Clutch Trouble?
 

I recently did exhaust work on my vehicle, and it was resting on 4 jackstands. With the vehicle in neutral and running, I checked for leaks. I noticed however that my driver side wheel was turning. Odd. It was actually being driven at a slow speed, even though the car was in neutral. I could stop the wheel, and it would try to get going again and sometimes would eventually start to spin. This happened from the get-go when the car was cold, so expanding lines and complete disengagement shouldn't have been a problem. On the pavement, I do not notice any type of crawling whatsoever. Perhaps the extra shuddering/jerkiness of my clutch is not just the factory defect, but something is out of wack? I flipped through my shop manual and the only things I found I could do are to adjust clutch pedal freeplay, and to adjust clutch pedal height. Any thoughts or suggestions?

this makes no sense at all...If you have a manual, in neutral the clutch is not engaging at all....did you grab the wheel? is there actually any force behind it spinning??

I know I was like :confused: It was definitely turning, which rules out the wind, etc. Unless the motor has a certain very subtle rocking motion that would make the axle spin under zero load...I don't get it either? There was only slight force behind the wheel, easily stopped at slow speeds, but a little bit harder with it rotating faster.

possible slight warping to the flywheel surface ?? causing it to rub just a little on the clutch which would slightly turn the wheels...my best suggestion?? Someone been doing clutch drops to burnout??

Nope, done 2 burnouts the entire life of the car (25,800 miles) and I never just drop the clutch. I love my car too much to do that to it. Ever since day one there has been the notable clutch shudder that is TSB'd. I never wanted to deal with the dealer's BS so I never had it replaced. I plan to install an aftermarket clutch/flywheel anyway this summer.

I have had this same thing happen..when i had my fmic installed..the car was up on jackstands..and we started up the car. on the jack stands..the driver side tire started to spin..i asked mpi nick what's goin on..he said he was normal (confused)

Chas

Weird. Guess I won't worry too much about it until later then.

I don;t believe that this is a big issue, but I can tell you that it is NOT a clutch issue. When your car is in Neutral and you have the clutch pedal out, the clutch is actually in the engaged position (fully clamped) and the transmission is disengaged (out of gear). So that means that you have a direct link from the engine to the transmission. There may be something in the trans that is making it spin, but it would have nothing to do with the clutch. I do know that the trans is on the driver side of the engine, if that may have something to do with the driver side wheel spinning.

hey if you care so much about your baby, why waste money on clutch/flywheel?:cookoo:

How is "wasting" money on a clutch/flywheel bad for my car? I want the new stuff to take care of my factory chatter problem and also to boost the fun-to-drive factor. I don't see how this is going to hurt the car?

Do you have anything worthwhile to say? Maybe its just me, but it seems like every other post I see of yours is pointless.

There is a difference between abusing your car, and wanting to get the most performance out of your car. Dumping the clutch is a very bad thing to do.....broken axles, trannies, CV joints...... these components are not designed to take the shock loads that are associated with sidestepping the clutch.

yeah thas what i thought so i was confused when i read the thread and people were saying the clutch was disengaged in neutral

the clutch is engaged in neutral... just in neutral ure not in a gear, so ure not connected to the wheels.... i was thinking while reading the first post that it might have somethign to do with the tranny, but i dunt think its a clutch problem, this tells u that the clutch is working fine :p

but i remember have my car up on stands with the car on in neutral, and i never saw the wheel spinning, i did when i put it into first, but then thats whats supposed to happen, and then again, it might have been spinning in neutral i just didn't notice it, cuz it aint liek i was actually looking for that

Mine spun just a tiny bit for a few minutes then stopped. Somebody told me to bleed the clutch, but I don't think they really knew either.

Sounds like this has happened to a few people then, UCSBgeek and acidbbg1 at least, so I guess I won't worry too much about it. Thanks for all the input guys, much appreciated. :D

no. its not going to hurt the car, it will make it better. i'am getting my dealer install mine, there charging me $350 to install clutch/flywheel. and they are aftermarket. act clutch and fidanza flwheel.;peace;