Hey all,

I screwed up a launch pretty bad today at autocross and burned my clutch. A very strong smell in the cabin right away and people said they saw some blue smoke. I let the car cool off after the run, then drove it home an hour (carefully). The car seems to drive fine, but even after I got home, I could still smell it a little bit in my garage. So... now what

I've toasted the clutch a bit before, just trying to park on steep hills, etc., but never like this. Should I be worried? Should I start putting money away for a new clutch? Is there anything I should do now, or just leave it be and be more careful next time?

I feel pretty stupid and bad... poor Evo

 

you won't know until you drive it again. Have you ever driven a car that the clutch is slipping badly before?


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Yep, I have, I know what a slipping clutch feels like from a previous car. Is that the only thing I should be worried about here, though?

 

If it keeps slipping under load then its Fubar. There really nothing else that u should be concerned about. But it sounds like you done a good job on it tho
Replace clutch and machine fly wheel

 

Why does the flywheel have to be machined? I started looking into clutch upgrades, that was something I was going to do down the road anyway. May have to do it sooner now.

 

I fried my clutch while I was stuck in traffic on an uphill for about an hour, it was pretty much stop and go every five feet. My clutch would only slip under wot, but it drove fine under normal driving and lasted me a good 10k miles. Stock clutch lived 90k

 

Well, I only have 4500 miles on this car, so... I feel pretty ****ty about the stupid move. I mean, in the end, clutches aren't that expensive and I have a good mechanic who can put it in, it's just a crappy feeling. I'll have to see where it slips and how much, then figure out which new clutch to get.

 

If its slipping then you have a problem--if not your luck for now--the X's have a weak clutch from whats posted on this forum. As for machining your fly wheel-- you need to have it surfaced so it will not continue to slip--since you fried your clutch, not only is the clutch disc punished but you create hot spots on the flywheel as well and these need to me machined off to allow the new clutch to seat and break in.

 

Ooooh, I see. So, wouldn't installing a new / different flywheel be the better option? You're already paying labor to remove/install it, aren't the aftermarket solutions better?

 

The issue with going with any type of flywheel that isn't stock is that your taking off weight from the rotational mass of the crank. By doing that it takes less power to turn and is going to throw off your idle and everything else, at least, that's the way it was explained to me. If you do go with an aftermarket flywheel, you should stick with a weight similar to stock.

 

By taking off rotational mass of the crank, your engine revs more freely and reduces drivetrain loss. It will idle just fine. It will however, be harder to get moving and may not be the best option if you rely on launching your car.

 

How exactly does it make it more difficult to launch your car? Just curious.

 

You won't destroy a fairly new clutch with 4k miles on it after just one burning episode, just drive it normally for a while.

 

Don't worry it happened to me coupe of times.you smell the clutch for couple of days and then it's go away.don't think you killed the clutch.