I will have pics by this evening.

Symptoms: I have been having very inconsistent clutch release points(sometimes high, sometimes low, sometimes felt like it was sticking, etc), vibrations and lots of chatter, and started to get some grinding in 1st and 3rd(not all the time, so I assume/hope it may be clutch related). I finally got around to getting the tranny out and the clutch doesnt look so good.

Its a Hyperclutch from InlineFour. Supposedly its a stage 3 clutch, 6 puck sprung, half metalic, half ceramic. Im pretty sure the chatter is because of the half and half material disk. Anyway, the clutch has just over 5,000 miles on it. Day one, it felt like butter and I loved it. But now its to the point where its hard to even drive the car normally.

Visual inspection shows:

- The clutch pads(pucks?) are destroyed. Im not talking just worn down material, Im talking huge chunks of the pads are missing and they are shredded to bits.
- There is atleast 1 crack near one of the springs on the disk. Im not really sure what the springs are for or how they work, but a crack cant be that great. The spring near the crack appears to be wedging itself into the disk itself.
- The pressure plate prongs(not sure of the correct term) are not evenly aligned, some are lower than the others and appear to be either bent or just pushed in.

IMO, the clutch sounds defective, and I think InlineFour should replace it for me. However, Im sure they will probably just say it was abused or a race part and Ill get screwed. But this clutch should be able to handle way more torque than my motor puts down. My buddy has the exact same clutch that he was going into install in his civic, but ended up crashing the car so he never installed it. But I dont know if I want to put that same clutch back in the car after what Ive seen so far. Im really tempted to buy an aftermarket pressure plate, and run a stock disk, but I just dont know if the stock disk will be able to handle 9500RPM and over 200whp.

Any questions, comments, or suggestions are appreciated. Thanks

 

I called InlineFour, they want me to email them some pics so they can take a look. I know many of you dont like InlineFour for various reasons, but they have been great to me thusfar. So I guess we will see what happens.

Here are the pics:

You can see how the "prongs" are all at different levels like some of them are bent. But there are no obvious signs of anything hitting them or pressing against them to make them that way.


Here you can see the "rim" around the prongs is depressed, almost like it caved in or something.


Heres one side of the clutch disk and the chips in the pads


Heres the other side of the disk, same kinda chips on the pads


Heres the crack on the disk, and u can see how the spring was embedding itself into the disk


Heres a close up of the chips


and finally the flywheel, which doesnt appear to be damaged abnormally as far as I can tell. Lots of dust though, is that normal??

 

.....I'd recommend a 6-puck unsprung.

Either ATC hd w/ x pp

OR

ACTION kevlar/ miba and super stiff pp

These always grab - nevr slip, and are the shizzle.




Modified by Black R at 8:14 PM 10/2/2003

 

I really don't know much about clutches, but I was under the impression that the 6-puck types were semi-disposable, as in they had very limited lifespans more appropriate to a track-only car. Even in that case, 5,000 miles seems ridiculously short, so I dunno. Everyone who has TODA seems to love theirs, same with ACT, though I had problems with mine. I think all of my problems (which resulted in needing to rebuild the tranny) were due to prior abuse + extra strength of the ACT. If that was the case and you suspect your tranny may not be 100% straight, I'd get it checked out, you could save a buttload of money.

 

as far as I know, this clutch is supposed to be very street friendly and track worthy. The first day I drove the car, the clutch was great and I couldnt believe how stock it felt. Then it just deteriorated from there. u can see in the pics that the pad material is hardly worn down at all, and the only problem is the huge chunks that are missing from the pads. Otherwise it looks like it wasnt wearing abnormally quick or anything. Ive sent them an email, and requested to have them replace it with an ACT setup and offered to obviously pay any difference. When I was talking to him on the phone, he said he never heard anything like this before so I guess I gotta wait to hear back from them, hopefully tomorrow.

 

I hope you get a new components out of this.

 

Hey man, sorry to hear about your clutch. It looks pretty toasted.

Just so you know, the spring in the clutch help with a smooth engagement. They add a little "give" to help with chatter. I had a spring break in the way over stressed clutch in my GTi VR6 and it chattered like hell after.

Post up what happens with inlinfour and if you need to get a new clutch let us know what kind.

I think I am need of a clutch soon and I have no idea what to get.

Good luck!

 

puck clutches = icky

 

I could have sworn that top picture was taken right out of a scene in Independende Day! hehehe.. Take a look! Looks like a mothership in the skies!

 

are you sure that flywheel is ok? might be the light but it looks 'grooved' up

that surface is replaceable though

 

Here is you solution. Get a real clutch.....There is nothing to break

 

that clutch looks pretty crazy. never heard of it though and I doubt IL4 has them so I wont be able to exchange for it. I cant afford to buy a brand new $400+ clutch right now.

I called them back and he got my email and forwarded it to his clutch guy so Ill probably hear something on Monday, I hope.

 

i'm rolling on clutch specialties 1800lbs with unsprung street disk, oem bearing + aasco 8.5lbs flywheel.. 12k miles at 175whp, 2k miles at 200whp at .5K miles at 265whp - always grabs all the way to 9krpm.

 

InlineFour's reply:

"Ryan,

From close review of the picture, it seems as if the disc was subject to extreme heating. This is can be caused by excessive slipping of the clutch(as in riding it out). The puck style clutches(in this case a 6 puck) are more like an on and off switch and when slipped like a street clutch can cause stress on the center hub. This is what caused the spring to eat into the side of the disc and the pressure plate prongs to bend. Another(possible) cause for the bending in the pressure plate prongs could be when the transmission is installed. Many times if it is unsuccessful to get the trans in on one shot, the input shaft will rest itself on the prong and bend it.

In regards to the disc and the chipped and chunked edges. This can be caused by an improper break in. If the clutch is not broken in properly for 500 miles or so, then the pads do not wear themselves into a flat matting surface, therefore when the clutch is popped or driven hard, it produces contact on the outer edges. This can be compared to when you first get brake pads and the break-in period for that. If the brakes are used hard during the early stages, then you will get uneven wear which will lead to warped rotors. The clutch manufacturer is unable to warranty this due to the nature of the clutch and how it was driven. Be very careful as if you do purchase other clutches in the "puck" and "sprung" configuration, that they will wear the same way if you drive the way you did with this clutch. If this is your natural driving habits, to excessively slip the clutch, then it is best that you use an unsprung hub, this will take the stress off the center as it is one contact piece without springs embedded to try and compensate the slippage force.

Please contact me if you have any questions or would like for me to further elaborate on the issue."

 

I don't know much about clutches.. but what they say sort of contradicts itself.. they say that 6-puck clutch is basically like an on-off switch, then they recommend them to be broken in for 500miles.. if it' works like an on-off and you're not supposed to slip it, how they hell do you break it in?
i have seen multiple times where people say you don't need to break in puck type clutches for that reason, it'd be really hard to

 

good point...

anyone else have an opinion on what they said?

 

my clutch broke at around 70k, in that same spot. Original clutch that came with the car...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RTW DC2 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">good point...

anyone else have an opinion on what they said?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Basically sounds like Inlinefour does not want to help you out and give you some kind of compensation. Typical.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 00MRSi &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Basically sounds like Inlinefour does not want to help you out and give you some kind of compensation. Typical. </TD></TR></TABLE>

hehe i dislike inline four! but will not state my reasons

 

just playing devils advocate

but how do we really know this guys driving habits?

clutch's break. you live and learn and figure out which ones to get and not to get

obviosly I dont think that you should write it off and give up. try and explain to them of your driving habits or give the mfg of the clutch a call and explain what happended.

you will have to work for it, if you want to get a new clutch

 

well I do drive the car hard, I wont deny that for a second. But I was also under the impression that this clutch was a Stage 3 clutch and built to handle more power and abuse(stated on their website in the clutch descriptions). Im not really buying the excuse about me slipping the clutch too much and causing the excessive heat and damage to the pads. The clutch is supposed to be streetable and trackworthy. Obviously when you are driving on the street you slip the clutch more than when drag racing or road racing. and I dont really see how they can say I damaged the clutch during the install process. And they didnt comment on the crack on the disk. How could I have caused that? It worked ok on day one with no problems. From then on, it went to ****. I didnt expect to get a new clutch out of it and I knew they would have some kind of excuse, but Im not really buying what they had to say. :shrugs:

 

the dust doesnt seem normal, but from the amount of wood that went missing from that clutch...the wood has to end up somewhere

 

do you downshift and rev match alot?

 

typical IL4

-Bryan-

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by EGStreetHtch &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">typical IL4

-Bryan-</TD></TR></TABLE>

Deffinately.

Check this out...I took the liberty of starting the bashing.

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=643118