I have a 95 civic 1.5. Its at 248k on the original clutch. The clutch seems to work perfectly, but the throwout bearing has made a little noise for the last 20k miles or so.

My sister will be taking the car, and I'm wondering if I should replace the clutch first even though there is nothing wrong with it. The miles are almost entirely highway, so the clutch hasn't been used as much as the miles might suggest.

The transmission is in great shape. It shifts nice, and the linkage is [edit: NOT] sloppy. I replaced the transmission fluid recently and the old stuff was very clean with no grit. (the car in general is in great shape. The engine uses no oil, and hasn't been opened for anything other than preventive maintenance)

So, back to the clutch:
Is there a way to see it without taking it out?
What does it take to replace it on this car - do I pull the engine? pull the transmission? Pull both then split them?
If I replace it, should I do anything other than the clutch & throwout bearing (and plate if it looks bad)?

Thanks!
Joe


Modified by ksJoe at 8:27 PM 10/1/2008

 

Drop the transmission to change the clutch, resurface the flywheel and replace clutch disc, pressure plate, pilot bearing and throwout bearing. Other than the throwout bearing being noisy i would have said leave it alone. Theres no way really to check the clutch without taking it out, and at that point you might as well replace it.

 

i agree with 94eg8 pull the tranny u dont need to pull the motor replace clutch disc ,pressure plate, and throwout bearing if the flywheel has alot of scoring and hotspots replace that too if not resurface it

 

WOW, 248k on the original clutch. Hwy or not thats incredible. I'm at 188k and fixing to change out for the third time making this number 4.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by nub &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">WOW, 248k on the original clutch. Hwy or not thats incredible. I'm at 188k and fixing to change out for the third time making this number 4.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Not really, if your only getting 47,000 miles out of a clutch (averaged out your clutch replacements) you're doing something wrong or you're racing. If you don't abuse a clutch they can last the life of the vehicle. Its really not that hard to get 190,000 miles out of a stock honda clutch. Hell my neighbour has 509,000kms (305,000 miles) on his stock '96 civic clutch.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 94EG8 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Not really, if your only getting 47,000 miles out of a clutch (averaged out your clutch replacements) you're doing something wrong or you're racing. If you don't abuse a clutch they can last the life of the vehicle. Its really not that hard to get 190,000 miles out of a stock honda clutch. Hell my neighbour has 509,000kms (305,000 miles) on his stock '96 civic clutch.</TD></TR></TABLE>
I do w/e brackets and I do beat on it a little to a from work, so yea I know there is more life to be had. Your example of your neighbor and the op I'm sure are more the exception than the norm. Thre are people who hit 750-100k mile on vehicles but because you dont does thst mean your doing something wrong?

 

while my neighbours case would be considered extreme, and the OPs borders on extreme getting 190,000 miles out of a clutch isn't hard or all that uncommon. 47,000, you're really doing something wrong. In relation to your extreme vehicle mileage quote, I can see where you're coming from, but vehicles have far more points of failure, and they aren't all related to wear and tear parts. Any vehicle can go to over a million miles, they'll go as long as you keep putting money into them, its just that most people like trade up well before they reach that point. With clutches theres a pretty direct relation between how you use a clutch and how long it will last

 

In my case the original was changed after buying the car used. 35k and it seems the previous owner used the clutch pedal as a foot rest. The other two were changed before going on long road trips to bracket events where I didn't want to chance a toasted disc and a repair out of town or a tow. On both occasions there was material to spare but I didn't want to risk it at the time. I'm not disputing that the mialage cant be had but are they driving their (stock) car hard or in a sporting manner? Since you insist I'm doing something wrong, what do you drive,how do you drive and what kind of mialage did you get out of your last cl/pp. Or is it auto?

 

I bought the car totaled with 55k on it, so I don't know ow the car was driven for the first 55k.

But since then - no it has not been driven hard or in a sporting manner. When I need to get going into traffic, I usually wait until my foot is off the clutch until giving it a lot of gas. Often on the 3-4 shift I think I don't push the clutch hard enough to release it.

I'm very used to how it feels. When going in/out of each gear, if the engine is at the right RPM the transmission will shift with very little pressure on the shifter. That happens when the engine and transmission are matched for speed, with no torque transfer - which means the clutch gets very little wear.

BTW, for the first 100k, I was getting 42-43 MPG on the highway. It has gradually dropped to about 35. But the speed limit went up too.

-Joe

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by nub &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Since you insist I'm doing something wrong, what do you drive,how do you drive and what kind of mialage did you get out of your last cl/pp. Or is it auto?</TD></TR></TABLE>

'94 civic sedan. Car was originally an automatic and I swapped in a 5 speed, the clutch had 189,000 miles on it when I got it, looked fine so I used it (i knew the guy I got the swap from and it was the original clutch) i ran it up until 201,000 miles when I swapped my engine for JDM D15B vtec, the clutch on the engine was only supposed to have about 50,000 miles on it so I used it, but the one I pulled out looked perfectly fine and really didn't look any worse than the the one that had 50,000 on it. I also taught several people to drive standard on that clutch I pulled. I don't race, but every once in a while I will ream on the car and do the odd burnout, I also live in eastern canada so every so often i'll get stuck in snow and have to rock the car back and forth. I don't know exactly how my neighbours was driven, but I can tell you the car occasionally hauled a trailer. Now you said the first one clutch you replaced was due to the previous owner, fair enough. The other 2 clutch replacements may or may not have been warranted. If you're racing yeah you will go through clutches more quickly. My numbers really reflect the general populace, who use their civic to get from point A to point B, not those running them as drag cars.