I've replaced my clutch about 18 months ago after a friend was doing some burnouts and the clutch started slipping in 4th and 5th. I needed a new clutch along with the pressure plate, and another part that I forgot. Anyway, it was about $5K including labor. It seems as if I might be having another set of problems.

I'm a pretty gentle driver, and I tend to edge the clutch by rolling on at around 1000 or 1200 RPM -- not too aggressive.

This weekend, I took a buddy out and did just two runs of big acceleration from 0 to <whatever> speed. On one run, I hit the rev limiter on first, shifted to second, and within .5 seconds was at redline there, and similar when I shifted to 3rd. The indicated speed was just 30 mph, so I must've been cooking my clutch. Oh, and there was that smell, of course, since the top was down.

This is a bone stock X50. Should I be looking at carbon or ceramic components? Is the stock clutch that ****ty, or am I somehow f'ing up the clutch with my driving. I put 80,000 miles on my BMW GS motorcycle and am on the original clutch. WTH?

Any suggestions or advice?

 

How many miles on the second clutch?

Something doesn't seem right. I can't imagine going through a clutch in 18 months, unless you drag race the car maybe?!

 

Maybe only 25,000 miles. I drove it last night for about an hour. Did some strong pulls in Second and Third and no slippage. Hmmm.

 

I'd learn how to drive

 

Wow. Easier to learn how to drive than it is to learn how to grow up, I suppose. Or to improve one's reading comprehension...

I'm pretty clear on how to use a clutch and if you'd read the bit about the motorcycle, you would have gleaned that. I also took a rather self-deprecating stance with "or am I somehow f'ing up the clutch." Go ahead and look up self-deprecating ... we'll wait.

Grow up, or get laid or whatever it is you need to do to lose some of your crusty bitterness.

 

Adjustment might be wrong, slave might be on way out, incorrect instal, there is a few possibilities. On a side note motorcycle clutch a bit different from a car clutch specially when the car is 3500lbs , love the get laid comment .

 

Burnouts on a AWD car, seriously?

 

Clutch are odd beast. At 25K miles on new clutch, and not knowing the route you drive (i'm referring to SF area and their hills and traffic) 25K could be 50%, 75%, 90% life gone by on a clutch. As stated above the slave may be going out also giving inconsistent engagement.

 

Ok...knock chip off shoulder. Then learn to drive.

 

chip? what chip. the guy let some dummy drive his car like an old camaro. fkd up his clutch, and he lives in hilly frilly country. lighten up cowboy

you too will burn out some day.

 

 

he ( we/you? ) meant no harm

 

Late Porsche clutches suck! They lack "feel" and they have a booster helper spring to reduce pedal effort. This in turn reduces feel of the friction point of the pedal. I did a thread on removing the pedal helper spring on Rennlist a few years ago in the 996 forum. Here's a link:http://forums.rennlist.com/rennforum...matically.html

The problem is not as great in the Turbo but is still there. Removing the spring will help your foot feel at what point the clutch is just starting to engage. You may not being anything wrong, just having a difficult time determining exactly what is happening. Another issue is sometimes hydraulic clutches are a bit spongy and don't react as quickly as mechanical linked ones. To compound this, cable operated shifters lack the instant positive feel of direct linked ones. A stock clutch if operating properly should be able to deal with X50 power for years without issues. You might contact the shop that installed your clutch, assuming they are Porsche experts.

 

Already removed the clutch helper spring. I agree with you that the 996 clutch isn't nearly as communicative as other clutches.

Agreed. Just too much travel and stress on my part made my skin a bit thinner than normal. I was just confused as to whether I was on 6SO or 4Chan...

Actually, the guy's normal car is a late model Mustang GT, and yes, that clutch is probably way more durable and the engine certainly has less power.

That all being said, I do know how to handle a clutch having ridden 100's of thousands of miles on BMW motorcycles (3 of them in the last 20 years) with no clutch replacements needed, and that is in hilly frilly country in SF and Marin. I don't ride the clutch (left foot is completely off the pedal) and don't slip the clutch any more than necessary to get the car rolling.

I guess I'll just have to see how the clutch continues to behave over time. If it goes, then I'll probably end up getting a more heavy duty clutch than stock.

 

Empyreal ignore negative comments,- just wait and see, hard to say, I also agree that stock clutch on 996 with high engage suck. I know why, but I'm thinking to do this mod this weekend and see if it helps, crap, took me a while to get used to my aftermarket clutch.