Put two passengers in my car and launched at 5000 rpm...longer takeup was expected but i was a little surprised at the absence of a "jolt" into engagement. Got hot enough to smell. No break of wheel traction. Clutch got hot so it felt a little soft immediately thereafter. Later car runs well with only the driver and engine braking is instantaneous.

Pretty normal that clutch was slower to lock up with three occupants? No worries? 80k mileage 2005 rx8

 

I guess the weird thing for ME is that the clutch didn't overpower the engine. I'm used to less engine power relative to clutch power. With my old BMW 318is I could drop the clutch at 4500rpm and that that engine would immediately hit the deck.

 

Your clutch is going bad. At an autocross I was showing a 300+lb novice the way through the course (not all fat, talk about tight fit) and I could break the my R-comps (245-wide Kumho V710) loose at launch. I want to say I was launching around 7000K RPM's around that time and the uptake was immediate and obvious.

With the added weight of the occupants there's added inertia opposing the forward thrust. If your clutch were working properly (and you weren't using tires dreamed up in a physics thought experiment) you should probably have at least chirped the tires.

The fact that you could smell the clutch means it was slipping and overheating. Maybe something's out of adjustment (not a tranny expert) but I'd put my money on it's just worn out.

 

Yeah, I'm a little concerned. Do you get any rattle when you launch? I've had this noise that's been happening for the last year.. my opinion is that I may have some clutch glazing. When I drop the clutch under a lot of load I get a brief but noticable rattle that sounds like (i'm speculating) there's some chattering in the transition.

I'll bet the clutch will do fine with NO launches for another couple years... but the days of red-light drags may be past until I can afford a replacement.

 

You did have the DSC disabled ?

 

this is probably a good idea. the clutches on these cars are pretty robust, but it is a wear item.

 

ftfy.

 

No, just wheel hop until I got the OE shocks swapped out.

The rattle could be a heat shield or clutch chatter or any number of things.

 

C'mon, nothing fancy. My commute consists of overcompensating Priuses and hotheaded Merc SUVs. "First one to the posted speed limit gets to Starbucks first" mentality.

 

Yes it was on. Dumb. But in retrospect I didn't really drop the clutch, which would have caused it to activate. I tapered the launch at a lower rpm since I didn't want to make a scene, but still get ahead. I think this aggravated the clutch into overheating, caused the smell, and reduced the organic material friction potential temporarily causing the "no jolt" sensation as the wheels caught up with the engine rpm.


Just a dumb situation that probably shaved a little more life off the clutch. Gonna hold back hard acceleration until positive engagement and see how it behaves over the next few weeks.