View Single Post
Old 03-03-2018, 02:40 AM   #7 (permalink)
Baltothewolf
Furry Furfag
 
Baltothewolf's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Apple Valley
Posts: 2,084

Winsight - '00 Honda Insight
90 day: 56.69 mpg (US)

Miaderp - '95 Mazda Miata
90 day: 28.53 mpg (US)
Thanks: 67
Thanked 409 Times in 313 Posts
Quote:
Originally Posted by MetroMPG View Post


The clutch in my winter beater 2000 Metro has always been annoying garbage ... until it apparently "self-healed" this week.

Note: it shouldn't be worn out. The previous owner replaced it in 2013, about 25k kms ago.

Symptoms prior to this week:
  • An exceedingly thin friction point that made it very challenging to engage smoothly, (but it could be done with more concentration than normal)
  • Sometimes noisy (vaguely rattly) in gear or out, clutch up or down
  • Loud squeal from the friction surfaces when slipping it aggressively from a stop

Then this week, I took off from a stop more aggressively than usual (on a hill, too) and it squealed like a stuck pig (which I expected). Probably the hardest launch I've done to the car.

Demon be gone!

At the next stop, as I pushed in the clutch to go into 1st gear, there was a distinct "clank!" and a brief rattling, as if something had fallen off something else and bounced around inside a metal case.

Immediately following that, the clutch has worked normally! Normal friction point, much quieter, no more mystery rattles. And it squeals much less when slipping aggressively.

Any ideas what was wrong before? I've never done any clutch work in my life. But I'm guessing maybe something was lodged in the clutch disc, caught either between the flywheel or the pressure plate... screwing things up, until it flew out. Does that make any sense?
The clutch probably wasn't broken in properly, and the flywheel had glazed over. It's a common problem that's often fixed by a hard clutch dump. Same thing happens to brakes as well.
__________________

  Reply With Quote