• Welcome to the Contour Enthusiasts Group, the best resource for the Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique.

    You can register to join the community.

Clutch Suggestions/Advice

R

rexxdoggy

Hard-core CEG'er
Joined
Jul 14, 2007
Messages
3,239
Location
Crestview, Florida
Okay. Here's the deal.

Clutch number one - Blew out from the hub from snatching a gear real hard. Take full responsibility.

Clutch number two - Tonight. I was literally just CRUISING the highway. Gave it not even a quarter inch of a gas pedal action, and, SNAP!, POW!, blew the clutch again. Same symptons, so I suspect that it went the same way. I won't know untill I can get it swapped out.

Now that we're caught up, I need some help. At this rate, I don't think I can stay OEM clutch anymore. So I got to thinking, upgrade to a stage 1, but who sells that anyways? I can't remember. Anyways, so I'm thinking stage 2. I know everyone says SVT stock clutch is perfectly fine with a 3L, but I'm kinda turned off from the OEM since this has happened twice now. Oh by the way, I forgot to tell you, I get to officially say I go through clutches like I change my oil. 5000 miles on this one this time.

So, I know there's a lot of talk about bad things with aftermarket clutches, Specs with the springs popping out, F1 being repainted stock stuff, and all sorts of other things. What are your opinions/suggestions/advice? I'm ALL EARS, so let me know what's up!


Thanks.
 
Wow, that is awful. Wein_Sean's car ate through 2 clutches in 2 years. One was a spec and the other was a LUK. What other options are there now? Clutchnet? Centerline? :confused: What is causing this...... ?
 
Mikey I think you just have bad luck. I had a stock clutch for 160k miles on my car and I beat the hell out of it. The car was stock but when we removed it to put my 3L in it still had life on it. I could have went another 20k or so miles on it. Anyway I am not sure what I got in mine now but was told it was a "stage one" and that it would out last my car...lol. I will try to find out what the name of it is and get back to you.
 
blu_fuz said:
Wow, that is awful. Wein_Sean's car ate through 2 clutches in 2 years. One was a spec and the other was a LUK. What other options are there now? Clutchnet? Centerline? :confused: What is causing this...... ?
Click to expand...

First one was totally my fault as I was dicking around, so I understand how it went out. This one, blew my mind. I'm researching to see what I can get that has the least amount of problems. I know SPEC has some problems that are kinda steering me away. I really don't understand what caused this one to blow out. Ever since the first one, I told myself, no snatching gears, no hard shifts even, no dumps. Ever since, I've babied it into gear. Even WOT pulls getting on the highway, I still feathered it in nicely, and I've always rolled into WOT. So I've never abused the clutch. This one didn't even get to last more than 6000 miles, which is what blows my mind in how I treated it.
The link that I posted above kinda caught my eye, but not the 6 puck part.

bgrogan01 said:
Mikey I think you just have bad luck. I had a stock clutch for 160k miles on my car and I beat the hell out of it. The car was stock but when we removed it to put my 3L in it still had life on it. I could have went another 20k or so miles on it. Anyway I am not sure what I got in mine now but was told it was a "stage one" and that it would out last my car...lol. I will try to find out what the name of it is and get back to you.
Click to expand...

I was starting to think so, too. After I fixed something, something else goes. I should've left my broken strut tower bolt broken lol Let me know what's up on your clutch. I'm trying to find a small upgrade, nothing too aggressive as it's still a DD, but I want something that I know I can have comfort that'll hold power. That's why I'm looking to find a stage one type deal. Stage two will be the highest I go.
 
Like I said earlier, my Clutchnet stg3 hasnt given me any problems. very easy on the foot, almost stock. but it grabs like a mofo :laugh:

if thats too much for you, go for a clutchnet stg2 / yellowlevel. it says from the website

Green Level:
10 to 15% performance improvement from stock

Yellow Level:
Street performance & Racing

Red Level:
Racing application

My thoughts are the green is slightly better than an oem replacement, yellow being a little more performance oriented and the red being their best performance clutch so if you dont want much, the yellow seems adequate
 
I did look at that last night, but I was pretty tired when I got home at like 3 lol I'll look into the stage 3 again. If it's easy on the foot, I'm down. I can totally get used to engagments and all that. I'm mainly worried about my pedal and how easy to depress and all because I've got a bad ankle. Of course, the more expensive the clutch, the longer it'll be down lol College full time = Mike a broke mofo haha But yeah, if the pedal feel is nice, I can get used to the faster grab, as long as it's not like, BAM. I've driven around a stage 4 Civic, the engagement wasn't bad at all. But geez, my leg cramped up the first few days because you had to like, stomp the crap out of the pedal to get it down.
 
Did like 1000 miles of baby driving. It sucked but I wanted to be sure since it had some kind of miles on it. Hopefully I can get a decision made shortly and order within a week or two. I'll look into that centerforce clutch tonight. I'm on the iPhone
 
Okay, here's a serious question. My dad only wants me to buy the clutch disk. Is that smart move? I was going to resurface the flywheel, but possibly a new one, or lower mileage one resurfaced, but what about the pressure plate?
 
I think you could buy a stg3 clutchnet and use it with your svt PP and it will be fine? Easy pedal effort and it grabs hard. Probably cheaper buying only the disk ?
 
if you have had two clutches fail the same way I would start looking at the install, and other things that could cause issues. yes you need to have the flywheel properly refinished or get a new one. the pp is a wear surface and should be replaced also, more so if you believe it was damaged by the clutch failure.
 
If the clutch failed the same way, I wouldn't see how the PP may have been damaged to be honest. The hub is kinda just spinning freely on it's own. In the last failure, I do no remember the PP being damaged at all. That's the thing is what my dad is seeing it as, since the PP has just in between 5000-6000 miles on it, he doesn't find it necessary to replace it, too. Along with the TOB, same mileage on it.
 
I've got a Spec stage 2 in my turbo car and I love it. I've got about 26-27K miles on it with no problems at all.
 
Well, the plan is so far, Clutchnet stage 2 organic clutch disc, re-useing pressure plate with less than 6000 miles, re-use TOB/slavecyl with just about the same amount of miles, and having another flywheel (stock SVT) shipped here to be resurfaced and lightened.


What do you guys think?
 
I know this is kinda off, but anyone recommend a clutch for under $400? thats kinda my limit on what i can spend right now
 
rexxdoggy said:
Okay, here's a serious question. My dad only wants me to buy the clutch disk. Is that smart move? I was going to resurface the flywheel, but possibly a new one, or lower mileage one resurfaced, but what about the pressure plate?
Click to expand...

Old thread, might have been restarted elsewhere.... No, not a smart move.

The pressure plate wears and AFAIK there is no adjusting the throw in a stock hyd clutch release system.
 
I'm not in this forum enough and didn't see this until now... and I know this is an old post... but one question rexxdoggy... did you have the flywheel resurfaced by a reputable place? This is a dual step flywheel and requires special resurfacing. If this wasn't completed properly you could burn through clutches just as your saying very easily. If I were you I would buy a NEW flywheel and a NEW OEM clutch set and install that. I willing to bet money that if you have just a mild 3L you'll be fine. If not feel free to step up to a stage1 SPEC or a Clutchnet (highly recommend). I burnt through my first SPEC stage1 clutch in 14k miles, but I believe the flywheel wasn't properly resurfaced. Second time around I put a new SVT flywheel on with another SPEC stage1 clutch and had no problems what so ever until I pulled the engine for my 3L turbo build, which was 26k miles later.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top