Clutch Slipping?
 

What are the symptoms of clutch slippage? I have a 93 lx manual tranny, and sometimes when I come out of first, the car sputters. I thought it might have something to do with the clutch since this only occurs while coming out of first, but I don't really know. I've never had this problem before so its not my driving. Any thoughts on this?

Which one is it? 5th or first? :D :D :D

Try adjusting your clutch.

Jesse:

I've had my clutch slip thru all the gears, it just depends on the amount of pressure being applied at the clutch and flywheel.

What's a clutch slip? How can I tell when it's happening?

I have a 3rd Gen 2000 protege, but I didn´t want to start a new thread...

But I have a few questions:

How often should one adjust the clutch?
What is the expected lifetime of the clutch? (My car has 30K miles)
Can I tell by the feel of the clutch that it needs adjusting?

Thanks,
LOS

You will know there is clutch slip when you are driving down the road, in a high gear usually, but when you try to accelerate your RPM goes up, but the speed of you car (mph) does not increase.

The two parts of the clutch are slipping, and there is little or no trasfer of power from the engine to the wheels. This happened to me on a Corolla a few years ago... I was lucky to enough to be able to "slip" my car to the shop and have the clutch replaced.

What my car feels like is this; have you ever accidentaly started out of 2nd? When you try to start out of second the car kinda sputters. Then when it hits a higher rpm it smooths out, but its doing this out of 1st. I don't know that it is the clutch that I am having problems with, I just thought that could be a possibility.

You cannot adjust the clutch on the protege has it's a hydraulic system. If it was a wire driven you could adjust it. The most affective ways to know if your clutch his finish his to start in 3 gear. You should not be abble to start moving (the motor should stop). For the lifespend of the clutch it depend on the driver i have seen people do 500 000km and never change and other with just 70 000 that had to do it. It really how you drive that will tell how much time it's going to hold.

Will,

The "flywheel" is bolted to the engine, the "clutch disk" is bolted to the flywheel. I think what you mean is when the clutch is released the yolk engages the "throw out/release bearing" onto the "clutch disk" "fingers/splines". Then work is transferred thru the tranny to the axle, then the wheels. It's the amount of pressure that exists on those fingers/splines. :D

Zchild92

Mine first started to slip on a upgrade going 70 on the highway in 5th gear , when i tryed to pass a car :-( ...Jon

if you mean the screw where the pedal connect with the shaft of the clucht cylinder it's the dead end play adjustement. Be carefull when playing with that screw you need at less a quarter inch play in the pedal if not the bearing his always going to touch the pressure plate and it's going to cause premature wear to the bearing and pressure plate.

Correct terminology! Order...Engine, flywheel, clutch disc, pressure plate. The pressure plate bolts to flywheel, flywheel to engine, clutch disc smashed between the two. I was using the incorrect terms though the picture in my mind was correct, it seems you have the same problem. :D
Regards to adjusting:

That's exactly what it is..."adjusting" more than one, not "adjust" singular. I'd like to see someone that can adjust (singular) a clutch that was just installed. I had to adjust a few times even though the set screw was positioned completely out. Slipping occurred thru all gears once the RPM's got to high and the static friction was lost resulting in kinetic friction (slipping). True 5th requires more torque, but the lower gears generate more torque cause your using the complete power band. When was the last time anyone on this board can say they hit 6000 RPM's in 5th gear vs.. those that have hit 6k in the lower gears? :dunno:

Slave cylinder is working perfectly. Set screw adjustment may be in small increments, however when installing a new clutch you have to position the set screw all the way to the tip...that is if you follow instruction. Not to mention that one can easily adjust the engagement point out of the range motion of the pedal, so I don't see how this is small.

Good point about the torque, I understand your concept. Since peak is at 4500 RPM's aren't most protege people going to hit that before they get to 5th? I don't know about you, but I feel way more snap in my car in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd than I do in 5th. The rate of acceleration is greater in those gears as well, not to many people hit 5th gear in the 1/4 mile. Why? Cause they want to accelerate as fast as possible to hit a fast trap speed. What generates faster acceleration? Torque of course! Then once you get 1/2 way down the track then HP is the key to obtain the higher speeds.

~Given the fact that the 5th gear sprocket is probably twice the size of first, which would generate more torque since the moment arm would be greater. Given this I can see 5th generating more torque, though I haven't taken my gear box apart before so I probably won't know until I do. Contradicting that point...real life and my arse dyno tells me I'm getting more torque in lower gears.

Concerning grammar...It doesn't apply to me since I'm an Engineering major, it's all about numbers for me. What matters is that I get my point across. I'll be nice and pull out my old dusty Comp books and review the necessary grammar for those people that have a hard time grasping the concept at hand...yourself included. Dr. Psuedo. :squint:

Because of the torque multiplication of the tranny, you are applying less torque in lower gears than in taller gears. In low gears, rather than applying max torque, the car accelerates. In higher gears, due to reduced multiplication of the gears, more of the engine's torque goes to accelerating the car. Add to that, increased wind and friction drag creating a higher load...

Now, if you were pulling another Protege or two up a hill, you might hit peak torque in 2nd or 3rd.

Consider another way. At 25 mph, what percentage of the engine's power is required to accellerate in each gear?

Maybe you were tired when you wrote this. The pressure plate is bolted to the flywheel. That would also mean the clutch is bolted to the flywheel.