Ok, so last week my clutch went out in my 89 crx, so i replaced it, and its been fine for 4 days, and then today i was going down the road and it just started revving really high, like it didnt want to go, and it would pick up speed, but SUPER slow, i smell something like its burnt up. It shouldnt be the clutch, its brand new, so id like some peoples opinions on what they think it could be before i start tearing it apart to figure it out. oh, and it has been smoking lately, like something is burning. if you have any ideas on what it could be, let me know.

 

when you swapped the clutch did you resurface your flywheel? also did you adjust your cable? your rear main seal could be leaking oil as well?

 

yes i resurfaced the flywheel and adjusted my cable. how do i know if the rear seal is leaking? i do know that it smokes from under the car, and from behind the block

 

come on guys, i need some opinions.

 

You probably got the wrong spline clutch or did not properly align it. what does the clutch feel like? did you change throw out bearing and pilot bearing?

 

It feels fine.

 

whats trans are you using and which clutch (make/model) did you get?

 

If the rear main seal is leaking you should be able to see some oil underneath, right around where the block meets the transmission (specifically where the flywheel shield is).

It's also possible that the flywheel was machined out of spec and the pressure plate is no longer able to apply the correct amount of pressure. In any case, you're more than likely going to need to take everything apart.

By chance did you replace the pressure plate at the same time?

 

Well i see oil, but it looks like its on the block, but i could b wrong, ill check again when i have better light. i didnt replace the pressure plate.

When the clutch went out, i couldnt use any gears at all, but now i can, it just acts like it doesnt want to go, but slowly picks up, so i dont think its the clutch. but i dont know much about transmissions. could a pressure plate cause that?

 

If you are going to change a clutch its a good idea to change everything around it. Like the pressure plate. What I would do know is pressure wash the engine and transmission. Spray brake kleen on the area to see where the oil is coming from. Go from there. also check your oil level and see if you are losing fluid as well.

 

It could, think about brakes. If you only apply a little bit of pressure it will only brake so much but if you apply enough pressure you'll completely lock up the brakes. The clutch works the same way basically. Instead of a brake rotor sandwiched between brake pads you have your clutch sandwiched between the flywheel and pressure plate. The difference here is that the friction surfaces are reversed so instead of the two brake pads clamping you have two metal surfaces clamping. Those two surfaces wear just like a brake rotor would wear over time. If you didn't replace the pressure plate then it's friction surface is worn down still. And since you reused the flywheel, you started with something that was worn and had it resurfaced so it was actually taken down some more. Both parts should have an acceptable tolerance limit to be reused and my guess is that it just went a little past what is acceptable and that is what is causing the clutch to slip.

And just the same, if a little oil gets on there it will cause it to slip. As suggested you might want to try and clean everything up and see where the oil is coming from if you can't see where it's coming from already.

Personally, I don't see how this can be fixed without taking everything apart so if it were me I'd just get it over with already and start pulling it apart ASAP. There will be no question once you can see everything. That's just me though.

Random-I actually experienced a slipping condition above 3k rpms on one of my cars and thought the tolerance was exceeded on the flywheel (new clutch and pressure plate) or had a small rear main seal leak. I took it apart, saw no visible leaks so I just wiped down the flywheel with a clean towel before reassembling and I haven't had a problem since (didn't have another flywheel at the time so I skipped replacing it).

 

when you rev it in gear do the rpm's raise quickly yet the vehicle slowly starts moving?...if so its a clutch problem...from reading your posts i would have to say the pressure plate is the problem... most of the time that is the main cause of a honda clutch failure...ive replaced many with this problem and the clutch disc itself is almost always within spec ...the pressure plate springs weaken over time and arent able to hold ...and if you have to take it apart its usually best to replace all components that see wear.....anything worth doing is worth doing right the first time

 

well my oil is below 1qt now.

ok, well i will probabley just start taking everything apart this weekend when i have some time and go from there.

so when i get everything apart just replace it all? it was all still factory, except the new clutch.

 

yes its always recommended to replace the "clutch pack" ...which is clutch disc,pressure plate,throwout bearing,pilot bushing if applicable...

 

Well i guess im going to check it all out and replace the old parts. should i keep the clutch i just put in?

 

you can but if your buying all the other parts seperate its gonna be more expensive than buying a kit which will come with a new clutch disc but it doesnt hurt to have a spare...especially if youre downshift happy like me

 

Ok, everyone has been asking me what i did and didnt do, i replaced the clutch, pressure plate, release bearing, and i adjusted the clutch cable. i did not resurface my flywheel. when i took off the factory clutch, i did not see any oil on it, so i dont know if it is the rear seal, but i very well could be.

 

ok, so i jacked my car up to look at the transmission and there was oil all over the place, could that be the rear seal?

 

It could be. Only way to confirm is if you take it all apart and LOOK. There's also a possibility that it could be coming from the input shaft of the transmission but I've never seen that happen before. Again, you just have to take it all apart and look.

 

Taking it all apart thursday. and now i have a new problem, started it up today, and now when i put it in gear, if i just let out the clutch it goes, crazy. drove it like a mile to see if it was ok, and its not, when its at idle, and u give it a little gas, it sounds/feels like it wants to die, then makes some weird noise and the actually revs. I shouldnt have so many problems with a car at 153xxx original miles :/ time to tear it all apart and look

 

Ok guys, so i got it all apart, and my clutch was burnt up, and so was my flywheel, so i got to thinking, wat coul be the problem, then it hit me, i didnt properly "break in" the clutch. So i went and bought a new clutch, pressure plate and flywheel, put it all on and now she is up and running, so im gonna break it in right this time. thanks for all your inputs

 

Just out of curiousity, did you look at the rear main seal while you had the flywheel off? Hope everything works out

 

Well get this, i replaced the clutch when i said i would, and it just went out again. but itll drive in neutral, just not in gear, and if i but it in gear and rev it, i smell gas, and it sounds weird. Clutch again?

 

It'll drive in neutral? So can you tell which gear is actually engaged while it's in neutral? And can shift to the next gear and so on while it is driving?

 

So did you ever try just adjusting your clutch cable. Because when I did my buddy's tranny we had the cable to tight and it would rev up like that. All we had to do was just loosin it up a bit and it was fine. I'd try that if you haven't already before tearing it down.