How are the 05's and MRs clutches holding up?
 

For all you guys with an 05 Evo or the MR just wanted to see how your clutches are holding up..Any problems? How many miles do you have on the car?

Just like the 03-04's, no problems for people who know how to drive

No problems really for me. I've got an '05 with about 2500 miles on it. Only thing I've noticed is a horrid smell of burning clutch after a hard launch. I've heard other people complain about difficulty knowing the exact point where the clutch engages, which may may be causing me extra slippage when I launch, becuase I tend to ride the clutch til about 20 mph on a hard launch. Other than bad smell and most likely a little extra wear and tear due to me launching it, clutch seems adequate.... synchros though, thats another story :rolleyes:

I agree if you know how to drive you ll have no problem. My friend has 30k+ and its fine . Me 15k and fine 337 hp and 344 tq since 6k on an im fine.

Just dont do 5k drops if you want your clutch to last, its that simple. Go to the UK boards and ask about the clutch on every Evo 1-8 and they will tell you the same thing.

There is more to it then doing 5k drops and being able to drive fellas....You honestly can't believe the sheer amount of people who had clutch problems are ALL bad drivers or launching their cars. Granted, there may be a few within that bunch but the amount of people that have had the problem is overwhelming. If you do any research on the subject you will see how many people have had clutch issues. Many of the people who claim "they are good drivers and their clutch is fine, ended up around 10-15k saying their clutches are finished. If your clutch is still good after 15k...either your lucky, your an excellent driver or your a Pu$$y and you don't DRIVE your car. The bottom line is that Mitsubishi knows the clutches are crap and that is why they went to so lengths to deny warranty coverage’s and in 05 they changed alot of parameters in the car-adding a rev limiter among other things to prevent these problems. The techs at Mitsu know the clutches suck, it is general knowledge by now. Anyone whose answer is "no problems as long as you no how drive" is simply ignorant.


Hey Silvercar...questions for you....What kind of clutch are you using? Hows the engagement feel since you installed the SS line (with or without restrictor?)

driving your car "hard" doesn't involve clutch abuse. launching your car is not driving your car hard. Driving hard involves driving it in deep into corners, breaking late, and powering out. 5100 on my MR, no issues
YMMV,
Greg

thank you.

I get the smell also of a burning clutch after I do a launch of about 4500 to 500RPMs, I always slip the clutch and it works great for me, the car launches strong but I get the smell of burned clutch. The clutch doesn't seem to slip or be burned after the launch It's just the smell I notice. Other the that my MR is doing fine. 2200 miles so far.

Not to get off topic but I don't see how late breaking going into a corner could possibly affect clutch wear..... but you guys are the pros.

yah all i ever hear about is how bad the evo clutch is but i have over 5k on my MR and have had no problems, and this is the only car group i have ever personally been with that most people think that beating the hell out of the car from the first mile is good for it, but one of the main concerns of a break in period is not just to break in the engine but to break in the clutch properly, its just like brake pads except needs alot more miles to break in other wise it will wear at a much faster rate, and off topic i think someone needs to do a poll on who had clutch problems following the beat down break in peroid method

oh and on a side note i know theres at least 2 people on the evolutionmr.net site that have already burnt their clutches on their MRs with less than 5k if they want to chime in

05 w/ 2k miles on it, and not a single problem.

On a more technical note, I was told that Exedy manufactured the stock clutches for the EVO's and that Mitsubishi ignored Exedy's recommendations of using a clutch with a higher clamp load rating for such a high performance car. I believe Mitsu's intention was to purposely make the clutch the weak link in order to save our magnificent drivetrain.... that said it would also be more evident if someone was trying to get more performance out of the car because they would be forced to upgrade the clutch to handle even slightly more torque.
... my .02

I believe MANY of the clutch problems stems with people not knowing how to get the evo moving. Here r the 2 factors:

1) Lack of low end torque

2) more work is required to move the 4 wheel drive components

After the third month of ownership, a close friend of mine (a trucker with 40 years of driving experience) pointed out that I was riding the clutch bad! I did not know how to properly get the evo going without riding the clutch. I have been driving stick for 10+ years so I do know how to drive properly. This user induced "premature wear" combined with aggressive launches and a weak mitsu clutch, are the leading factors that contribute to clutch failure. Btw I have 63K on the stock clutch.

Bobby