novec64

I recently purchased an 03 BBY Evo VIII with 110,000 from the original owner. It has a low mileage ACT clutch. I recently drove it from Pennsylvania to Florida. On the way back from Florida it started giving me a hard time going into and coming out of all gears. It would stick trying to get it out of gear and I had to rev it to get it into gear. Popped the hood and the boot had come off of the slave and was hanging on the rod.

I made it home, but a week later I drove it a few blocks and the pedal eventually dropped to the floor. The slave rod was still intact after this. I put it in first with the car off, fired it up, and drove home 3 blocks in first gear with no pedal. In those 3 blocks the slave rod fell out. It goes through all gears just fine when it's not running and the clutch doesn't slip at all.

I threw on a new slave and bled it with a Mityvac. The pedal now has some pressure, but it's far from where it was before and it won't go into any gear. I can force the new slave's rod back far enough by hand to get my fingers between the rod end and the clutch fork.

I'm not sure if this is relevant, but there was one time on the trip back where I rev matched, hit forth, and did a short pull while playing around with a newer 7 series BMW. I didn't notice anything immediately, but I spent long periods cruising in 5th so I may not have noticed if something happened then.

Any opinions would be much appreciated. I couldn't find anything about the slave rod actually falling out so I'll keep this updated for future reference.

novec64

Popped the access cover and fork boot, but I'm new to Evos so I'm not sure how valid my assessment is. Based on install/uninstall pics I've been finding I think everything looks normal.

Is it possible my TOB just isn't snapped in far enough? That would explain the lack of travel and the slave rod falling out, but would that alone leave enough space for the rod to fall out?

Edit: This is the scenario I was hoping for: Help with TO bearing popping out. I just wanted to see how likely it is that I will damage the pressure plate by pushing on the TOB. I would prefer not to drop the transmission obviously.

novec64

1. Push clutch fork toward driver's side
2. Slave rod no longer looks over extended.
3. If I then press/release the clutch pedal the rod over extends because the clutch fork doesn't return the whole way. Their is not enough pressure between the rod and fork therefore it chatters because they are loose.

Is it worth pushing harder on the fork to get the TOB to pop back in?
(If that's even what's wrong.)

Apparently this is common with products like this made: STM Clutch Fork Stop

Does everyone just drop the transmission each time or should I leverage the heck out of the clutch fork without worrying about damaging the pressure plate?

novec64

Nobody has any opinions? I'm planning to just replace the throw out bearing and retaining clip, but am I right in assuming that the TOB/clip alone can create enough room for the slave rod to fall out?

novec64

I'm going to order an Exedy Wave Lock Retaining Clip (CP01) to use with my ACT clutch since I found a few posts saying they are all the same. I'm also ordering an OEM TOB, DiaQueen LSD Gear Oil, and an OEM Clutch Release Fork (just to be safe) from STM. The transmission comes out tomorrow. If anyone has a theory on the PP itself going bad please speak up because I don't have a garage to do this in and would prefer to order this stuff before disassembling the car.

This looks easy enough to make so I may make one out of stinginess.

novec64

Well, this is what I found now that I got time to pull the transmission. Hopefully this thread will be of some use to someone else. Thanks for all of the input guys.

THUB

iTrader: (5)

That's the first time I've actually seen pictures of an ACT clutch failing like that, though I've heard of it before with their sprung discs. Having read the whole thread, I had no idea what to tell you about this one.

BoostIsMyDrug

iTrader: (35)

Wow, that is some clutch carnage! It didn't give you any kind of noise or anything? I'd have to agree with THUB, I'd have no idea what to tell you either. Maybe I missed it, but what type of clutch did you replace it with?

novec64

I haven't seen it anywhere before either (online or in person.) Two of the small springs were actually stuck in the pressure plate. I think that one spring had dreams of being a slinky! Nice to know that I'm wasn't talking to myself the whole time.


It was making a sound that was somewhat similar to a wheel bearing, but it never made any noises violent enough that I would have expected this. I'm still undecided, but I'm leaning towards getting an HD Exedy stage 1 from Magnus (organic disc.) I'm only around 300 whp and plan to stay pretty close to it.

chrisw

iTrader: (2)

that is serious carnage... never seen that before.

But at least you have the correct color choice for your eve.. BBY FTW!

novec64

Just to help me reassess what is relevant and what isn't I'm going to quote my first post and bold what I believe is still relevant.


I just wish I understood why/how it happened now. I can't believe it got that bad and didn't make much noise.

I now know that my slave travel issue was because 2 springs were caught between the friction surface of the pp and the pp fingers. (First picture I posted) How long were those there? The whole time? Just since the pedal dropped to the floor finally?

Did one 5 to 4 shift (that was rev-matched around 3.5-4k) do that much damage yet still let me drive 500 miles home?! I guess I did pop the clutch moderately hard when I did that, but wow.

I guess that could have sheared the clutch disc's pins because other than that I wasn't beating on it. If that is what did it then what the heck did I do wrong? I realize that's a lot of torque being thrown at an AWD drvetrain, but you would think a performance clutch that is rev-matched & downshifted at those approximate RPMs would be able to take 300whp.

I'm kind of doubting myself now. I'm not sure if this is my fault or just an ACT clutch disc failure.


Thank you btw, I love BBY Evos too.

autoxer_minh

iTrader: (6)

You should forward this info to ACT. From what I've read about them, they have a full QA department that actually takes failure info like this to help improve their product. They might have even seen this before and help you understand what happened. If there are any serial numbers on the parts they may be able to track it back to a production lot and see if there were other similar failures from that lot. Depending on how you approach them, maybe you can work a deal on a replacement?

It's a shame that you've had this much trouble with the Evo already but hopefully you'll get some great driving experiences with it soon.

novec64

That sounds like a great idea to me. I will definetely do that. Thanks for the tip. I had considered contacting them, but figured they would just blame it on me since it's a clutch.

mithrandir7533

iTrader: (1)

Do you have any proof that it's a low mileage clutch? How does the flywheel look? Any burn marks?

To make your life easier in the future, consider going to the push style clutch. I have an exedy twin push style and love it. Makes install and removal easier and no constant adjustment needed.

awdordie

iTrader: (1)

I've seen an act fail like this before on a friends 2g eagle talon. Same symptoms.we don't know how many miles were on his clutch but two of the springs had came loose and found their way in between the pressure plate as yours did. His bottom transmission bolts had become loose and the very bottom one kind of has a tab on the block that sticks out that the bolt goes through but it had broken so there was no bolt there at all and the trans would seperate from the block slightly when the clutch was engaged and is probably what caused his failure.