The other day I was at a stop sign waiting for a clearing so I could get across a busy intersection. I was holding the clutch and the gas just where the clutch starts to grab [as I was on a hill] (yes I know this isn't a great idea). When there was a clearing I let the clutch out the rest of the way and pushed on the gas, I wasn't going very quickly so my first reaction was to floor it... which only ended up with the tach needle bouncing off red line. Shifted into second... same thing.

It was about this time that I realized what the real problem was...and sure enough as I smelled the air I smelled that distinct odor of burning clutch. Ever since then the clutch has been slipping at times. Nothing too bad but enough to notice it.

I ordered a clutch from SpeedCorps, but it's not likely to get here by the end of the week which is when me and my girlfriend are going down to Virginia to visit a friend.

My question from all of that mangled rambling is this: Will it be ok to drive the car some 400 miles (roughly) to Virginia from NJ and back? Or should I take my parents car?

 

i personally would take a different car. i love driving my lancer but id hate to be driving it and then something like that happens and you have no idea of where you are. better safe than sorry i feel.

 

Flooring it while the clutch was still engaging (and uphill) was not a good idea. You probably glazed the flywheel or clutch a bit, reducing the friction they provide. You should see some improvement in grip after some normal driving. How many miles are on your clutch/flywheel?

 

Do not take your car! Take it from me it will only get worse, take another car. Also send that clutch back and get an exedy.

 

Exedy only makes an oem replacement clutch for the base lancers. I would recommend spec clutch. I have had a stage 3 clutch in my car for some time now with no problems. Just curious what clutch did you order from speed corps?

 

i bought the mb8xtss from act. not a problem here

 

Wow I did not expect all the responses lol... anyway the previous owner had just put in a new clutch when I bought the car with 76k miles on it, the car now has 125k so the clutch in there now has about 50k miles on it. Mind you though that this is my first manual trans car so while I haven't always been stupid with it (Ie. Above hahaha) I have made some mistakes on it and have burned it a few times before (actually all of those previous times were in stop and go traffic no less); so I'm not exactly upset that it's going on me. Personally I think getting 50k out of it was more than I could ask for being to new it lol.

I bought the Clutchmasters FX100 Stage 1 clutch from SpeedCorps because it was cheaper than RRM (which actually I'm finding out its not...little mix up with the people on the site; they're willing to sell it to me at cost because of that though.) and advertised better than stock performance.
Don't get me wrong I would have gone with RRM if I had the money, but I needed to get something ordered and on its way as soon as I can plus I figured SpeedCorps is a reliable company and I found it through these forums with nothing bad really said about it.

Just to add another opinion to the fire pit... my coworker said that the car should be ok to drive as long as I'm careful with the clutch and don't to any stupid **** with it like burn outs or what-not like that. I didn't directly ask him if I should take the car on a long trip though.

 

I was looking at ACT clutches actually but I only have a SRI from RRM and Cat-back exhaust performance mods... everything that I saw on ACT's website all looked like it would have been overkill for such modest mods...

 

over kill yes but at hte same time, i ordered a exedy off ebay. dont get me wrong, every thing i needed but beer was in the kit. but the slave cyl/bearing broke when i tried to bleed it. right where the bleeder is seated. cracked. so franticly i tried to see if friends could weld it. anyways, i have the original in there now. i cant do a burnout and it slips a bit if im gettin on it from first to second. i like the act 6puck and will go with that one soon.

"make sure you remove the glaze from the flywheel with emory cloth!!!!"

 

Almost forgot about this thread hahaha. I just did the clutch today actually and yeah I had a problem with the bleeder valve sticking, ended up using a deep socket 8mm and cracked it loose that way. It's the first clutch I had ever replaced (extremely glad I had the help of a master tech lol) so when I got in the car and pushed the clutch in so easily it felt like I had went to walk up another step and it wasn't there :-p.

Anyway--an update to the original topic: I took my old car (now my father's) 06 Civic for the trip down to Virginia. Good thing I did too because it took me down one road... Highway 43... I'll just say this: For those of you who saw FF Tokyo Drift...it would make the mountain road at the end of the movie look like child's play by comparison.

Did anyone else get an SES light after doing their clutch btw? I checked the codes with my OBDII software on my laptop and got the following two codes:
P0113 - Intake Air Temperature Circuit High Input
P0107 - Manifold Absolute Pressure/Barometric Pressure Circuit Low Input

The light actually turned off when I started the car to read the codes but they still showed up. Freeze frame shows the car wasn't moving when it happened so it was more then likely one of the first times I started the car after replacing the clutch.
Something of importance I should add is that after we put the car back together I tried starting it and you could hear the fuel pump buzzing in the rear however it wouldn't start. My coworker (the master tech) and I started checking the fuses and starter... after he checked the wires at the starter he tried starting it just to see if he could and it turned right over.

Anyway enjoy the long post, sorry I talk a lot lol. Weird day. Time to sleep go for 12 hours hahaha.