I bought my 2007 911 Turbo from 360 Exotics in Austin, Texas in late January and shipped it over to Germany where I live. I got the car here in mid April, and have put about 2500-3000 miles on it since I bought it. When we were negotiating over the phone, the dealership told me that the car's clutch was slipping, and that the owner (it was on consignment) would split the cost of a new clutch install with me if I wanted. I paid $1500 extra, and instructed them to install a Sach's 2.5 clutch kit.

I picked up the car a few weeks later when I flew in to Texas and drove it about 300 miles to Houston to drop it off at the port for shipping before getting back on a plane to Germany. Fast forward 2.5 months, and I got the car here, and have driven it about 3000 miles since I picked it up. I've never had an issue with clutch slippage, until today.

It was moderately chilly out (maybe 50 degrees), and I got into the throttle in 3rd gear, and noticed that when it started to build boost, the RPM's jumped ffrom about 4k-5k with no forward movement, and then went back down, and then the car kept pulling forward. I thought "that was weird, that felt like clutch slippage", so I did a test, put the car in 4th gear, went about 50mph, and floored it. Same thing when the car got to about 4k RPM's. Not cool. It was supposed to have a new clutch when I bought it. I drove it pretty hard about an hour later for a drive through some back roads, and didn't notice any slipping the rest of the day.

So what gives? My buying process was a nightmare as some may have read already in my other threads. I have no faith in anything the dealership says or does, and the only thing that gives me hope they even really did the clutch replacement, is that I had an unbiased third party from another forum who was local go to the shop to check the car out on my behalf, and he reported back to me that he physically saw the car on the lift halfway taken apart being worked on. I have no reason to think he had a reason to lie, but now I'm starting to wonder what the deal is.

The car does have a Cobb stage 2 tune and straight pipes, so should be putting in the 550-600hp range, but with a Sach's 2.5 clutch with less than 3k miles, it shouldn't be slipping at all. I did mostly highway driving the first 700 or so miles (from Austin to Houston, then from Bremerhaven to my house when it arrived in Germany) and was very careful not to slip the clutch, and to drive easy to follow proper break-in. I've never launched the car either.

Where would you go from here, and what does this sound like to you? Definitely felt like a slipping clutch, but it can't be, can it? Any chance my clutch pedal just needs adjustment and it's not allowing the clutch to fully engage when the pedal is let up? There is almost no grabbing from 1/2 way down and further. The clutch doesn't fully grab until the pedal is almost to the top. You can let the clutch pedal halfway off the floor before you even start to move.

 

My initial intuition says 1) they don't know what a Sachs 2.5 is since that's typically internet nomenclature and 2) they may have cheaped out and didn't replace the flywheel (or didn't resurface the old one [supposedly dual mass is harder to resurface]) and that may cause subpar performance from the clutch.

 

There is absolutely no reason that clutch should be slipping with the power you are making. Now a new factory clutch probably would hold your power in the summer with the higher temps and would begin to slip as the torque production went up with the colder weather. Are you sure you didn't just get another factory clutch installed? Do you have pictures of the parts that were installed?

Finally, I reused my stock flywheel and didn't have it resurfaced. It holds 700+ wtq all day long without a single hiccup in years.

 

Sounds like the clutch wasn't replaced. Maybe you can get your 1,500 back? Good luck.

 

Could have been replaced, with stock. A stock clutch can slip under certain circumstances with a good tune and exhaust. It's happened to me...

 

Either way he should be refunded 1,500.

 

A few 7K launch at the dealer, shipping port or your friends could kill the clutch within 50 miles. Could also be a defective pressure plates.

 

BS. You just joined? One post?

 

In a perfect world, that is what should happen, but I know I don't stand a chance. Honestly, it would cost me more than that just to get my money back. I have a lawyer on tap, but just to pay a mechanic to pull the clutch out and write a statement that it's the original, or not the Sach's 2.5 kit I have paperwork stating they were supposed to replace is a huge hassle. Lesson learned, I should've said "no thanks, ill replace the clutch on my own" and done a clutch job myself when I got the car here.

Thanks for the input everyone. Regarding the clutch install, Chris, the owner of 360 exotics told me over the phone the first time I ever talked to him about the car that it needed a new clutch (though he said it wasn't slipping that badly) and they only noticed it because a potential customer pointed it out to them on a test drive. He actually stated that it only slipped slightly on the stage 2 tune under heavy boost. He offered to replace the clutch for me because he "wanted to have satisfied customers and didn't want to sell a car that wasn't 100% ready to go" and told me the owner (it was on consignment from one of his friends) would split the $3000 cost with me. I agreed, and he told me to research the differences between a Sachs 2.5 and a regular OEM clutch, and then get back to him with what I wanted him to install. A couple days later I told him to install the Sach's 2.5.

Fast forward about 5 days, I had an unbiased 3rd party individual from the M3 forums I was on offer to go to the shop and check the car out for me. He did so a couple times, and the first time he went in, he said he physically saw with his own two eyes the car on the lift at Boost Logic next door having a clutch installed. So honestly, given all this information, I don't know what to think besides either they replaced it with a OEM clutch instead of the 2.5 and/or they didn't resurface or replace the flywheel. I've driven the car harder than I was the day it was slipping multiple times over the last 5 months I've had it here in Germany, and i've never noticed any slipping whatsoever until now.

Facts: Dealership owner admitted clutch was slipping, and offered to replace with a 2.5 clutch or OEM (my choice). Unbiased third party went in to inspect car for me and said he saw the car on the lift being worked on (I don't know this individual from Adam, and never met him). Now 2500 miles later, my clutch is slipping. I didn't have any slipping after the few times it happened maybe 15 minutes into my drive however, and I was driving pretty hard on some back roads the rest of the day. Is it at all possible my clutch pedal needs to be adjusted? It begins to grab at 50% off the floor, and really starts to grab at 75%. Seems very high. Maybe it's not letting the clutch engage all the way?

At this point, I'm going to wait until next year (car is about to go in storage for the winter within the next 2 months anyways) and probably just install a new Sachs 2.5. At that point ill pull the old clutch out and see if they really did the job they said they did. If the clutch I pull out looks good, maybe Ill keep it and just do a new flywheel? I will go out on a limb here and say that they didn't replace the flywheel (in fact I am almost certain they didn't).

EDIT: Also, doesn't Zohair (owner of Boost Logic) post on here occassionally, or is that Rennlist? I know he is on one of them. I know it's not his concern, but Boost Logic was supposedly the ones that replaced my clutch, and since this used to be his car and him and the owner of 360 Exotics are good friends, it would be cool if he chimed in and set the record straight on whether or not it was replaced and stated what kind of clutch kit was installed (probably won't happen, but that would be nice). Not trying to slander anyone or give bad reviews on anyones business here, but this is a little absurd that my clutch slips after 2500 miles of supposedly being replaced.