Looks like the GT is going under the "knife" soon :(

[trb]

Last week, the clutch started to really shudder a lot, all of a sudden. Nothing smooth about starting off from a stop, but every other shift was OK. It was enough to vibrate the dash, unless I feathered it. I looked up the paperwork from the PO and he had the clutch replaced in November 2012, so it is out of warranty. Now it slips when I try to accelerate unless I downshift. Looks like I get to tear it apart now. I've done several clutches on my Mustang, so I'm fairly familiar with the process, but this little car takes a LOT of work to pull the trans! I've actually pulled my Mustang trans and replaced the clutch in about 5 hours by myself, but this thing looks like it will be an all weekend long job. Time to teach my boys about working on the car I guess.

And performance clutches/flywheels are expensive! $300-$500!!! Not going to spend that on this car. I didn't even spend that on my Mustang! I found a regular GT replacement Exedy kit for $86, AMS kit for $139 and Beck/Arnley kit for $153 on RockAuto. The B/A kit looks to list for quite a bit more than they are selling it for, but is it worth the extra $$$?

Oh well, hopefully I can get it fixed in the next week or two. Or I'll be back to riding the bus!

[lannvouivre]

Exedy is the OEM clutch, should be fine.

Here's another from MWR (should search the part number and look for it elsewhere for a better deal on price): http://www.monkeywrenchracing.com/produ ... ts_id=2017" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Says it's OEM style as well.

[trb]

Thanks. I ordered the Exedy kit, along with a fresh flywheel from Standard Flywheels on Amazon. It is all ready to install and was only $42, so I figured it was a good deal to avoid having to drop off and pick up the current flywheel at a machine shop during the week for machining. Maybe I can get it all changed over next weekend!

Hopefully there won't be any major oil leaks or anything. The way this clutch feels is like the time my Mustang clutch was oil soaked by leaking valve covers. That clutch failed in less than 24K miles. This one only has about 12K on it.

[trb]

Well, it is officially burnt clutch time! It quit in my office complex, and I was able to get it towed to the parking lot. I'll rent a tow dolley from uhaul tomorrow and get it back home for the repair. Luckily the clutch should arrive today, flywheel in a couple of days, and I ordered new ARP bolts for it that should be here later in the week. So I should get it torn down hopefully by Friday so if I need any other parts, I can get them local.

[ken99287]

Good luck! I just did this job a few months ago. Take your time, make sure you disconnect everything before dropping the tranny, careful stabbing the tranny back into the engine that you don't tear up the passenger side axle seal. Replace your rear main seal while you're in there. Fel-pro is $10 from advance.

An engine hoist and tranny jack would be very helpful. If you don't have either, this is what I did to hang the engine. You don't want to keep the jack on the oil pan cuz it will cause leaks... I put some cut bicycle tire tube pieces between the fenders and the wood to keep from scratching and sliding.

14138979090511.jpg (152.25 KiB) Viewed 7085 times

And just drop the tranny onto your chest so it doesn't break hitting the ground... I put some cardboard on my chest, haha. It's only about 90 pounds.

[tinyfrogs]

Late this afternoon while trying to get my Xterra running again (been dormant, now has intermittent electrical issue) my wife calls with "bad news...car has been acting funny for a few days and now I can't get it up the hill to our driveway." Yeah, looks like she TORCHED the clutch, driving it while it was going bad for over 60 miles last few days. I've never ruined one, but she manages to do it to my new-to-me GT in 2 months of highway driving. Bad smell once I got to the car. Transmission was HOT. Couldn't get it to move in any gear.

Basically, I don't have time to do this myself (it would be my first tranny drop and clutch replace) and I have a line on a new local shop with good techs (that were downsized by a dealership) that might do this soon and reasonably priced. From this thread it looks like the Exedy kit, a resurfaced or new flywheel, rear main seal, and tranny fluid flush and refill are in order? What else should I plan to have the shop do? Might there be something else wrong I'm not thinking of? Thanks.

[trb]

Luckily I've been storing an engine hoist for a friend since I've been intending to replace the motor in my Mustang, so I've got that covered!

I will be making sure the rear seal is either new from the prior clutch swap or I will replace it. When I was loading it on the trailer today I did notice a good bit of oil on the bottom of the car. Time to track down the oil leaks. One thing I did on my Mustang was to coat the bellhousing to engine block opening with some RTV sealant before bolting it back up to prevent any oil from getting in there in the future. Don't know why they don't do that as standard procedure.

As I mentioned before the PO had the clutch and slave cylinder replaced about 2 yrs ago. He spent $1,450 on it!!! Looks like I'll have about $180 in parts - $94 for clutch, $42 for flywheel, $11 tax, $30 for ARP 203-2802 flywheel bolts (supposedly the Toyota ones are one time use), plus $55 trailer rental. Gear oil, loctite, RTV, brake cleaner, etc another $25-35 or so. Hopefully all in, it will cost less than $300.

Oh, and I got the lecture about buying a manual transmission car in the first place, again today.

First box of parts:

[tpollauf]

As I mentioned before the PO had the clutch and slave cylinder replaced about 2 yrs ago. He spent $1,450 on it!!!

Isn't that a bit premature for the life of that clutch? Bad driving habits from the PO? Improper installation and/or inferior parts?

Oh, and I got the lecture about buying a manual transmission car in the first place, again today.

In one ear and out the other. Sometimes referred to as "background noise"

[ken99287]

Remember to get some gl-4 75w90 first. I believe we use gl-4 specifically and cannot use the gl-4/gl-5 dual spec oil or the plain gl-5. I found that plain gl-4 is not readily available and you'll be kicking yourself if you get the job done but have to wait a week for the oil to come in.

Red Line MT90 75w90 seems to work well and is one of the most inexpensive. I believe you'll need to buy 3 quarts at about $15 each from Amazon.com.

I believe others have had good luck with amsoil and castrol syntorque products.

I balked at the 8 hour job time estimate, but it turned out to be pretty spot on. I broke it up between two days cuz the dang parts man ordered me the base model rear main seal even though I told him I needed the one for the gt, the 2zz, the 6sp, the 10%, not the base model, not the 5sp, not the auto, not the 1zz, not the 90%. Parts guys - they just think they know more about your car than you do!

14139683452920.jpg (126.11 KiB) Viewed 7065 times

[trb]

As I mentioned before the PO had the clutch and slave cylinder replaced about 2 yrs ago. He spent $1,450 on it!!!

Isn't that a bit premature for the life of that clutch? Bad driving habits from the PO? Improper installation and/or inferior parts?

WAY premature. It only has about 12k miles on it, over the past 23 months. It was not the PO, as he got over 150K out of the prior clutch. The original one went out at about 40K miles a year after the PO bought the car in 2005. My bet is it's probably a contaminated clutch disc due to oil leaks, or possibly a bad install or cheap product. I know I drove it a bit harder and slipped it a bit at times, but no way it could have caused a failure. I have about 350K of manual trans driving experience from the past 30 years.

[trb]

Remember to get some gl-4 75w90 first. I believe we use gl-4 specifically and cannot use the gl-4/gl-5 dual spec oil or the plain gl-5. I found that plain gl-4 is not readily available and you'll be kicking yourself if you get the job done but have to wait a week for the oil to come in.

Red Line MT90 75w90 seems to work well and is one of the most inexpensive. I believe you'll need to buy 3 quarts at about $15 each from Amazon.com.

I believe others have had good luck with amsoil and castrol syntorque products.

I balked at the 8 hour job time estimate, but it turned out to be pretty spot on. I broke it up between two days cuz the dang parts man ordered me the base model rear main seal even though I told him I needed the one for the gt, the 2zz, the 6sp, the 10%, not the base model, not the 5sp, not the auto, not the 1zz, not the 90%. Parts guys - they just think they know more about your car than you do!

Thanks for the info. I read on Monkey Wrench Racing that they recommend the Pennzoil Synchromesh for street cars, and a Pennzoil/ Redline MT90 blend on street/strip cars. I'm thinking a blend might be best on mine.

http://www.monkeywrenchracing.com/produ ... ts_id=1352" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'm probably going to do the tear down over 3-4 days after work, and maybe take 2-3 days to re-assemble it unless I get some help this weekend. I could do my Mustang in about 4-5 hours, but that is one of those practice makes perfect situations!

[trb]

More stuff!

[ken99287]

I used the same clutch kit, but just had the flywheel cut.

My old clutch had failed premature too. I bought the car with the transmission "issue". It wouldn't go into gear at all and had to be towed. Turns out the clutch was improperly installed somehow and had broken and one of the springs had popped out. Maybe that'll be your issue too!

Take pictures!

[trb]

Got it tore apart!







And the reason it failed - totally blown friction material on the pressure plate side:



It is some kind of Korean clutch made by Seco. Probably a cheap POS clutch, that the shop charged $326 for!



I'm going to call the shop that did the work and let them know how this clutch failed after only 12K miles. Not like I expect them to do anything, but they should know how this POS part failed.

[ken99287]

Looks like you'll be up and running in no time!

[tpollauf]

I'm going to call the shop that did the work and let them know how this clutch failed after only 12K miles. Not like I expect them to do anything, but they should know how this POS part failed.

WOW ... that's one messed up clutch plate If this shop is a reputable shop then hopefully they'll take your advice and NOT use any of these junk parts on future vehicles. If it is a shop that clearly doesn't give a s h i t, then give them a piece of your mind and tell them to stop padding their wallet at the expense of the customer and put the customer FIRST!

[trb]

Well, the car is back on the road! I borrowed a tranny jack from a friend and got it installed yesterday. Took it for a long drive today, and the front felt weird. It was see sawing back and forth, and moving right on acceleration, left on deceleration. I hit a speed bump and the clunk made me realize that I had not torqued down the passenger side strut bolts!!! All torqued down now and it runs better. But I still need to get it back on the highway to make sure.

Boy this clutch is touchy! But it grabs quick, for sure. Now to degrease the undercarriage and put the splash shields back on. Total cost was about $275, including the parts, tow dolly, lube, loctite and cleaners. Yay!

[trb]

I'm going to call the shop that did the work and let them know how this clutch failed after only 12K miles. Not like I expect them to do anything, but they should know how this POS part failed.

WOW ... that's one messed up clutch plate If this shop is a reputable shop then hopefully they'll take your advice and NOT use any of these junk parts on future vehicles. If it is a shop that clearly doesn't give a s h i t, then give them a piece of your mind and tell them to stop padding their wallet at the expense of the customer and put the customer FIRST!

I did call the shop and told them about it, but I didn't tell him I bought it from his customer. I figured he would blow me off if I told him I was not the same owner. He could not believe it failed in 12K miles, but I told him I knew it was out of warranty, I just wanted to let him know about the lack of quality in the part his shop got. They looked up the invoice and the manager said he wanted to talk to his supplier about it, and that it was listed as an OEM clutch. I told him no, it may have been sold as OEM, but it was for sure not OEM quality and let him know I already bought an Exedy clutch which is an OEM company. He thought the supplier might contribute to the labor on the replacement, so he said he would check and call "me" (the prior owner) back. I let the prior owner know via voicemail that his shop might call him back about it and if he wanted to talk to them, go ahead. He might get lucky and get some money back on it.

[ken99287]

If the shop goes through with all they said they would do, that's pretty cool. I'd do business with them again(if I ever take my car to the shop). Ever get the front shimmy thing fixed?

[trb]

If the shop goes through with all they said they would do, that's pretty cool. I'd do business with them again(if I ever take my car to the shop). Ever get the front shimmy thing fixed?

Yes, it is much better after I tightened the strut bolts! But it still has some torque steer - LOL! I know the rear transmission mount does have some cracks and I plan to replace it, and I found out the passenger side mount is also cracked. Probably due to my hoist and jack, since they both bled down over night and let the motor hang by the one mount for a while. Could have been a couple of days of hanging before I realized it! Luckily I found both mounts for $115 on Rockauto, vs about $250 from my local parts place.

[mikevibegt]

Hello TRB, I know this is now several months old tread but i just wanted to ask you how do you like your new clutch set up?. I did the same thing around the same time.When i bought my 03 vibe gt previous owner said that he had replaced clutch at the shop here in western New York and that after that it never felt good, so he was selling it to me.After I took transmission out I seen it was stamped on it (seco), those kits were about 50 dollars in 2011 on e bay, So shop must have been purchasing cheapest kits they could find. After I replaced it this past November I noticed huge improvement, pedal feel and linear engagement of clutch. Now my clutch did not fail but it always had little shudder. Just wanted to see how do you like your new clutch since i have same exact setup (bought mine in 2011, i think they changed kit part number now), and thank you for taking time and letting us know your experience with your Gt.

[trb]

It is running just fine. and I now have over 215K miles on it, so about 4-5K on the new clutch. The clutch feels just fine and is nicely broken in. I hope to get a good several years out of it. I know it won't last 150K like the one the PO had, due to my city driving, but if I get 5 years, that would be great.

[ImUrOBGYN]

How long did it take for you to complete the job start to finish? (Unless I missed that somewhere above...) Thanks.

[mikevibegt]

not too long, the hardest part was putting rear transmission mount in,i did it over few days because i had other things going. Difference between old Korea Seco clutch and new Excedy is huge, my clutch still had a lot of life left on it, almost all of it, just uneven wear across radius of friction surface.Farther edges of the disc was not wearing evenly with closer to the input shaft edge of friction surface.I had flywheel resurfaced at NAPA, those guys did great job, well worth the money.

[trb]

I would say it took me a good 8-9 hours or so, over 3 days. I had help putting the trans back into place since my BIL was over and we ended up pulling the passenger side axle also to get it aligned and the motor mounts back into place. He was a big help! I'm sure it will be easier next time.

[RedGT]

Hey, do you mind confirming that the ARP 203-2802 flywheel bolts worked fine for you and were not too long? I am seeing conflicting reports elsewhere online. Spec is 23mm, these say 1.050" underhead which would be 26.67mm. But as you mention, the "proper" ones cost twice as much.

[trb]

Just to confirm if anyone else sees this, like I said on Facebook, the ARP 203-2802 flywheel bolts fit just fine on my GT. They have been working OK for a year now and 12K miles, so I'm at 222,300 miles total.

Edit: Found this link on using these bolts on a Lotus with the 1.8L motor:

http://www.lotustalk.com/forums/f25/wil ... ige-81564/