gf took off in 3rd gear now a funky smell.

[BeetleJuice]

Is my clutch ok? She is a newbie on her 2nd time alone and she took off in 3rd. When she got home she said she burned my clutch and that's the weird smell in the car. I got in and it smells like hot metal. My clutch seems fine but did she do any damage taking off in 3rd?

 

[utmorpheus]

She burnt your clutch and she did do damage; how much damage did she do...well probably not enough to matter in the long run. The smell will go away in a couple days.

 

[eyeballs]

I toasted my clutch in the wrx at every auto-x/pro-solo event I went to (lots of purposeful slipping to preserve the delicate tranny). Clutch was always soft on the way home, but fine the next day. Sold it with 70k miles on the stock clutch that still felt great. I imagine it would take ALOT to permanently damage the clutch on a 100hp FWD car.