From what I hear, blueing of the flywheel indicates it being heated up (launched, etc). That's their proof. It sucks, but what can we do. Most opt for an aftermarket piece, so warantee is not worth fighting for. My dealter would not even install another piece even if I agree to void that part of my warantee. They want $1700 to replace an OEM clutch. Mine is holding up fine and 5500 miles, but drive it normally and no launching.

BTW, my dealer said he has an Evo customer with over 40K miles on the OEM. Go figure.

 

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I'm no engineer but to parts making contact that are spinning in excess of 3000 RPM would generate heat regardless. I spoke with 2 clutch/tranny guys who told me that Blu'ing of the fly wheel is by NO MEANS a sign of abuse. It can be but it also happen to normal cars because the friction surface on the clutch amnd flywheel both move so fast.

 

I have heard that the clutch is weaker to save the rest of the tranny in the event of hard driving. I don't know about you guys but I'd rather replace a clutch then the entire tranny. And I also think a lot of us would be better off taking the hit and replacing the clutch with something that's going to take all the abuse we can provide anyways, while still maintaining driveability, rather than replacing crap with crap (stock clutch with more stock clutches). I think the time is better spent looking into the transfer case, seeing as how regardless of mods and mileage, people are breaking them left and right. It is obviously a defect.

Just for the record, 29.5k miles, stock clutch, still moving on.

 

A BIG to you if your clucth is not giving you issues. My point is that if they are "crap" then Mitsu needs to replace them with BETTER units that will last and give the consumer what they deserve when they buy this car. All of Mitsu's advertisments promote this car as a hard driving machine. The sales folks at alot of mitsu dealerships tout it as a " STREET LEGAL RACE CAR" so if those are the claims that they are making then they need to be held to that. Not be replacing CRAP with CRAP but my making them replace crap with a quality clucth.

 

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Clutch dead at 5500 miles.

 

What I'd like to know is when the car is assembled, do they use the same clutch unit for the U.S. Evo 8, MR, FQ-330, RS and the last Evo 7 or is there different "grades" of clutches they put in for each of the cars. If they are all the same, I am confident we are not getting screwed here in the U.S. It has to be a failsafe for the tranny so they don't get killed on expensive tranny warantee claims. Is the OEM clutch at the max spec tolerance before the tranny suffers damage, who knows.

If anything, Mitsu should offer fully waranteed replacement clutches of a higher grade if a customer chooses.

BTW, I canceled my xtended coverage and received over $2100 back. Not worth it, especially when modded. Pay off the car faster and save for my own repairs and have them done right.

 

The EVO 7 uses the same flywheel and disc but a stronger pressure plate. However you cannot switch to the EVO 7 pressure plate because the leverage ratio is quite different and the linkage will not give you enough travel to operate the clutch (it won't fully disengage). I don't think the decision for the weak clutch is a matter of tranny damage, but engine torque. If you do the math for the stock clutch it should hold about 360 ftlbs of torque which is plenty for the stock car.

One main problem is that apparently the stock friction material doesn't tolerate heat very well. The stupid restrictor will create extra slip, which means extra heat/wear. The flywheel is also very light for a stock car (14.1 lbs) which means you need to slip the clutch more and there is less material to soak up the heat. To make matters worse, when the disc wears to a certain point they have stops built into the pressure plate which means that it will start slipping very quickly once it reaches a certain wear point. And this is not the complete list of contributing factors. How about AWD traction, high release point, high first gear, long rubber hydro line. The stock clutch is not that feable, but combined with everything else, it becomes a problem.

 

Is there any way on the stock clutch to machien down the stops to allow a little more of the stock clutch to be used? or other clutches? Is it a stop on the pressure plate? flywheel?

 

same here!

 

Yes. The stops are basically the oversized rivet head that hold the drive straps to the casting. These stops (rivet heads) prevent the wear of the disc to go all the way down to the rivets that hold the friction material on. When the disc gets thin, the rivet heads bottom out on the flywheel.

The benefit of the stops is that the pressure plate and flywheel will not get gouged from the disc rivets, but normally these get swaped out anyway. The downside is that it leaves a lot of valuable material left on the disc and when it bottoms out, the change in grip is very quick. One day it holds, the next day it slips out of control.

 

What would happen if some of the ground off clutch material accumulated on these stops? I sure would like to see techs at Mitsubishi be the slightest bit interested in analyzing clutch problems or any problems, instead of just replacing anything and hoping the problem goes away. I can see where it might be possible that the clutch would have been fine as many pictures suggested, but possibly something else was keeping it from fully clamping down on the clutch. This would do it.

I'm not familiar enough to know what a drive strap or casting is. IS that on the pressure plate?

Do aftermarket clutches replace these parts so that the entire clutch lining can be used before it no longer will fully clamp?

 

There is really no chance for the material to get caught under the rivets for two reasons:
1. The friction material debris is usually a fine powder.
2. Any potential debris would be released. The pressure plate lifts (with it's stops) every time you shift and the engine is spinning which flings the material away.

I cannot speak for other manufacturers but we do away with these stops. This allows for more wear but you also have the ability to gouge the flywheel or pressure plate when the disc gets really thin if you don't change the clutch when you should. I will try and attach a photo of the stops that I posted in a previous thread. Nope, it didn't work. How about this link:

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/sh...ghlight=clutch
Check out attached photo in post number 134.

 

Complaint filed. I have 16750 on the clutch when it died.

 

only have 3kon the car now, but i will definitely make a complaint about this if it dies anytime soon.

in fact ive heard rumors about our local service rep being an *** about warranty repairs from a fellow evo owner. He said she voided his entire warranty because he had a turboback exhaust installed, she would not replace his transfer case. He also said that whenever he goes in for any type of work, a note come up when you input his VINnumber saying *Warning highly modified*

BS in my opinion. The mitsu mechanics hate her.