shaunv74

Hi all,

In the interest of adding more information to the forum I thought I would post up pcitures and observations on the condition of my clutch, pressure plate, throwout bearing, and flywheel friction surface at 55K miles with 2 track days.

Here's the context. I just recently had my engine replaced under warranty (04 6MT w 55K miles). While they had the engine out I decided to have them swap out the stock clutch for an ACT heavy duty clutch and Pressure plate, new throwout bearing, and Replaced the friction surface on my Racing Beat flywheel.

Here are my coils first:

Note the mottled burnt area on the bottom of all 4 due to overheating and grounding through the bottom of the coil to the engine. These were the original coils. Hopefully the upgraded part will handle the heat and load better than the originals.


Here is a picture of my clutch and pressure plate. The clutch still had a thickness of between 0.309" and 0.306" measured at 4 places at 90 degree intervals. Anyone know what the original spec and min clutch thickness is? Note the blue coloration of the hub. This is normal and comes from the factory like this. I have been told previously that this indicates the clutch has overheated. This is not true. The springs an clutch surface looks normal.


Here is a shot of my pressure plate surface. It had a few visual grooves but nothing I could catch a fingernail on. No cracks or discoloration.


Here is a picture of my Racing Beat flywheel friction surface. I was very impressed with how flat it still is. The surface had a thickness of 0.201" to 0.202" measure in 4 places at 90 degree increments. There were no cracks or discoloration. There was a little chatter but the hash marking looked good. There were no grooves that I could catch a fingernail on up to the lip of where the clutch engaged the friction surface.


This is a shot of the engagement stack just to illustrate how the PP clutch and flywheel line up for anyone who's always wanted to know what it looks like.


Side shot of the stack


Here is a kinda fuzzy shot of my throwout bearing. the bearing had a little play but still spun freely and smoothly. There was some buildup on the engagement surface where it engaged the fingers of the pressure plate. I think it's galling of the pressure plate fingers. They had a definite wear groove in them where the throwout bearing would engage. I'm there isn't a wear coating of some kind on these two surfaces



I'll post up a few more pictures of the clutch and friction surface if anyone is interested.

Brettus

iTrader: (2)

Hi shaun ,
just one word of advice on the HD clutch - don't go skiing then drive the car home . Your leg won't be able to push it in .....

shaunv74

I'll have to get in better shape then. Thanks for the tip. Personal experience?

shaunv74

Here are a few more of my throwout bearing

shaunv74

Here are a few more of the clutch

shaunv74

A couple of the friction surface. For those who aren't familiar with this piece it's steel and bolts on to the Aluminum flywheel as an engagement face for the clutch so it doesn't chew through the softer aluminum flywheel.

chickenwafer

iTrader: (9)

I don't the exact tollerance specs of the top of my head. But thank for sharing. You clutch doesn't look horrid, but the blueing, from I've also heard, is due to mild overheating.

shaunv74

Yeah I've got to mess with the camera a bit and see if I can get some better shots.

staticlag

Yup

Minimum depth
0.3 mm {0.012 in}

clutch looks pretty good. Thats pretty much the way they look from factory.

swoope

iTrader: (5)

wow,

you disk is like new.. mine was almost done at 55k miles.. and it should have been... i beat the crap out of it...

i can produce a pic if you want...


good job...

beers

Opethdtr

Hi Shaun. Have you had any problems with the clutch bracket?

mikeferz42

sorry, but when you talk about the upgraded coils, are you talking about aftermarket ones or upgraded oem?

shaunv74

mikeferz: It's the upgraded OEM coils.

Opeth: I haven't had any problems with my clutch pedal bracket or slave cylinder so far.

Swoope: I'd love to see a beat up clutch for comparison in this thread. I think it'd be good for people to see what normal wear and tear looks like vs...more strenuous use.

Although I'm not doing anything special with mine. I've had plenty of crappy hill starts in Seattle and taken it to the track a few times. I suppose I don't really do smoky burnouts and drag racing runs so that's probably a big difference.

swoope

iTrader: (5)

here you go..

beers

shaunv74

Oooh. nice buildup in the rivet holes. How much material thickness left? Is the light color on your PP face of the clutch just the lighting or a discoloration of the clutch material? Also looks like you have some darker spots on the other side. Just curious if those are real or tricks of the light.

Thanks for the comparo swoope!

swoope

iTrader: (5)

very little material left. might have gone another 5 k miles.... lighting and what you see...

beers

shaunv74

Cool. It looks like Its starting to wear flat around the outside.

zoom44

i was about to say that- i have seen, and there are pics on here from 2-3 years ago(might even be some newer ones), blue straight out of brand new boxes.

shaunv74

Thanks Zoom. Glad to hear that so I don't have some shady dealer trying to pull some BS about it showing evidence of overheating.

Nemesis8

iTrader: (3)

Here is mine at 15K when I installed my flywheel.

SureShot

It looks like that clutch served you well with normal wear.

The PP spring fingers will wear some, but check the new release bearing to make sure it is concentric inside & out.
I got a bad one once that would have worn through the PP spring fingers.

shaunv74

Good tip. Was it out of round or would the bearing wobble? BTW is that a race clutch I see off to the left in that picture? How did that compare to a regular street clutch?

SureShot

That bearing would have pressed to one side of the guide sleeve & rubbed like crazy on the PP fingers. I just went to NAPA & picked up another one for $8.

The copper/ceramic 6-puck can be street driven in Florida where it's flat.
It's a PITA on hills.

However if you're in there to replace the clutch I recommend a light flywheel with the stock clutch.

nycgps

iTrader: (1)

Damn, ur Clutch @ 55K miles looks 10 times better than mine (which was replaced with ACT @ about 26K miles)

Mine was almost down to the surface.

Jedi54

iTrader: (7)

great thread shaun.
swoope: nice clutch!