Koko4

When I start out in either 1st or reverse, and am letting off of the clutch and accelerating, the car will sometimes shake/vibrate a little bit, until the clutch pedal is disengaged fully. It only happens sometimes, mostly on hills. It almost feels like someone that is first learning to drive a stick and not giving it enough gas. If I rev the engine higher than normal, it will not do this. I wanted to know if this is a sign that my clutch could be wearing out. It does not slip in any other gears. I hope my explanation makes sense.. I am not sure of the maintenance history on the car, but right now it has 162k. It pulls strong in all gears and has no other signs of clutch-related problems.

Normally, I wouldn’t worry about it until it becomes much more pronounced, but I am planning a cross-country road trip in the beginning of April and want the car to be able to make the 6k+ miles without problems. I used to have a Kia, and the throwout bearing went out on it one day on the way home from work, without any warning whatsoever. Last thing I need is to be stuck out west have to pay a mechanic to do it!

omfgiitzkelviin

sounds like either bad motor mounts or you're just not giving it enough gas. If your clutch was going then i just wouldn't grab, the shaking is kind of a sign that it is grabbing I suppose

Koko4

Well it's definitely not the motor mounts. When I bought the car, I discovered that the top driver's side motor mount was broken into two pieces (with half literally resting on the other half) and the bottom one needed replacing as well. It just sounds like I'm over-revving it too much.

jbpnoman

Have you checked your torque mounts as well? Jerking and shaking are usually indicative of mount problems, and can point heavily to the torque mounts. They can also be indicative of engine problems, but assuming your CEL isn't on, that probably isn't the case. Generally, when a clutch starts to wear out, it loses grip at the upper end of the torque band, not the bottom.

Koko4

The torque mounts look like this, right?


I had to replace the driver's side one, and the passenger side looked fine when I was under there recently; although I don't think I've closely examined transmission mounts. Good to know it's probably not my clutch..

I also have one more unrelated question, well, more of a request for advice. When I first got the car, I was going to replace the timing belt and water pump. When I got into it, I discovered that one of the bolts holding the engine mount to the block was stripped, and the other was broken off. I managed to extract the broken bolt and replaced that, and I attempted to HeliCoil the one that was stripped. When drilling out the hole in the block, I drilled too far and hit a water jacket. I used a good bit of RTV sealant and put the new bolt in - hopefully sealing the leak. Since then, I also had to replace the oil pan gasket. I still have a SLIGHT oil leak in the gasket area, which I suspect is the crankshaft seal. I'm wondering if I should go in there and attempt to replace the timing belt, tensioner, water pump, and crankshaft seal. And if so, should I try and reseal that bolt hole? The car hasn't overheated at all, but I do lose a small amount of oil. I'd estimate less than a quart every 5,000 miles. I am a bit OCD and a perfectionist, so I am the type that would instinctively jump back into this, even though I could potentially make a problem out of something that's not too bad currently. I guess I just want an unbiased opinion. Didn't mean for this post to be so long..

Gotem1523

I got the same problem

95civ928

Same here.

jbpnoman

Yep, that's a torque mount. There's one on each side of your motor, down near the bumper, accessible through the wheel well. They're a lot easier to see if you remove the plastic shroud in the wheel well - there's only a small hole there for unbolting it, not big enough to get a good look at it. You're also better off trying to look at it while a friend gives the car gas, so you can see if (or how much) it moves.

As for your over-drilled hole, when you first got the car, did you replace the water pump/t-belt/tensioner, or did you have problems with those bolts and give up? If you gave up, how many miles are on the motor? If the bolt is holding, I wouldn't fiddle with it. As for your oil leak, I would give the entire bay a deep cleaning with some degreaser, make that **** sparkle, and then make sure you're 100% on where the oil is leaking from before you go ripping into anything. If you don't have to touch that bolt, don't, and be completely sure you have to before you do.

Brettboat

I baby my clutches so I'm always causing my cars/trucks to vibrate in first/reverse. lol

jbpnoman

That isn't babying, that's abusing.

92 civic ex 4dr

Jbpnomam is right. That's sheer torture to the vehicle. Even worse than having subs actually. Causes everything to prematurely wear out and it walks bolts and screws out and loosens nuts and anything and everything in your car/truck. Just like a wash board dirt road.


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Brettboat

Worked well for the clutch in my Mazda M5R2 tranny in my halfton... That clutch lasted 210,000 miles hahaha. Wasn't really bad when I replaced it, but I already had the tranny dropped to replace the slave cylinder (internal slave cylinder), so I had got a new clutch while I had it down... Really didn't NEED to replace the factory clutch, it had a good bit of life left in it.

Don't have to drive like that in the F350 because of the gear ratio and the low end torque. But I drive the F150, Civic and Corolla that way hahaha. I've come to the conclusion that everyone learned to drive a stick a certain way. Method I use seems to make a clutch last. Your mileage may vary.

5 seconds of vibration is nothing compared to 6 hours of interstate driving... Don't understand that point? sorry

Great opinions though!

92 civic ex 4dr

You probably glass the clutches. That would explain them lasting forever


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Koko4

I did not replace any of it when I was in there. Once I got the crankshaft pulley off and took a good look at it, the water pump / timing belt looked really clean and almost new. There was a slight gunk build-up on the under-side of the crankshaft seal, but nothing major. The oil pan gasket is pretty clean and whenever I'm under there, I only see a few drops of oil hanging off of the end, underneath the crank seal. When I installed the oil pan gasket, I foolishly didn't put RTV sealant on the 4 corner bolts themselves, like the manual says..just the edges that the book said. I guess I should just leave it alone.

When you say this, are you saying that you have the RPM's too low and the vehicle shakes when you start in first/reverse? Or are you saying you let the clutch pedal off super slow? Or what? I'm curious as if to I am doing the same thing ..

Brettboat

Just low RPMs, I try to ride the clutch as little as possible unless I'm wheeling or trying to show my *** off. In my Civic I'll let my RPMs drop to as low as 300, so it's really trying to stall. Not sure how low the truck or corolla go, don't have tachs in them.

Call it what you will, but my clutches last forever! lol

jbpnoman

Of course they do Brett, you're glazing them.

Koko, how many miles are on the motor?

Koko4

It says 162,000 on the speedometer but I am not sure that's accurate... I should have CarFaxed the thing when I bought it .. Captain Hindsight!

Gotem1523

What would be the best brand clutch for b series ?

Brettboat

How am I glazing my clutch? Riding the clutch causes glazing bro. All glazing is, is wearing down the friction material smooth on the clutch friction plate. Causes it to, "slip"... None of my clutches slip once so ever. I just keep low RPMs and keep clutch transition phase time as short as possible to prevent excess wear. Glazing is the byproduct of heat... That's what I'm avoiding!

That's on up there with how coasting with the clutch disengaged, shift forks engaged, not touching the accelerator, somehow causes your pressure plate to wear out pre-maturely.

Another personal favorite of mine, "Not down shifting is bad for your transmission"...

Where do y'all come up with stuff like this? Bro, if you're gonna insult me atleast know what you're talking about man. LOL

jbpnoman

You've already admitted to making your car "vibrate" when you take off in 1/R. That means you aren't balancing throttle/clutch as well as you could be, putting more wear and tear on the clutch than you need to be. I never said anything about down shifting, or pressure plate wear. Now you're just getting defensive and tossing out nonsensical babble.

gotem, do some research. There's only a thread about that a few times every month.

OP, honestly, a Carfax wouldn't tell you the motor's mileage. Unless the PO told you the motor was replaced/overhauled, it probably shares chassis mileage. The PO would have told you, since that's a good selling point, especially in the 150k range. I take back part of what I said. You should still degrease the hell out of the engine bay and pinpoint exactly where you're leaking oil from, but after you've done that, replace your t-belt/water pump/tensioner, as well as whatever seals are leaking. Be VERY careful with that bolt you had troubles with.

Koko4

The previous owner was a foreign exchange student, here for the summer. He bought the car from a mechanic, somewhere in Atlanta. Not sure who. The mechanic apparently had the car overheat on him, I believe a blown head gasket. So when he got the car, he said that the radiator, water pump, and head gasket had been replaced recently for sure. I'm assuming that while he was in there, he went ahead and did the timing belt and tensioner..seems only logical. I got the car for $1400 because it had body damage from a previous accident (should have been my red flag). I finally have gotten the body work taken care of, and done some other odds-and-ends to it (tie rod ends, all shocks, rear brakes, motor mount and torque mount, oil pan gasket). It seems to have a very good engine and transmission.

Honestly, I'm pretty weary of going in there without a great cause to do so, because of what happened originally with the one pesky bolt. I've been told that RTV is a pretty good fix, and that some head bolts (in some old Chevys, specifically) actually form a seal to a water jacket. RTV sealant is all that's used to ensure this seal (besides the bolt being there, of course). I'm not sure that the slight oil leak should be enough of a cause for me to tear back into the thing .. maybe when it hits a quart or so every 1,000 - 2,000 miles? I dunno.

If I were to go back in there, should I even remove that bolt / try to recoat it with RTV? Or should I try to get some kind of other fix going in there? I had a friend tell me to get a "cap bolt", I think it was called..basically a very small threaded rod with hex on one side to create a solid seal. I think the bolt with RTV SHOULD be doing this already, though. Honestly, I could go without ever having to remove this particular bolt again..it's the top one, of the two horizontal bolts that hold the engine bracket into the block, right above the timing belt, under the upper timing belt cover. Eh, the madness starts again. When I first accidently drilled too far, I thought I would be creating an unsealable leak and have to get a new block. I literally just about cried.

jbpnoman

If the PO didn't give you records showing when that work was done, you should treat the car like it was never done. If it's just one of the top mount bolts, you can get away with not removing it while replacing all of those parts. It'll make the job a little harder, but it's totally doable.

Brettboat

Try to roll your car at 300 RPM dude. Like I said, it's stalling...

I really thought I've made that clear lol

jbpnoman

My car stalls out higher than that, because I actually have some money under my hood. That doesn't mean I've forgotten how to properly drive a standard, though. You aren't feathering your clutch/gas correctly. There's really nothing more to be said about it.

Brettboat

For over 200,000 miles on the factory clutch... I'd say I was doing it just right!