distortion_69

iTrader: (20)

I'm posting this for a friend as he is banned, but I'm very concerned as he spent alot of money on this clutch setup and my brother installed it for him.

It is a Spec Stg 3I clutch, with a billet flywheel and the matching pressure plate. FMS Adjustable Master, and brand new 01-02 Slave and proper shimming was used that came with the clutch.

The setup was installed and drove for the first time about a month ago. Since then it has seen 3-4 track passes (only one on et streets), and 5-10 street races. It was broken in, despite being told it doesn't really need much of a breakin. After the breakin procedure it had a thousand or so street miles with the track pass and 5-10 street races included. After installing an ls6 intake and asp pulley yesterday my brother took the car out for a spin and the clutch would just slip like hell in 4th gear and just jump up to 5000+rpm quickly.. Its very disheartening to know how much cash he just spent just for the clutch to be doing this.

The pedal felt great for the first few weeks, then engagement became difficult. We figured air got in the system somehow, so my little brother bled it. It felt better and was good for a day or two but now this has happened.

Is the clutch shot? Should we pull the tranny.. what should we look for? I had thought about the possibility of the slave leaking fluid into the clutch assembly maybe causing it.

Has anybody had any luck with spec warrantying or helping out with a situation like this? If not, will they reline the clutch and pressure plate and what did they charge you? How long did it take?

Thanks,
Josh

Kurtomac

iTrader: (5)

gosh i hate reading all these problems people are having with spec 3's......i have an old 1.5 year old spec 3 Xpad clutch in my car the way it was broken in was as follows.....installed drove 30 min to the track dumped at 6K on et streets 1.5 years later in my 3550 lb car i dumped it at 6500 on ET drags this past saturday and its still biting like a bitch cuttin 1.6x 60fts, but when mine goes out im leary of buying another one due to all these stories....
as for you i dont know what to tell you, did you guys make SURE that the clutch was FULLY disengageing, you might have needed to adjust the master out even more yet and bleed bleed bleed, might just be glazed over, youll probably end up pulling it out the check everything out

distortion_69

iTrader: (20)

Engagement was good until recently.. we had to re-bleed.. then it started having poor engagement and slipping again in the same few day period.. we've been making sure there have been no grinds or scrapes at all in any gears though, so its had good engagement up until now.

Peace,
Josh

darbydarby

first time had a clutch slipping and it was the rear main putting oil on the clutch,
this time it was a brand new clutch and a plug on the back of the crank was leaking oil on the clutch......I was having similar problems....no full 4th and on full loads on the car...slip.slip.slip.

look for any traces of oil.

w02ramair

iTrader: (3)

My car didn't have the 3i but it did have the stage 3. I will get pictures posted soon as I get moved to my new apartment. That is the biggest piece of **** I have ever seen. I don't know wether to blame the dealership and their no driving salesmen or SPEC. It almost ruined the flywheel.(thats billet by the way) Hot spots all over the pressure plate. Had to take 43 thousands off the flywheel. The clutch it self looked like a set of City driving brake pads. Here is my opinion on the bleeding situation. Yes it is very important but no I don't think it has anything to do with clutches going out. If there is air in the line then when you press the peddle it just doesn't allow the slave to travel as far. What does this do? It causes the shifter to feel stuck just like if you were shifting without pressing the clutch in. I think the biggest problem is people riding the **** out of their clutch, not noing that while you may come out of the hole and save a couple tenths of a second or so it will cost you your clutch. Likewise on the street, when street racing and trying to ride it out so you don't spin. Bad Bad Bad. This is just my experience in trying to explain to my self why I just bought a car that had a clutch just put in 3 thousand miles ago and it went bad. I don't have much experience with this sorta thing but after 800 bucks, metal shavings in my eye, a visit to the ER, a banged up nose and severl curse words later this is my opinion of changing out a clutch. IT F'in SUCKS major DONKEY ball sacks.