Clutch Life

What is the best way to gauge how much "life" is left on a clutch? Is there a visual inspection that I can perform (w/out taking the transmission apart), a certain feel or sound I should watch or listen for when I engage the clutch and shift through the gears? I am sure mileage is one consideration, but I live in NYC so there is a lot of stop and go traffic, which I am concerned may cause an early clutch burn out. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Just pray and hope.... Gotta take the gearbox down to inspect the clutch......might as well replace it then.....and while your at it....nah let's not go there again

Rev the engine to 5K rpm and pop the clutch. If the clutch doesn't slip, it's in fine shape. Don't perform this test too often however or you will need a new clutch.

You should eaqsily get 100,000 plus miles out of the clutch in your kind of driving. I have never gotton less than that and I drive my cars hard.

To test the clutch, put the car in 6th gear with the parking brake on. Rev the engine slightly and slowly let the clutch out. You'll know if the clutch needs replacing if it doesn't immediatley stall. Unless you are having a specific problem, why worry about it anyway. No sense in looking for problems when they don't exist. Chances are, you'll have plenty of advance notice before any clutch failure. They don't just fail all of a sudden.

i guess that is my concern,,,,that my clutch will fail without any warning. just wanted to know some of the tell tale signs that something is wrong so i wont get caught by surprise.

Clutches and pressure plates in today's cars just do not fail, unless they are exposed to extreme abuse. And even with extreme abuse, all they do is start slipping. What will fail is the throw-out bearing, but they will give you plenty of warning because they get real noisy as they go bad.

Interesting. Orient, can you elaborate some more on the noise one would experience from a failed throwout bearing. Does it sound like a pinion bearing? I mean, could it be mistaken for a gearbox problem? I think you know where I am going with this

When the throw-out bearing starts to go, it will start to make sort of a low groan-howling noise, or in some cases a rolling grinding noise. In the early stages of failure, you can make the noise go away by putting pressure on the clutch pedal. It later stages it will make noise regardless. Throw-out bearings are sealed roller bearings, and even with them being sealed, a little gunk can get in sometimes, and jam a roller, which will flatspot, and then damage the roller raceway. To fully test, you take the bearing and spin it. It should be completely silent, and have no slop in it. Anytime the bellhousing is opened up for RMS, etc., the throw-out bearing should be checked.

Generally, a bad throwout bearing will make noise when you depress the clutch pedal. It is rare for them to go bad. However, if it is going bad, it will most probably take a long time before the noise is noticable. Evenetually, the grind will drive you nuts and youll have to replace it. But like I said in an earlier post...why go looking for trouble. You said you are not experiencing any symptoms and you run the chance of talking yourself into hearing things that are not there. Just drive the car and enjoy.

1999Porsche911, I asked because I have a noise, whining, grinding coming from the gearbox. The OPC engineers are convinced it's the gearbox but a very good independent thinks it's the pinion bearing (which is part of the gearbox I believe). But both are amazed that given the noise I hear, that the gearbox functions perfectly, never dropping a gear and never having gear selection problems or crunching. The noise dissapears when I put my foot down on the clutch and let the car idle along with no gear selected. But it's there if the car is stationary and foot off the clutch in neutral. I just thought that Orient may have brought up something else that could be the noise and was interested in the details some more. I guess I will never know until the gearbox is removed and an inspection done. I am waiting for my Porsche shp to make a decision on what action will be taken to rectify the problem......and my continuing RMS problem.

"Generally, a bad throwout bearing will make noise when you depress the clutch pedal. It is rare for them to go bad. However, if it is going bad, it will most probably take a long time before the noise is noticable. Evenetually, the grind will drive you nuts and youll have to replace it. But like I said in an earlier post...why go looking for trouble. You said you are not experiencing any symptoms and you run the chance of talking yourself into hearing things that are not there. Just drive the car and enjoy." Thanks. I just wanted to make sure that I had some warning before clutch failed. I was concerned that I was grinding the gears while I was in heavy stop and go traffic as I did smell and acrid odor coming from the rear of car.

"Generally, a bad throwout bearing will make noise when you depress the clutch pedal. It is rare for them to go bad. However, if it is going bad, it will most probably take a long time before the noise is noticable. Evenetually, the grind will drive you nuts and youll have to replace it. But like I said in an earlier post...why go looking for trouble. You said you are not experiencing any symptoms and you run the chance of talking yourself into hearing things that are not there. Just drive the car and enjoy." Thanks. I just wanted to make sure that I had some warning before clutch failed. I was concerned that I was grinding the gears while I was in heavy stop and go traffic as I did smell and acrid odor coming from the rear of car. Still enjoying the car