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Stock SVT Clutch Life Expectancy?

K

Kilroy

CEG'er
Joined
Jan 6, 2009
Messages
312
Been awhile since I've been on here... still driving my CSVT everyday and enjoy driving it. It definitely gets driven a lot, as I've put a little more than 75,000 miles on it in slightly less than four years. I've been curious as to what most people get mileage wise out of a stock SVT clutch, as I'm fairly certain that my car has the original clutch in it. I am the fourth owner of the car, but it had right at 52,000 original miles on it when I bought it... it will turn 127,500 miles on it by tomorrow and it shows no signs of slipping.

Is this out of the ordinary or more or less on the average? I know clutch life will vary greatly on how the car is driven and taken care of... it's adult driven and not beat like a rented mule lol so I'm guessing its doing alright. I haven't had any problems out of the clutch/transaxle at all except for sometimes it doesn't want to go in first gear all the way and when you let the clutch out it grinds and pops out of gear. I changed the brake fluid on it a few months ago (I'm sure that was original as well) hoping that would make the first gear issue go away but that didn't seem to help. Is there a way to bleed the hydraulic clutches on these cars? I haven't dug around the transaxle on this car enough to know actually which is why I'm asking.



Shannon
 
Beating on a clutch isn't a big a deal; slipping it at low speeds is a real killer. It's why I hate to hear about how a clutch has been "babied" or something like that, because usually it means just that - it's been slipped mercilessly at every stop light.

I put an SVT clutch on my Roush about 65,000 miles ago. I beat on it pretty hard, autocross it several times a year, and have had it at the drag strip several times. It still grabs hard and performs perfectly well. The original non-SVT clutch that came out of it still looked rather new at 135,000 miles.

I'd say if you drive it sensibly (i.e. no slipping), an SVT clutch would last the life of the car.
 
117,XXX miles on my one owner, one clutch '99 CSVT, so it's always been my left foot on the clutch pedal, clutch seems fine, knock on wood... I'm an old fart, 53, and I haven't owned an auto trans car in over 25 years. I don't slip the clutch, I tap the gas to put a bit of inertia into the flywheel, let out the clutch pedal and get going. I occasionally drive the car hard and enjoy it when the time and circumstances are right, but I don't beat on it.

I do believe a lot of young folks these days don't know the finer points of driving a 3-pedal car, I hear the over-revving and slipping at stoplights, and I hear about short clutch life all the time from my friend Jack who owns Jacks Transmissions here in Colorado Springs. He changes a lot of clutches for the import crowd, and some of these kids burn through a clutch in 10,000 miles on a regular basis.

The clutch slave cylinder bleed fitting is on the front face of the transaxle, 7 or 8mm hex if I recall, but if you open it and lead a short hose into a container, it will damn near gravity bleed itself. You can pump the pedal to speed things up, just watch that you don't drain the brake fluid reservoir.
 
My car has 230k on it, and going through all of the receipts back to when it was under warranty, I've found no indication that the clutch was ever replaced.
 
I wouldn't worry about it. If the clutch dies of long life you will be able to tell that it is slipping and get it replace before your left high and dry. As the friction material doesn't generally just fail.

if you must test at a stop put the car in 5th and let out on the clutch Like you would normally drive off. If the rpm drop clutch is good. If the rpm rise clutch is starting to go. this should take maybe a second to determine. And don't sit there and repeat as this test can cause unnecessary wear if done over and over again.

Another test a low speed hill in 5th. if rpm raise with no acceleration clutch is on its way out.
 
My 95 was also still on its original clutch with 220+ miles on it. My old 98 2.5 SVT had 130+ miles on it and that was also on its original clutch when I sold it.
 
I had 88K on the stock unit when I sold mine and it still felt like new to me. I was able to still bark 2nd & 3rd gears w/o issue. Several local CSVT owners had 150K plus on their stock units from what I remember, too.

gmorrell...nice choice of a track car, BTW.
 
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