well i bought my teg about 4 weeks ago and i've been driving it for about 3.

this is my first stick shift vehicle and im worried that i have ruined my clutch.

im not a totally bad driver but i've stalled a good amount of times and grinded 3rd three times and 5th 2 times since i've obtained the car.

what i was wondering is how bad have i damaged the clutch so far? it was replaced at 80k miles and right now it has 92K. and also, if i continue to drive with this damaged clutch, is it possible that i might damage other areas of my car because of it? such as the transmission?

and right now, when i shift to 2nd, it feels really ugly, not smooth at all. and going to third feels bad also.

TIA.

 

The clutch isn't the only thing you could ruin by learning to drive stick:

Grinding gears could be a sign of a bad synchro in 3rd or 5th gear, but I doubt that, I think your timing is just off.

By grinding gears, you are sending little metal shavings into the transmission fluid, so you may want to change your tranny fluid to keep it clean.

Odds are, your clutch is fine after only 12,000 miles. There are plenty of people who roast their clutch frequently doing launches and riding it too much, yet it lasts longer than 12,000 miles. If you smell something burning, you are probably doing some damage to the clutch.

The clutch and brakes are much cheaper to replace than an entire transmission rebuild or replacement, so take your time and practice, practice, and then practice some more. Don't worry too much, once you are doing better, replace the clutch and tranny fluid if you are concerned. You should be more concerned about maintaining the integrity of your gears and synchros within your tranny, rather than worrying about burning your clutch.

 

Yea he covered just about everything. What you've been doing isn't even really excessive wear to the clutch. Now had you said it was the original clutch with like 150k miles and you were doing all of that along with hard launches, then yes you would have to be worried. But that's not you so it doesn't matter. You'll be fine.

I learned to drive stick on an 81 volvo that still had the original clutch (granted only had 70k miles on it) and it help up fine.

 

thanks for the replies you two
i feel much better not worring about having to replace the clutch or that i am damaging it to a state where i need to.