I am getting pretty good with my 997TT's manual transmission. But sometimes, especially when I push it a little, I will smell just a whiff of clutch from the air intakes when I get out of the car in my garage. It is gone almost immediately, but it is there.

If I am handling the manual transmission correctly, should I ever smell clutch? Is smelling a bit of clutch a sign that I am damaging things?

Sometimes, even when I have just driven to the store and back and not even taken the RPMs over 3000 I get just a hint of clutch.

I have had the car about a month. It was 4 months old with 1200 miles when I bought it. It now has about 2500 miles on it.

I am very paranoid about the clutch because I saw my buddy burn out his Maseratti Gransport's clutch after about only 4,000 miles.

Thanks in advance for all responses.

 

In general smelling a bit of clutch isnt a bad thing, over time its supposed to get worn down and replaced, thats just a fact. 4,000 miles your friend was obviously doing something wrong though. And smelling it when you dont take it past 3K might mean some bad shifts, but in general, if you push it, and smell some clutch thats normal. I drove my M3 pretty hard for 50K miles without needing a clutch replacement and I really abused that car for most of the miles and smelled the clutch plenty of times.

But being a used car I dunno, depends on whether or not you know who the previous owner was and how he drove it. It certainly doesnt have alot of miles, but then again with your friend destroying a clutch in 4K you dont need alot to screw things up.

 

Or unless your driveway is very steep and you need to go up hill and slip the clutch is another way you can smell the clutch. Otherwise, yes, you are doing something a little wrong if you smell it after a quick drive not pushing it.

 

Interesting because this is exactly the case. I have quite a steep driveway up to my home.

I am also probably imagining a it a lot of the time. I am absolutely OCD about it right now.

Learning to drive a manual again has been a real chore. I have to admit that sometimes I wonder if I should have just opted for the Tiptronic.

But then I come to my senses.

 

Barrister, keep you throttle consistence when engaging the gear while climbing up the driveway. If you keep the throttle on and off to engage the gear while climbing, you will smell it even with as little as 1.5-2K RPM.

 

+1...

Try to keep your revs low also....I keep my RPMs right on 1k and creep up my driveway slowly. Never smelt my clutch before.

 

Not a problem. You'll get used to the clutch. I've been driving a P car for 12 yrs and every once in a while I burn the clutch. It's part of driving a P car. Replace every 20K and you'll be fine.