutch does not grab low, it's not squishy, and I did a full fluid flush today and saw no change in symptoms at all. I have no reason to suspect a slave/hydraulic issue. I'm able to clutchless shift with ease, and there is no grinding between gears when doing so. I wouldn't expect the issue to be in the transmission.
My theory is that the friction disc is sticking. What doesn't add up to me is the age of the clutch. Why am I having problems so early in its life?
One thing that is noteworthy is I'm on 285 PS4S tires, and it is nearly impossible to launch this car with any sort of rpm without dumping the clutch or completely burning it to the point where the clutch is fully slipping with my foot off the pedal. I can also smell it if I start in reverse up a hill.
Here are my questions:
Has anyone noted the Weak clamping power on their stock clutch?
Has anyone seen this issue before?
Any tests I can perform before buying a new clutch?
Any recommendations for clutches? I've been looking at the Moster single disc.
Thanks for reading. Any advice welcome!!

 

Welcome to the forums. There is nothing worse than a lame clutch than maybe out of gas. What you are describing is a clutch not disengaging. The fact you can't get it into gear with the clutch not engaged tells you the synchrnizers are working fine. The fact the clutch works good sometimes makes me think its not the face plate, if it's broken or worped it would not work only sometimes it's mechancial. I'm not sure your car has a inspection cover on the bellhousing, if it does it would be a good way to inspect the clutch disk for warpage or missing sections of the disk and check disengagement when the clutch is engaged. Engine not running. Another possiblely is the slave master cylinder not working correctly. If the cup in the master cylinder colapses at times, it could work good one time and not another, this could be a consideration. And there are no fluid leaks?

 

It does have an inspection cover. I've already ordered a new clutch because of the time crunch before my track day. I'll be adding my findings to this forum for future reference of other members

 

Performance clutch's are a good way to go for performance driving. I have replaced many stock clutches in automobiles that won't hold up to aggressive driving, You get what you pay for you might say.

 

It sounds to me like your pilot bearing is dying.

 

If it had a ball bearing I would have considered that,but has the needle roller bearing that doesen't normally seize up. Having the clutch replaced 10K ago that bearing should have been checked or replaced. It sounds more like a over heated warped or seperating disk to me. He has a new assembly ordered once apart it should tell the story.

 

I had a car with needle bearing pilot that died after about 20k. The installing shop didn't grease it. Did the same thing....

 

Thanks for all the replys!!
upon removal of the clutch i fou d that there were no needles in the pilot bearing and based on the atrocious grooving on the pressure plate i think its safe to say thats what caused the problame.
What might have caused such a young pilot bearing to fail like that?

 

Poor installation, lack of grease, cheap quality parts, etc.

 

Good Question, Why bearings go bad. Defective bearing, wrong bearing, Lack of grease, someone could have greased the bearing with incompatable grease, excessive out of balance clutch disk (friction plate), Worn bearing on clutch input shaft causing bad harmonics. Sometimes you will never know.