Are clutches and clutch components maintenance wear items?

1 SX

1 SX

Joined
Feb 19, 2009
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The Woods of NY
I was thinking about this recently, I’ve never had to replace a clutch in any of my past manual vehicles but I did buy a old manual 5MT Saturn that had a new clutch put in around 230,000 miles before I picked it up.

What other components are “wear” items in a manual transmission vehicle set up and what sounds or feelings should I look out for.

Tbh I really don’t know much about manual transmission vehicles. All the ones I have driven have all been acceptable to great.

My current manual transmission vehicle the Kia Koup 6MT feels absolutely fantastic in comparison to some of the other vehicles I’ve driven. A really smooth engagement no slipping, chattering or any other noises or abnormal feelings, no pop outs or grinds, It just seems to work and it works extremely well for this car.

I don’t know if I’m on the original clutch though. Both Carfax and the dealer network service has no pay out of pocket or warranty repairs for the clutch or the 2.4L motor.

But the car was owned by a Mercedes-Benz technician for a solid nine years so I would assume if anything popped up they would’ve replaced it themselves without going to the dealer or pay out-of-pocket at a shop.

What are your thoughts on the lifespan of a OEM factory clutch and it’s components that is not abused?

My thinking is it should last the life of the car and then some, but I could be completely off base here.

Thanks for your input 😉
8C5F7B84-819A-4A97-9A92-E055AD92E4E6.jpeg
 
RooflessVW said:
How long is a piece of string?
Click to expand...
I get it lol, too many variables right?

Honestly though, let’s say a normal driver that does a normal average commute not all city traffic not all highway not all back roads but a mixture of all types and someone who does not drop the clutch at 7K or redline shift and slip type deal.

I only know one or two people that had to replace clutches and that was because of abuse.
 
Last edited:
All I have to go on is several manually shifted cars in my past. IME most cars clutches can easily last the life of the drivetrain if driven properly.
Even high horsepower cars like a GTO and a Vette I had great clutch life.

Other folks wear them out really fast...
 
Throw out bearing is something that can wear out before the clutch disk does, and from a recent Subaru thread, the clutch fork too 😳

I’ve only replaced one clutch (that I burned up) It was my very first manual transmission car, my old beloved Hyundai Excel.
 
Trav said:
Clutch life is 100% dependent on the driver.
Click to expand...
So the backstory on my current car is the technician drove it 120,000 miles with what the Kia forms calls “initial throttle tip in dead space” on the gas pedal.
So basically there is like a half an inch or more of dead space on initial press of throttle. Within two hours of me owning this car I was on Google trying to figure out a way to fix it. It was extremely hard you were either stalling/lugging the car or rev to 7K. And it was almost impossible to take off smoothly because the throttle had zero feedback and next thing you know you’re at redline because you have to keep overcoming the dead space in the throttle while working the clutch….

This Kia has a drive-by wire system and believe it or not the drive by wire sensor is on the gas pedal and it’s completely adjustable to take out the 1/2 inch of initial throttle dead space.
So I got my voltmeter and I adjusted the throttle pedal sensor to 0.98 V at idle from the 0.79 it was at. Anything more than one volt and the car thinks you’re pressing the throttle.


The improvement was immediate. throttle/rpm’s response is on point, and now I can engage the clutch at 1200 RPMs and feather the throttle and takeoff smoothly without any issues after this throttle adjustment. You can actually use your big toe now to work the throttle it’s that responsive.

On the test drive I was at 5 to 6800 RPMs to takeoff at every stoplight it was absolutely that hard to modulate the throttle and clutch because of that dead space.

I’m sure if I lived with it longer I would’ve been able to compensate for the dead space and get it mastered, but I knew that it would be an issue for me in traffic if I did not adjust it to be more responsive. I also knew I was driving it wrong and I was actually worried I was gonna burn out the clutch lol so I immediately the day of buying it adjusted the throttle and fixed it.

Why from the factory there’s a half an inch or more of dead space on the throttle is beyond me and also why it’s adjustable to fix the dead space is also something else.

So I say all that to say this I don’t know if I’m on the original clutch or not and what signs should I be on the lookout for of a failing clutch throw out bearing etc. etc

Currently I have zero issue no sounds or slippage and no pop outs or grinds so I think that if it currently does not have issues and now that the throttle issues is fixed and more responsiveness I probably won’t have issues.

It’s survived a solid day of me slipping it at 6k RPMs or more , and spinning tires and it never gave me an issue even while driving it wrong. I’m just worried that I might’ve shorten the components life by driving it wrong for a day.
 
You will know when you know. Clutch life is up to the driver IMO. If it engages properly with no vibration, chatter, slippage, and odd noises just be happy and drive.
 
Honestly I've seen several misdiagnosed clutch problems when it was the pedal linkage under the dash.

A big local shop diagnosed a '98 CR-V as needing a clutch. Another diagnosed a '00 Taco as having a sticky pedal due to pressure plate (makes very little sense)

In both cases I climbed under the dash and found disintegrated bushings or ovalized holes for linkage pivots.

In both cases I threw some round stock in the lathe and made new bushings or sleeves. Problem solved.

I'm afraid a lot of shops no longer have techs who understand how clutches should feel and work. ANY clutch problem becomes "you need a new clutch".......but if it ain't SLIPPING under load then almost surely the disc and pressure plate are fine and you need to look to hydraulics or pedal linkage
 
D60 said:
Honestly I've seen several misdiagnosed clutch problems when it was the pedal linkage under the dash.

A big local shop diagnosed a '98 CR-V as needing a clutch. Another diagnosed a '00 Taco as having a sticky pedal due to pressure plate (makes very little sense)

In both cases I climbed under the dash and found disintegrated bushings or ovalized holes for linkage pivots.

In both cases I threw some round stock in the lathe and made new bushings or sleeves. Problem solved.

I'm afraid a lot of shops no longer have techs who understand how clutches should feel and work. ANY clutch problem becomes "you need a new clutch".......but if it ain't SLIPPING under load then almost surely the disc and pressure plate are fine and you need to look to hydraulics or pedal linkage
Click to expand...
So true. Even sagging motor mounts can create a “clutch” issue with misaligned linkages.
 
09 GLS said:
So the backstory on my current car is the technician drove it 120,000 miles with what the Kia forms calls “initial throttle tip in dead space” on the gas pedal.
So basically there is like a half an inch or more of dead space on initial press of throttle. Within two hours of me owning this car I was on Google trying to figure out a way to fix it. It was extremely hard you were either stalling/lugging the car or rev to 7K. And it was almost impossible to take off smoothly because the throttle had zero feedback and next thing you know you’re at redline because you have to keep overcoming the dead space in the throttle while working the clutch….

This Kia has a drive-by wire system and believe it or not the drive by wire sensor is on the gas pedal and it’s completely adjustable to take out the 1/2 inch of initial throttle dead space.
So I got my voltmeter and I adjusted the throttle pedal sensor to 0.98 V at idle from the 0.79 it was at. Anything more than one volt and the car thinks you’re pressing the throttle.


The improvement was immediate. throttle/rpm’s response is on point, and now I can engage the clutch at 1200 RPMs and feather the throttle and takeoff smoothly without any issues after this throttle adjustment. You can actually use your big toe now to work the throttle it’s that responsive.

On the test drive I was at 5 to 6800 RPMs to takeoff at every stoplight it was absolutely that hard to modulate the throttle and clutch because of that dead space.

I’m sure if I lived with it longer I would’ve been able to compensate for the dead space and get it mastered, but I knew that it would be an issue for me in traffic if I did not adjust it to be more responsive. I also knew I was driving it wrong and I was actually worried I was gonna burn out the clutch lol so I immediately the day of buying it adjusted the throttle and fixed it.

Why from the factory there’s a half an inch or more of dead space on the throttle is beyond me and also why it’s adjustable to fix the dead space is also something else.

So I say all that to say this I don’t know if I’m on the original clutch or not and what signs should I be on the lookout for of a failing clutch throw out bearing etc. etc

Currently I have zero issue no sounds or slippage and no pop outs or grinds so I think that if it currently does not have issues and now that the throttle issues is fixed and more responsiveness I probably won’t have issues.

It’s survived a solid day of me slipping it at 6k RPMs or more , and spinning tires and it never gave me an issue even while driving it wrong. I’m just worried that I might’ve shorten the components life by driving it wrong for a day.
Click to expand...
Sounds like you took some life out of it, but with good habits moving forward, you'll probably be fine.
I don't know what your driving is like, but I find out in the country you can reduce slipping the clutch quite a bit, even in the city, a lot of complete stops can be avoided, and your car will probably pull from 1st at 900rpm happily with just using a bit of throttle.
I got my Focus with 220k km on it and I suspect its the original clutch. It's got some issues, as it doesn't like to fully disengage from when parked in the morning, so it requires a bit of force to get it out of gear into N once started, so now I just park it in the gear I need to leave in. It's also hydraulic and doesn't take much pressure on the pedal to slip the clutch, and the master cylinder has a bit of seeping leak... But doesn't slip when your foot is off of it, and the bite point is consistent, so I'm just going to run it until there's a very bad noise or slippage, which hopefully won't happen before it rusts away....
 
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