Six months ago I bought a new clutch. I went against everything I knew, and for the first time in my life I bought a clutch that was not Exedy. This is my first Evo, and my first big mistake. I ordered the Comp Clutch Stage 3.5 which should have been more than enough to handle my power output, which is just under 300whp according to EvoScan/virtual dyno, considering I have basic bolt ons. I had it installed by an Evo specialist (normally I do these things myself, but SR20's are a lot easier to work on and didn't want this to be the first time I mess with a transfer case), and it underwent the proper break in process. Everything was great for the first 4-5 months. Then I started to actually hear the disc rubbing on the flywheel while slowly engaging. Maybe this is normal for Evo's, but I had never heard this before.

No big deal though. I can deal with a little noise. Well about a month ago it slipped, bad. Just a normal run through the gears and as soon as it went into 4th, it shot straight up. The pedal grabs pretty high, which is common on Evo's from my research, so I adjusted the pedal. About a week a later, running through the gears, it slips again going into third. WTF? This clutch is supposed to be good for ~500lbtq which I am no where near! At this point, I start to blame my driving (I don't slip clutches, but I gave my car the benefit of the doubt that maybe I was), until yesterday at least. Driving normally down the road, I started to ease into it. 3rd gear, I SLOWLY started giving it throttle at ~2500rpms, and about 3800rpm I laid into it. The RPMS shot through the roof. This is ridiculous, and proof that it was not my driving habits.

So I contacted the company I bought it through, MAPerformance, who are AWESOME to say the least, and they're working on resolving the issue with Comp Clutch but it's not looking hopeful. Comp wants me to send in the clutch for inspection, and if they find a defection from their end they'll either replace it or repay me. If not, they won't replace it, and will CHARGE ME for shipping. What kind of customer service is that? Not only that, but this is my daily. Not really an ideal situation for my car to be down two weeks at minimum.

This clutch has 8,000 miles on it. There shouldn't be an issue with it. After this is all resolved, I will continue in my ways of buying Exedy, and only Exedy.

 

McSlides.

When a clutch slips, it needs to be broken in again. If you don't allow it to re-seat, especially on a turbo where there's a huge surge of power out of nowhere... then you'll experience what you're experiencing.

I have strong opinions about the clutch choices that nearly ALL Evo owners make. I think probably 90% of Evo's are over-clutched, and since many are driven by people with relatively little driving experience, you end up with strange scenarios.

Now... I'm not saying that's the case here. But... once it slips, you'll need to re-bed. In fact, I think CC states this in their literature... I'm not certain however, as their site appears to be down currently.

Should it have slipped in the first place? Ideally not... but lets be honest, the Evo is an extremely difficult manual transmission to drive well as far as 3 pedal cars go, and we're not robots... so mistakes happen.

Anyway... try rebedding it, and go from there. Even if CC sends you a new clutch outright... you'd still need to break that clutch in... so you're no worse for wear.

Good luck.

 

I hope you figure this out. I'm about to install a Comp 3.5 & flywheel and have been having second thoughts about how big I went. I'm hoping for ~400 horse and a little less torque but wanted a clutch that could be launched time and time again at auto-x. About a month ago I came across a thread about a 3.5 that welded itself to the flywheel from too much slipping. Needless to say, I'm a little scared. Let us know the outcome.

 

You make a good point, sir. I've honestly never heard of having to reseat a clutch once it slips but now that you've mentioned it it does in fact make sense. It wouldn't hurt to try that out before tearing everything apart.

I will state that I am Exedy biased. I ran them on all of my s-chassis and never once had an issue with one. I know launching is hard on clutches, but no worse than clutch kicking. The oddest part is that I have only launched it 3 times in the last six months since the install. Regardless I will give this re-seat thing a try.

So is it the usual 500 mile, no down shift, no above 3000rpm, no flooring method?

 

what sort of power was your 240 making? different cars different beasts. Why not buy a stage 2 clutch in the first place? would have been more than enough on your car

 

Lol dude launching a 4wd car is way more stress on the clutch then clutch kicking a rear-wheel drive car, it may be possible u glazed the disc over if i remember right that clutch has kevlar in it which can be rebeded sometimes after glazing but if ur launching u may want to invest in a twin plate like most evo owners do, evos are extremely hard on clutches and they seem to wear much quicker then other awd cars my last clutch was carboetics single carbon got 30,000 out of a street driven evo no launching and about 350whp

 

Reason for choosing the clutch was that I had intentions of making a lot more power a lot sooner, however life happens and things got delayed. I didn't want to install a stage 2 and then need another clutch after more mods.

Also, like I said, it has been launched maybe 3 times in the last 6 months. If you consider that launching an Evo a lot, then I'm scared to know what other people do. This car is daily driven and treated pretty well compared to other Evo drivers I've seen. I don't have a need for a twin plate, which is why I didn't buy one.

 

I had over 15 launches at 400+tq (mustang dyno) plus numerous spirited driving moments last year with this same clutch and no problems at all. Easy for me to say that I love it, but every manufacturer is prone to a defect here and there. Also this clutch has been one of the very best reviewed clutches over the past year. I feel your pain though and hope the issue is an easy fix. Good luck sir!

 

McSlides. Let me just toss a few more ideas out there.

1. As was stated, clutch kicks are much less stress on a drivetrain than launching. A launch on an AWD, turbo car is basically taking 3500 pounds of mass at rest, and enough power to get it to top speed ASAP, and mashing them together. Clutch kicking, the mass is already in motion... so inertia, while still working against you... is significantly reduced (probably by close to 95% at these weights). So much less stress. Also... I assume you're aware, but just so there's no bad info... clutch kicking the Evo is a no no.

2. Launching. There is a TON of bad info on here about launching, and "how to" launch interspersed with some very good info. That, combined with the fact that... we aren't robots, makes the clutch the victim to our hamfisted attempts at silly 1/4 mile times. When I mentioned that 90% of Evo's are overclutched, I meant it. Why? Because while the clutch is there to transmit the energy of the motor, to the drivetrain, it is ALSO the point where failure should occur. So if you take a 300hp car, and dump that power into an AWD system perfected over the better part of 2 decades, and the tires don't lose traction... something needs to give. The energy HAS to go somewhere.

This is why people should take note of running wide, super grippy tires, and some crazy amount of clutch.

The purpose for running larger tires, is to provide greater lateral acceleration (largely). But the style these days... is to look a certain way.

Anyway... my point is basically... if you are launching... it's worth noting that the Evo is an INCREDIBLY difficult car to launch with consistency. The clutch or your tires will be the victim.

3. Lastly... the Exedy Twin is a terrible clutch for launching. But I've heard it's a fantastic clutch otherwise. I went well out of my way to try and find a stock clutch (don't tell me the stock clutch is an Exedy... it kind of is, but you can't actually buy it). I ended up with the CC stage 2. I'm certainly not a fanboy... hopefully this comes across as logic rather than fanboyism, as I have no reason to be.

Anyway... to maybe throw it all into perspective. On my stock clutch, at 305whp 305wtq I ran a 12.6 on snow tires. The best I ran on my star specs (stock size) was a 13.5. We'll see what happens this season if I get out to the 1/4 at all.

 

OH! Sorry... the break in should be basically not abusive. You can run at any RPM... it's a function of acceleration. Try to imagine the frictional surface. And of course... it needs to be 60-70% city type traffic.

Don't forget the Evo has the initial engagement, and then boost hits... so two accel curves.

 

Sorry for the waited response. I get what you're saying and of course I know that clutch kicking an Evo is not an option. The only reason I mention that is because it is a lot of abuse. Yes, I am aware that launching once is more stressful than clutch kicking once, but I do not launch that often, and have abused the the hell out of past clutches before and not had issues.

Now, I'm not afraid to admit that I still consider myself new to Evo's and want to learn as much as possible; now that you mention it, this did start about a month or two after upgrading wheels and tires. My stock wheel(s) got bent because of poorly paved roads here, and I managed to locate a a set of 17x10 Enkei RPF1's at an excellent price. I used my current tires, Continental Extreme Contacts 245/40. It makes sense that I don't make enough power to spin the tires, and so it started to destroy my clutch slowly over time. With that being said, should I revert back to stock wheels? I hadn't even put that into thought until you mentioned it. Thanks for the info.

 

ehhhh... There's a bit of a heated debate in the racing world about tire size and modern cars. I'll spare you the details, because I don't want to start a whole thing but the two basic camps are...

1. Ridiculously wide tires on a modern (read, modern suspension) car is nothing more than a style thing. Car people equated it to race cars running crazy wide tires back in the day, which was largely due to the antiquated suspension.

2. Ridiculously wide tires on a car, regardless, will provide more grip.

To answer your question... it probably wouldn't hurt? But it depends on the type of driving you do. Wider tires will have much greater benefits to LATERAL (turning) grip than with LONGITUDINAL (accelerating, braking) grip. But of course, you'll reach a point of diminishing returns where the added rotational mass and aerodynamic drag will make it worse. Of course... if we're speaking strictly longitudinal acceleration, which is where the clutch is going to see the most load... you're basically taking the two "negatives" and putting them together. (Typically why drag cars run small wheels, and puffy tires)

Let me also add though... The Evo's AWD system is INCREDIBLY capable. MUCH more than my driving, and I'm sure many on here as well can keep up with. There are definitely a few that can see the benefits of a wider tire, but for most... anything more than going up one size to a 245 (which you stated you have) is probably overkill.

To that end, if you're running a 245 on 10 inch wide wheels... you've probably got so much excess rotational mass that you're past that point of diminishing returns unless you add more tire. If you do that though, you'd want more clutch, more transmission, more diffs, and more power... otherwise... I'm not sure it makes sense? Although I'd be very surprised if they were THAT much heavier... ~17lbs per wheel says Enkei.

Anyway... I'm getting over the flu, so I feel like this all sounds rambly and I didn't ACTUALLY answer anything. Feel free to ask more questions, and if i can help... I will.



Drive fast. Take chances.

 

UPDATE: So I broke in the clutch again, or reseated it, however you want to put it, and I've come to the conclusion that it's done. I did 500 miles of no boost, no downshifting, and no going above 3500rpms. Last night I was rolling about 60miles an hour in 3rd gear, and got on it. As soon as it hit boost the RPM's just shot straight up. So the clutch is toast.

Now I'm debating whether or not to buy a whole new clutch set, or just replace the disc. If I buy a new clutch set, it won't be a Comp Clutch, and I would send the clutch back for them to inspect. I think there's about a 40% chance they would stand by their product and refund me, so I don't know if it's worth being charged for shipping if they decide not to do anything. At the same time, if I order just the disc, and it turns out my pressure plate is burnt, then I just wasted time and would have to order a new set anyways. Any ideas?

 

you never mentioned what if anything was done with the flywheel when you had a new clutch put in. did you just re use stock? resurface? brand new?

 

The OEM flywheel was re-cut, not resurfaced, which was fine. If there was an issue with the flywheel it would have caused a problem a lot sooner than 8 months later.