Clutch slip!!!!

[07speed3]

The other night on my way home my clutch slipped for the first time in 60k miles! (atleast i think thats what it was) i was starting from a role in 4th then hit 5th and as soon as i let the clutch back out in 5th the tach just went from like 4k rpm to 5k rpm then settled back down and started pulling again, was that my clutch slipping? It hasnt done it since and i have tryed to make it do it again, i did just get my CS downpipe and race pipe put on a few days before.

Also how many miles have all of you gotten out of your stock clutch?

Thanks for the help!!

 

[Circle9]

60k on one clutch seems pretty good to me. I've got 30k on my clutch - no sign of wear at all.

 

[happy and angry]

A well maintained and cared for clutch can last the life of the motor. 60k is not that good at all.

It might not be the clutch itself, though. Could be the clutch master cylinder, which seems more likely to me given how few miles you've put on your clutch.

Do you drive it hard, slip the clutch a lot, do drag racing? Ride the clutch at all to hold yourself in position at a light, rock the car back and forth on hills using first gear, etc etc?

 

[Circle9]

Hehe, I came from the 8th Civic forums where members were having to replace their clutches as early as 7,000 miles.

 

[07speed3]

I have ran at the track maybe twice I mean I don't baby my clutch but I don't ride it. I mean I may have burnt it to wear I could smell it one time

 

[happy and angry]

I'm not a mechanic and I don't have a lot of experience with this sort of problem, so take what I say with at least a grain of salt but:

Our clutch is pretty beefy. It'll take a bit of a beating, even a glazing or two and still operate fine. I don't know that what you describe was even a slipping clutch. Could be an issue with the throwout bearing sticking that prevented the clutch from engaging when you came off the pedal so that when you got on the gas you were effectively in neutral, then the clutch engaged and it "went into gear", for example. There's lots it could have been.

And even if it was regularly slipping I'd suspect hydrolic pressure issues like the master cylinder or maybe air in one of the lines as opposed to clutch wear. Like I said, the thing is pretty tough. I'm not sure you have enough to diagnose the problem, and if it's not happening regularly it won't help you much to take it to a dealer. My advice is to bring it up with the dealership or wherever you do your service appointments at your next servicing so that they can take a quick look for obvious problems like slow fluid leaks or pinched lines or what have you, and if it gets worse or you can figure out how to repeat the symptoms take it in immediately.

Maybe someone else has more insight, but that's how I'd deal with your problem.

 

[ms3jake]

The other night on my way home my clutch slipped for the first time in 60k miles! (atleast i think thats what it was) i was starting from a role in 4th then hit 5th and as soon as i let the clutch back out in 5th the tach just went from like 4k rpm to 5k rpm then settled back down and started pulling again, was that my clutch slipping? It hasnt done it since and i have tryed to make it do it again, i did just get my CS downpipe and race pipe put on a few days before.

Also how many miles have all of you gotten out of your stock clutch?

Thanks for the help!!

I have a similar symptom but mine was downshifting from 6th-5th. Has done it a few times. It does not do often and only seems to happen on a fast downshift. I actually do baby my clutch. I have been driving 16 years and have never had to replace a clutch in the 12 cars I have had all being manual. I only have 19kon my ms3. I do believe this is the first sign of a clutch going. I am very dissapointed. I did buy my car used with 5k on it, maybe the previous owner sucked at driving stick.(argh)

 

[LukeP]

My civic has 280,000 km (170,000 miles) on the original clutch. I know this because I bought the car from the first owner, and I drove it in an urban cycle for over 10 years. Now that car doesnt have much power (102 @ 5500 rpm) so the clutch MIGHT slip if it had more juice going through it.

The MS3 is a little different. Its got a brutish torque curve at an RPM that could easily be hit from just mild launches or improper gear changes. I think that someone could indeed have damaged it enough in a short amount of time. You could fry a clutch in 0 miles if you really tried!

I've seen some holarious youtube videos of guys trying to do a FWD burnout by putting it to the boards and standing on the brakes, but with an engine thats powerful enough and brakes strong enough, they dissipate all those killowatts of energy at the clutch.

 

[07speed3]

im not sure now because i have not been able to replicate it since that night...and it doesnt show any other signs of wear, im almost unsure of myself at this point that maybe i still had my foot resting on the peddle and didnt realize it. i mean these clutches are pretty tough so it would pry take alot of abuse maybe someone who dont know how to drive a stick could pry kill it pretty fast or if you slipped it alot but aside from the occasional race im pretty easy on my clutch.

ms3jake, you might be able to get it replaced under warrenty because there is know way that it should go out that fast and my service manager at the dealer i use said he personally would replace a clutch up to 25k granted thats by his discretion but theres still a possibility

 

[MSMS3]

The OP has 60,000 miles. I don't think a dealer would honor warranty on that, even if it was otherwise covered. I haven't looked at our warranty fine print, but on most manual tranny cars, the clutch disc is considered a "wear" item, like brake pads and tires, and would not be covered by the manufacturer.

The good news is that whatever caused the momentary slip has not come back. That suggests that whatever it was was a transient condition not likely to recur.

 

[07speed3]

The OP has 60,000 miles. I don't think a dealer would honor warranty on that, even if it was otherwise covered. I haven't looked at our warranty fine print, but on most manual tranny cars, the clutch disc is considered a "wear" item, like brake pads and tires, and would not be covered by the manufacturer.

The good news is that whatever caused the momentary slip has not come back. That suggests that whatever it was was a transient condition not likely to recur.

when i said about warrenty i wasnt reffering to myself i know theres no way they would cover mine, i was just reffering to what the service manager had told me when i was at the dealer that he would warrenty a clutch in certain cases.

 

[ms3jake]

im not sure now because i have not been able to replicate it since that night...and it doesnt show any other signs of wear, im almost unsure of myself at this point that maybe i still had my foot resting on the peddle and didnt realize it. i mean these clutches are pretty tough so it would pry take alot of abuse maybe someone who dont know how to drive a stick could pry kill it pretty fast or if you slipped it alot but aside from the occasional race im pretty easy on my clutch.

ms3jake, you might be able to get it replaced under warrenty because there is know way that it should go out that fast and my service manager at the dealer i use said he personally would replace a clutch up to 25k granted thats by his discretion but theres still a possibility

Once it happens once it will happen again. When it first happened to me I took it to the dealer and we couldnt replicate it but it happened again the next week. The dealer said if the clutch was going they wouldnt cover it. I was told this is the first sign of damage for sure though.

 

[meicalnissyen]

The other night on my way home my clutch slipped for the first time in 60k miles! (atleast i think thats what it was) i was starting from a role in 4th then hit 5th and as soon as i let the clutch back out in 5th the tach just went from like 4k rpm to 5k rpm then settled back down and started pulling again, was that my clutch slipping? It hasnt done it since and i have tryed to make it do it again, i did just get my CS downpipe and race pipe put on a few days before.

Also how many miles have all of you gotten out of your stock clutch?

Thanks for the help!!

****


That is EXACTLY what I had
did ya smell it as well?

where are you at with it now replaced,? or waiting for failure?

since a clutch should last "abitrary number, much larger than 45K " miles

can we get mazda to replace? or is this going to be a ;wear and tear; item even if it wears prematurely

 

[meicalnissyen]

I have a similar symptom but mine was downshifting from 6th-5th. Has done it a few times. It does not do often and only seems to happen on a fast downshift. I actually do baby my clutch. I have been driving 16 years and have never had to replace a clutch in the 12 cars I have had all being manual. I only have 19kon my ms3. I do believe this is the first sign of a clutch going. I am very dissapointed. I did buy my car used with 5k on it, maybe the previous owner sucked at driving stick.(argh)

No,it wasn't beaten mine was driven almost exclusively freeway for 35K original owner, Im at 48K and twice now like with you downshift to pass and viiiizzzzzz
first time I didn't realize what was happening and I proly got a bit of glaze going

 

[07speed3]

well a little update...my car now has 80k miles on it and the clutch has not started slipping again since i first posted this thread! so idk if it was just a fluke or what but im hoping it doesnt just explode on me one day!

i have since then replaced a civic SI and Mini Cooper clutch in some of my friends cars that are in my car club...does anyone no of a how to or anything on our clutches?

 

[Saskatchewan17]

Sweet baby Jesus! 20k since late March?

 

[07speed3]

lol ya i do a lot of driving! i think that averages out to about 2200 miles a month...

 

[Listers]

i have this problem as well. It is from downshifts 6-5 and usually slips about 600-1000rpm then "regrips". I have 52k on the odo and the slipping started at about 49k. once it happens, i can only replicate it some times but other times it doesnt start to slip. The clutch pedal is all the way out. I do have a DP/RP, Cobb sri and Cobb AP. there is never a smell of burnt clutch either

 

[zaka]

I also have the same issue in 4 and 5th gears after 4000rpm after adding a CAI. With the stock airbox, clutch didn't slip...

 

[maestro]

Interesting comments. I have smelled/felt my clutch slip on 3 separate occasions, in different gears, and the car has 24k miles. After talking to another local MS3 owner I am looking at the slave cylinder as the possible culprit right now.