clutch replacement at 9000 miles (or why i may never again let anyone else drive my car)

[jwalcik]

last night at my soccer game i injured my arm, and i needed to go to the ER. my mom was at the game, as was a friend of hers with her three small children. my mom can't drive my vibe (gt, manual transmission), but her friend said she could. so, my mom takes me to the hospital in her friend's car, and my mom's friend drive's my vibe home. before we leave, i warn her, "reverse is all the way to the left and up. reverse, first, and third are all very close together, please make sure you have it in first before you start moving."about five minutes down the road, my mom's cell phone rings. her friend can't get the car moving and it keeps stalling. i ask if she's trying to get started in third, and sure enough, after some futzing, she realizes that she is. so, she gets the car rolling and we hang up. ten minutes later, we get another call. she'd made it about half a mile down the road, and someone flagged her down because smoke was coming out of the rear end of the car. she'd pulled into a grocery store parking lot and wasn't sure what to do. my mom tells her to sit tight and she'll come pick her up as soon as she drops me off at the hospital. i ask her explicitly to leave my car be. that if they need somewhere warm to wait, leave it running w/ the heater on, but don't try to drive it again.my mom drops me off, tells me she'll be back to get me, and i go in to start the hurry up and wait process that makes the emergency room so fun.less then twenty minutes later, my mom's back. i know she wasn't gone long enough to give her friend a ride, so i ask what's going on. she says her friend decided to give it another shot and is going to drive the rest of the way to her house, eleven miles away.i get x-rayed, put in a splint, and sent home. i get to my mom's and need to drive my car home because w/ a splint on my arm i won't be able to ride my bike to work. i open the door to my vibe and i'm greeted by a burning smell that i'm wholly unfamiliar with. it doesn't smell like oil, it doesn't smell like transmission fluid, but i know it's bad. when i start the car up and roll down the windows the smell clears out and doesn't come back. i put it in reverse, and i'm able to back out of the driveway without incident.then, i put it in first.my engine revs up to about 5000 rpm and i barely start rolling forward. i'm in third before i'm over ten mph and hit fifth around 35. knowing i've got to get it to the dealership somehow, i drive home down surface streets like that, and take it straight to the dealership this morning.about 200 yards away from the dealership, the smoke starts coming out of the rear end again. fortunately, i've got enough momentum to roll into the parking lot and get close enough to the service department to flag someone down. they spent all day looking at it before finally calling me and letting me know that the clutch is completely burnt up. since the car is such low mileage and the rest of it is so well maintained, they're going to replace it under warranty. however, they don't have the parts and i won't have my car back 'til wednesday. talking to my mom's friend, it sounds like she never really did find first, and just realized that she could get the car rolling in third if she rode the clutch out long enough. i'm not 100% sure she ever actually let the clutch all the way out. it's tough not to be upset with her, as she was technically doing me a favor, but the part where she insisted on getting back in and driving the rest of the way home after i'd asked her explicitly not to really rubs me the wrong way.

[BOZACK]

Dude, that so sucks. Thank goodness your service manager was cool. I will never let a stranger drive my car.

[joholste]

one thing i do before getting in any new clutch is i find all the gears before turning the car on. that way i know how each one feels.

[ToolGuy]

Oh man that sucks! Ouch! She never really did know how to do it than form what it sounds like to me. Anyone with the least bit knowledge on manual transmissions would know something is not right, stop and look at the shifter. Or know the car should not react that way. Like others have said at least it will be covered under warranty. Get a rental in the meantime and give the bill to your moms friend!

[Mr. Poopypants]

Wait, so you mean you have to start in 1st and let the clutch out completely, screw that! That sucks man, glad to hear that they will replace your clutch. I taught Mrs. PP on my old Mazda MX-6 5 speed the day before I traded it in just to be safe, she did surprisingly well. Now I know she will be OK with my next car.....a GTO (in a few years)

[jwalcik]

Quote, originally posted by MiVibe-ToolGuy »Oh man that sucks! Ouch! She never really did know how to do it than form what it sounds like to me. Anyone with the least bit knowledge on manual transmissions would know something is not right, stop and look at the shifter. Or know the car should not react that way.Like others have said at least it will be covered under warranty.Get a rental in the meantime and give the bill to your moms friend! actually, the rental is covered by my warranty as well. i'm at home waiting right now for enterprise to come pick me up. the whole experience is just extremely frustrating. Quote, originally posted by jholste »one thing i do before getting in any new clutch is i find all the gears before turning the car on. that way i know how each one feels.me too. for instance, if someone tells me that there are five gears, i make sure i can find five gears, and i make sure i know what, if any, trick is required to get reverse to engage. Quote, originally posted by Mr. Poopypants »I taught Mrs. PP on my old Mazda MX-6 5 speed the day before I traded it inI actually learned in an old nissan hardbody the day before i drove 90 miles to pick up my vibe. i may very well have not done the clutch any favors those first couple of weeks, but at least i'd be taught well enough to know to let it out all the way as soon as things get rolling. i'd be more than happy to show her what she was doing wrong, but it definitely won't be happening in my car.

[JustinVGT]

Sorry to hear about this, but sure am glad it is being covered under the warranty. This is exactly why I do not like letting people drive my car! When I have had repairs done at the body shop, my local shop is usually booked up and they instead take my car to their next location 10 miles away. They said I could just drop it off at my local shop and they'll drive it, but no way. After hearing all these stories of people's clutches burning up, I do not let other people drive my car anymore. I have several times, and every time, those people have slipped my clutch a lot and produced the burning smell. I'm used to the car and can start in 1st without slipping the clutch at all. I have 48-49k miles on my original and it's still going strong.

[ToolGuy]

Every time I let someone drive my 6-speed they almost always grind the first gear syncros! I have to tell them push it hard into first! My car has three first gear syncros to push through and the trans is in the rear, a lot different feel than a FWD car. There is nothing wrong with my trans it is just a characteristic of it... Takes a little getting used to but is very easy to drive once you get used to the feel. So now no one drives my car but me... I let my wife and she got it the first time! she kind of knew how but has not tried in over 10 years. She did not take it out of first in a parking lot but she got it.

[Mavrik]

ouch! well I'd be mad to... but at least warranty will cover it. Otherwise I'd be politely yet firmly informing mom's friend that she will get the bill.

[mcgusto82]

as long as you are not in a bind (having to pay it for it). it's all good.hey, if your mom's freind looks good and isn't too old. maybe she owes you dinner. i swear, my wife will the end of my clutch.

[jwalcik]

Quote, originally posted by mcgusto82 »as long as you are not in a bind (having to pay it for it). it's all good.hey, if your mom's freind looks good and isn't too old. maybe she owes you dinner. i swear, my wife will the end of my clutch.i think i'm actually going to let my mom talk to her about it. she just moved to town with her three little ones and is having a hard enough time finding a job and a place to live. i'm not sure i'd even try to burden her with the cost of replacing my clutch right now even if it wasn't being covered by the warranty.i've only let a couple of other people drive my car... one being my father, and the other being the friend who was kind enough to teach me how to drive a stick in his truck. next time i'll just leave my car where it is. a tow would be a heck of a lot cheaper than a new clutch.in other news, the impala they gave me as a rental while i'm waiting on my vibe feels like a boat. i'm fairly certain it's an '04, pretty bare bones, auto trans. i just drove it to san antonio and back for the spurs game and getting up to highway speeds feels like rolling a bowling ball uphill. anyway, thanks for the sympathy everyone. hopefully in a few days everything will be as good as new, and i won't have to worry about my clutch again for another 40k or 50k miles.

[03VibeGT6Spd]

Quote, originally posted by jwalcik » they're going to replace it under warranty. however, they don't have the parts and i won't have my car back 'til wednesday. You should beg the dealer to let you buy the parts and have them install them. Other wise you'll be needing it done again.Next time you'll be footing the hole bill.

[jwalcik]

why's that?it's actually too late, as they've already ordered the parts, but i'm curious about the recommendation.

[21Rouge]

Quote, originally posted by 03VibeGT6Spd »You should beg the dealer to let you buy the parts and have them install them. Other wise you'll be needing it done again.You would beg them to do the install for free but then of course there would be no warranty for this repair. How likely is the dealer to do this?

[03VibeGT6Spd]

The stock clutch and presure plate combo is junk!from what I have seen there only good for about 20k-30k, if your good with your clutch You might make up into the 50k's.Once you install an aftermarket clutch, you notice a big difference.There are numerous post on this board about GT clutch issue's, GM even admited to us at are meet that they knew they had an issue with them.But it has now been sweeped under the rug as far as I can see.

[Psychobroker]

Jeez...should have left the car at the park until you could pick it up later. I'm sorry to hear about your arm AND clutch