Bought my gf a 89 civic lx. got it cheap but it needed a clutch. I put a clutch kit in it(just a stock replacment clutch from autozone). It worked fine for months now its slips so bad she can bearly drive it. I did not resurface the flywheel when I did the clutch. I got the flywheel oily but made for damn certain I cleaned it all off. Like I said the clutch worked for a long time just fine. Here is the kicker, the idle somehow was really high for about a month(3000 rpms) and so at a stoplight my gf would put the clutch in halfway or so to quiet the car down. Did she prematurely wear out the clutch my doing this?

I've adjusted the clutch cable from as loose as it will go to as tight as it will go(or pretty close) and neither is very good. I have the cable set very loose with slack in it and that seems to work the best. Any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
98civic94gsr

 

My father put an OEM replacement clutch in his car, and never "broke it in" correctly. He slides the clutch real bad when he drives, and my brother drove it as well, and hes 16.. can't drive a manual very well, either. Needless to say, 3-4 months later the clutch felt like crap again.

I don't know if that would really hurt the car too much, but I wouldn't recommend leaving the clutch halfway engaged at stop lights..

 

She either wore the disk out really fast, or glazed the **** out of it. Either way get a new clutch and fix the idle. If she gonna be pissed tell her not to **** it up next time or live with it.

 

Yeah, make sure she engages the clutch fully or depresses it fully. No in betweens, and riding your clutch is bad, too. Fix that idle, its probably not helping it at all, because shes sliding it more than she should because of it.

 

That is what I thought. Glazed or gone. Theirs another 120 bucks down the drain. Damn girlfriends cost to much money. Here I am trying to save for cams and such for my car. . . . . .
Their isn't anyway to deglaze the clutch somehow?? Getting the clutch hot for a while or something like that? Probably a damn stupid question but I don't feel like changing a clutch.

 

Whatever you do, don't go and blame it on her. You'll end up starting one of those "My girlfriend left me, what should I do!?" threads, haha. Break it in for awhile before you go letting her drive it, too, maybe? Take a trip in it and get it broken in correctly before you hand the keys over to her.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Syzle &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Whatever you do, don't go and blame it on her. You'll end up starting one of those "My girlfriend left me, what should I do!?" threads, haha. Break it in for awhile before you go letting her drive it, too, maybe? Take a trip in it and get it broken in correctly before you hand the keys over to her.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Good Advice

 

The more I am thinking about it, it was probably time for this clutch to go. A blondes first car and a stick to boot. Brand new clutch that got a lot of abuse in the beginning. It got hot and glazed over and now I'm in hot water.
Gotta love it!
Thanks for the replys,

98civic94gsr

 

Yeah, its easy to tear a clutch up, sometimes people do alot of things that are harmful to it, and don't even realize it.

I believe that the clutch should be more like an on/off switch. Learning to drive, you kinda put it in the sweet spot and slide it.. but if you just treat it real firm, business like.. on or off, in between as little as possible, you'll get better life out of it. Atleast, driving sensibly and doing this. Firm shifts are the way to go. Rev matching is good, too, but nobody ever does this daily driving.

This doesn't mean dropping the clutch at 8,000 RPM though

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Syzle &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Rev matching is good, too, but nobody ever does this daily driving.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Says who? My clutch will last forever!

Don't blame her for it, but be sure to at least explain why it happened, so we don't see this again in a few weeks. Otherwise you'll be putting in clutches forever...

 

Well, yous a pimp then Rev matching

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by drdisco69 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Says who? My clutch will last forever!

Don't blame her for it, but be sure to at least explain why it happened, so we don't see this again in a few weeks. Otherwise you'll be putting in clutches forever...</TD></TR></TABLE>

I rev match and heel toe

 

Haha, thats awesome

I tried to get in the habit of it with my last car. Its gone now, this new car

Its an old beater EF, B18B w/ B18A cable tranny, and the clutch isn't as smooth and the tranny is a little bit clunky/sloppy feeling, and I don't have a tach to help me at all...