65 k Miles and now a new clutch and flywheel.

My 06 Cayman S was not shifting well into 1st and 2nd and just felt like it needed an adjustment. Wanted to try this first before spending a lot more money taking it to a shop. I pulled the center console apart and was able to do the adjustment manually. After 2 hours of work I was still unable to get the car into first or second gear when the engine is running. If it is off I can shift through all of the gears with ease. Huh? Well, I guess it isn't the cables. From my research it may be either a bad slave cylinder or a bad pressure plate. This is not going great. Welp.. 3 days later the diagnosis has come in. New clutch kit and new flywheel for the tune of $$$$. I didn't even track this car. Just a daily driver and the clutch goes out at 63k miles. It just doesn't make sense. Hopefully she will be back in my garage on Friday night. Here are pictures of the damage. Can you spot the issues?

Clutch wear is a crapshoot that massively depends on the driver and conditions (flat or hilly roads, street or DE, etc). You said you didn't track your car, but it appears based on the decal in the passenger quarter window that somebody did. If you don't rev-match, you'll drastically reduce the life of a clutch. Hopefully you have an indie near DM and didn't have to ship it to OMA (although they would do a great job at Woodhouse).

Sorry the pictures were too blurry, but it does look like it has been slipping quite a bit, my guess the clutch wasn't fully releasing.

That sticker is from Road America and my dad and I go there every year for the Vintage Festival in September. I was able to get my car out on the track for the lunch tour last year and that is the most that this car has been on a track. I just wanted to have a memento on my car for that event and that my dad and I have been doing this trip for 15 years. I do have it at an Indi shop that is in downtown Des Moines. It is only 16 miles from my house. It is my daily driver and I commute in it every day. I have put a little over 30k miles on it in the last 2 years and I am the second owner. I don't ride the clutch, always try and rev match (because it is fun) and there aren't big hills here. I think that the clutch may have been gradually failing and with the last few times I drove it, that is when, I assumed the most damage happened. It just feels weird that these cars are high performance and that after daily driving and highway lots of highway miles that clutch can go out like this. I still love the car but it just leaves a little sour taste in my mouth, and a lighter bank account.

Yep, that is exactly what was happening.

My clutch failed at about 56K miles, pretty much in the same failure mode as yours. The pressure plate springs just give up, and the throwout bearing was shot too. The clutch disk had some life left, but the flywheel was marginal so I replaced it. The 55-60K miles seems to be a common lifespan for these clutches. I did the replacement myself, saving a lot of money, but it's a big job. On the plus side, the clutch feels fantastic after replacement. The pedal is lighter and the engagement very smooth. I've also adjusted my driving style: I now shift into neutral and let the clutch out at stop lights, which I have never done before. We'll see if it extends the life of this pressure plate.

While awaiting a traffic signal, placing the transmission in neutral and thereby releasing the clutch, will add years to its life. Consider how many seconds the clutch is engaged during an ordinary shift and then consider how many shifts that amounts to at a, for example, three (3) minute traffic signal and then how many traffic signals......etc. Curtis

I do this all of the time. Usually to save my leg from not having to press the pedal down all of the time. It was normally an after thought of extending the life of the clutch. :hilarious:

It's also inherently safer. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I sure hope I get more than 55k out of mine. I have owned 3 stick shift cars over the 50 years I've been driving. My first, a 914, never got more than about 50k out of a clutch - got rid of the car at 150k miles. Got rid of my 86 Jetta GLI with 150k miles and the original clutch still doing fine. Sold my 95 Mazda 626 with 180k miles and the original clutch doing fine. I don't think I drive my Cayman any more aggressively (or with poorer rev-matching) than I did the other cars, so i'll be pretty disappointed if I see the clutch going any time soon (currently have about 50k miles). I occasionally shift into neutral while idling at a stop light depending on my mood and how long I think I'll be sitting there. I've read other threads with people screaming at each other about whether it is safer to leave the car in gear or shift into neutral. For me, it is just a matter of laziness - don't really care about which is "safer" or about extending the life of the clutch.

Well, just got the Cayman back and I cannot believe the difference. I have had the car for 2 years and it has never shifted this smooth. It makes me wonder if the has been something wrong this entire time. Ok, so I am out a little over $3k but the driving experience is so much better. I am hoping that I won't need another clutch for at least 5-6 years.

Good news! There was obviously an issue with the clutch not fully engaging for a while. There is absolutely no way that a clutch friction surface could wear out in <100k miles (more like 150k miles) in even an aggressively driven car unless the car/clutch was seriously abused or if there was a problem with it not fully engaging. Sure anyone could destroy a clutch in short order by riding it, holding it in a half-in position on hills, daily shifting near redline, routine drop-clutch-burnout starts, etc., but there is no way in hell that a clutch friction surface should not last well > 100k miles for an experienced manual driver and "normal sports car" driving. Other parts could fail due to manufacturing defects, but you are not going to "wear out" a clutch in 50k miles. Your new clutch should last forever.

My release bearing failed early because of holding the pedal to the floor at lights. Trans had to come out and bearing replaced. That alone is $$$$. I did it myself so it was not much. The cheap plastic release bearings in these cars are not made to be compressed against the pressure plate like that.

To: JohnnyQuest & Danschy; 10 Bad Habits That Damage Your Car C.f. #8 in particular, Cheers, Curtis

65k seems like decent life from the original clutch. You said you've owned the car 2 years, so you must be the 2nd or later owner? Who knows how it was treated before you. I replaced mine at 43k (it was relatively cheap to do when I did the IMS retrofit) just to be proactive. I am the second owner.

Thanks. If I'm stopped briefly at a light, say under a minute, I'll just leave the clutch in; stopped longer I tend to shift to neutral. I've been driving manual shift cars since 1974, and I think I'm pretty easy on the clutch. Although I never got more than around 45k miles on my 74 914 clutch (replaced it twice), my 86 Jetta (130k miles) and my 95 Mazda 626 (175k miles) were both on their original clutch when I sold them.