Bear with me as it's been almost a year since this problem happened but I came across my old clutch disk while cleaning out my garage tonight. Background: Bought my 04 Evo used with 31k miles. Had some mods and was demodded a bit when traded in. I kept the power the same as when I bought it (stock exhaust, HKS intake, MBC at 22, cams and tune). I daily drove the car for 2 years and got into autoX and eventually track days. The car had 70k miles on it at this point and nothing ever went wrong on it. Drove like a dream. Until one day...

I was at Lime Rock doing an HPDE and coming down the main straight and downshifting for Big Bend I felt a bit of hesitation. Hmm. Kept driving around and did a lap no problem. I then get back to the same spot. As I attempt to downshift from 4th to 3rd the shifter just will not go. I try to get back into 4th but no dice. I was completely locked out of all gears, coasted off the track and got towed in.

Once in the paddock we started to diagnose the problem. The car would start and I could get going, sort of. It made the most horrific noise imaginable and changing gears was next to impossible. We called AAA for a tow home and they were not showing because the shop wanted the repair job if they did the tow. Screw that! So I decided to run the gauntlet and drive the car home. I basically could not come to a stop for fear of the car not getting moving again. Rolled through stop signs and did what I could to keep chugging. After several stalls, failures to move and strength-sapping gear changes I actually made it home. AAA eventually showed up 5hrs after we called.

We got to work on getting the tranny out but ran into a problem at the throw out bearing. It just would not go. We did a lot of research and while people have trouble, this was ridiculous. We had to 'back door' it and undo the pressure plate bolts to get the tranny off. When we finally did, this is what we found:



A metal chunk of the clutch disk was torn off as the spring nearly completely blew out. The funny thing is a few weeks after this, my friend that helped me get the tranny out blew his ACT clutch the exact same way on the dyno. I know that parts break, especially when you push them, and I got 40k miles on this clutch after who knows how many the prior owner put on, but I just thought I would share two people's identical experiences.

We have both gone to Exedy Twins and are very happy with them. I've put about 7k miles on mine so far along with several track days and it's been great. The Shep fully rebuilt tranny helps too. I know he went to an Exedy Single because funds were tight due to buying a house but absolutely hated it so he switched to the twin. I'll point him here so he can add his experience as well.

Sucks, I've had a clutch do the same thing, Exedy in my old EVO 1

Huh that must have sucked at the time, but 40K is pretty good for all the abuse....but still

It was amazing. I too bought the my 03 Evo at 38k miles, ran the stocker until 43k, installed the ACT HDSS at that time with the prolite flywheel, and had this same failure at 73k miles, which was only weeks after helping Doug (OP) remove his. The thing fell apart identically in the bell housing after the same amount of miles. I still had around 30% life left on the disc!! The flywheel didn't have crazy hot spots and I never mis-shifted at an autox event. The clutch had one HPDE on it in the pouring rain at Lime Rock, which can't be called 'abuse' though it is obviously not normal street driving. I also had zero lock-out problems, broke my clutch in properly, and kept the engagement height at proper levels.

I have 6k miles and four HPDEs on my new Twin and its great, but as I've stated in other threads, avoid the Exedy Stage 1 HD like the plague.

memories...

Good times, Schreinerizer. Good times indeed. Although I admit it's more fun when it's not your tranny/clutch. Jeff, yours was great!