Fidanza 6.5 twin disk review.
09-01-2010, 07:33 PM
#42
Wow... i gotta chime in too! My 7.6 started slipping after 5 months (<2k miles), its a weekend driver, and had less then 10 passes w/ 2.0 being the best 60'.
Its one thing for a product to not live up to what they say it will do, but its completely different to not honor a warranty and break a promise made over a hand shake.
In short, I purchased a clutch from Jeff Jenkins (Vice President) with the promise that if I had ANY ISSUES, he would take care of me (because I couldn't find any reviews from people with our cars). Needless to say I had issues from the beginning (IE long wait times, wrong torque specs for bolts - which i believe caused the issue) and after only 5 months of weekend driving and maybe 10 passes at the track, the clutch failed and slipped BAD. It took Fidanza over a month after recieving the clutch to even look at it, I got to the point where I emailed them weekly to get some kind of response. After they finally got a chance to look at it, "theres nothing wrong with it." But they were, "willing to let me buy another one for a discount." Telling them that, that was completely unacceptable... plus still being in the warranty period and being promised by Jeff, that they should either refund my money or send me a new clutch. They opted to send me my money back. Only its been almost another 2 months since they said they would send me a check... they are no longer replying to my emails, and i still dont have a check (its been down for 3 months!).
Have you guys heard anything back yet??
This was from slipping ONE pass. Thank God I trailered her to Cali. I got into my pass... she slipped (felt like i missed a gear), made sure it was in gear... she slipped again. Thinking i messed up the tranny, i put it into the next gear... slipped again. Coasted the rest of the way and she drove fine if i was on her lightly... got her on the trailer. Fluid was clean, Pedal felt fine... no air in the line. Called it a weekend.
She has been sitting like this since the end of MAY trying to get this resolved.
Its one thing for a product to not live up to what they say it will do, but its completely different to not honor a warranty and break a promise made over a hand shake.
In short, I purchased a clutch from Jeff Jenkins (Vice President) with the promise that if I had ANY ISSUES, he would take care of me (because I couldn't find any reviews from people with our cars). Needless to say I had issues from the beginning (IE long wait times, wrong torque specs for bolts - which i believe caused the issue) and after only 5 months of weekend driving and maybe 10 passes at the track, the clutch failed and slipped BAD. It took Fidanza over a month after recieving the clutch to even look at it, I got to the point where I emailed them weekly to get some kind of response. After they finally got a chance to look at it, "theres nothing wrong with it." But they were, "willing to let me buy another one for a discount." Telling them that, that was completely unacceptable... plus still being in the warranty period and being promised by Jeff, that they should either refund my money or send me a new clutch. They opted to send me my money back. Only its been almost another 2 months since they said they would send me a check... they are no longer replying to my emails, and i still dont have a check (its been down for 3 months!).
Have you guys heard anything back yet??
This was from slipping ONE pass. Thank God I trailered her to Cali. I got into my pass... she slipped (felt like i missed a gear), made sure it was in gear... she slipped again. Thinking i messed up the tranny, i put it into the next gear... slipped again. Coasted the rest of the way and she drove fine if i was on her lightly... got her on the trailer. Fluid was clean, Pedal felt fine... no air in the line. Called it a weekend.
She has been sitting like this since the end of MAY trying to get this resolved.
Last edited by xxrillixx; 09-01-2010 at 07:51 PM.
09-01-2010, 07:52 PM
#44
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wow, that makes about a total of 4 people now from this forum alone that have had fidanza kits take a **** in a short period of time.
I know for sure now its not because of my driving or my install.
I got a patial refund, but it wasnt easy. Adam at modern took good care of me.
I have a LS7 kit with a ram flywheel . Love it
I know for sure now its not because of my driving or my install.
I got a patial refund, but it wasnt easy. Adam at modern took good care of me.
I have a LS7 kit with a ram flywheel . Love it
09-01-2010, 08:19 PM
#46
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Still not a single problem out of my Exedy and within the last 3 days I think I have left well over 150 yards of my back tires on the ground going through 3 gears. Third makes a lot of tire smoke!!!!!
Granted, thats not taking it down a sticky track but I haven't been nice to my clutch by any means lol Lots of second and third gear chirps clutch dumps and all kinds of tom foolery.
Granted, thats not taking it down a sticky track but I haven't been nice to my clutch by any means lol Lots of second and third gear chirps clutch dumps and all kinds of tom foolery.
09-01-2010, 11:40 PM
#49
Had i driven it everyday, would have been about a month.
09-02-2010, 10:56 AM
#50
Don't jinx me you guys. Mine's been running great for 4 road course track events this year with hundreds of redline shifts and hundreds of downshifts at full speed threshold braking. Still hooks up good and engages quick.
09-02-2010, 11:42 AM
#51
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I wonder if you could take the clutch down and get new linings put on. There is a place here in Tulsa called Tulsa brake and cluth and they reline brakes and clutches all the time. In fact my dad had a clutch resprung and had Kevlar linings installed on a clutch that went into his 73' 340 Challenger. I don't see why they couldn't clean up the friction surfaces and reline the discs with something a little more robust.
09-02-2010, 01:02 PM
#52
I wonder if you could take the clutch down and get new linings put on. There is a place here in Tulsa called Tulsa brake and cluth and they reline brakes and clutches all the time. In fact my dad had a clutch resprung and had Kevlar linings installed on a clutch that went into his 73' 340 Challenger. I don't see why they couldn't clean up the friction surfaces and reline the discs with something a little more robust.
09-03-2010, 04:41 AM
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You shouldn't have to pull the trans every 3 months for a clutch rebuild.
When you pay 1,200$ for a clutch that is supposed to hold 600whp and cant hold 400 . Would you realy waste your time with a rebuild ?
09-03-2010, 06:57 AM
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You guys are missing the point. If Fidanza won't give you all your money back, why even deal with them? If I didn't get a full refund then I would take it down and get it relined with a MORE ROBUST material. As in make it better. You guys said it yourself that the clutch performed flawless when it was working. I looks like the friction material they use just can't handle the abuse. I know you shouldn't have to, but you have a good pressure plate, you have an aluminum flywheel, and it's twin disk to boot. Just get some better material on there and you might actually really like they thing.
Obviously, if you get all your money back then of course I would buy something different. But in he event they don't want to cooperate, getting it built with better parts is still going to be cheaper than buying a whole new clutch in 2 or 3 months.
Obviously, if you get all your money back then of course I would buy something different. But in he event they don't want to cooperate, getting it built with better parts is still going to be cheaper than buying a whole new clutch in 2 or 3 months.
09-03-2010, 09:13 AM
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You guys are missing the point. If Fidanza won't give you all your money back, why even deal with them? If I didn't get a full refund then I would take it down and get it relined with a MORE ROBUST material. As in make it better. You guys said it yourself that the clutch performed flawless when it was working. I looks like the friction material they use just can't handle the abuse. I know you shouldn't have to, but you have a good pressure plate, you have an aluminum flywheel, and it's twin disk to boot. Just get some better material on there and you might actually really like they thing.
Obviously, if you get all your money back then of course I would buy something different. But in he event they don't want to cooperate, getting it built with better parts is still going to be cheaper than buying a whole new clutch in 2 or 3 months.
Obviously, if you get all your money back then of course I would buy something different. But in he event they don't want to cooperate, getting it built with better parts is still going to be cheaper than buying a whole new clutch in 2 or 3 months.
Bottom line is fidanza twin is junk. Needs a totaly new design , and needs to be tested before they put it out on the market.
09-03-2010, 11:49 AM
#58
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I hear what your saying , but after spending 1200 on a clutch it should last a lot longer then 3 months at a power level well under the rating. Why should I have to spend more money to rebuild their junk product. When I could just buy a new setup and not have any worries or headaches
Bottom line is fidanza twin is junk. Needs a totaly new design , and needs to be tested before they put it out on the market.
Bottom line is fidanza twin is junk. Needs a totaly new design , and needs to be tested before they put it out on the market.
01-08-2011, 01:15 PM
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Well here's another failure story...
My Fidanza 6.5 Twin Disk lasted about 5000 miles before it started slipping too in my 1998 Z28 with a 504rwhp/477rwtq LS3 in it. (clutch is advertised to handle 600 flywheel torque) As everyone said above, i loved it while it lasted.
I contacted Fidanza and bought a 7.6 rebuild kit from them (the difference is the 7.6 disks are more aggressive than in a 6.5 kit - direct swap). It took 9 weeks for them to reluctantly send it to me after i paid for it. Once i received it i was surprised how few parts were in the kit - which I later realized is because they didn't include some of the rear friction surfaces (closest to the pressure plate). I contacted Fidanza again and they asked me to send everything in to them - the whole clutch assembly with flywheel - they said they will look at it and send me a new 7.6 twin disk kit with flywheel. That was 16 weeks ago... I still have nothing and they aren't returning my calls or emails.
Like you guys I've spoken with Jeffrey Jenkins (now the president). He's promised to return calls and hasn't. He's told me they'll come up with a solution and hasn't. Same story as what you guys are seeing. I gave Jeffrey an ultimatum last week that they needed to supply the parts within a week or I was going take legal action. No response. So... I'm going to take legal action this week.
For anyone out there thinking about buying a Fidanza clutch, don't! These guys don't stand behind their product.
My Fidanza 6.5 Twin Disk lasted about 5000 miles before it started slipping too in my 1998 Z28 with a 504rwhp/477rwtq LS3 in it. (clutch is advertised to handle 600 flywheel torque) As everyone said above, i loved it while it lasted.
I contacted Fidanza and bought a 7.6 rebuild kit from them (the difference is the 7.6 disks are more aggressive than in a 6.5 kit - direct swap). It took 9 weeks for them to reluctantly send it to me after i paid for it. Once i received it i was surprised how few parts were in the kit - which I later realized is because they didn't include some of the rear friction surfaces (closest to the pressure plate). I contacted Fidanza again and they asked me to send everything in to them - the whole clutch assembly with flywheel - they said they will look at it and send me a new 7.6 twin disk kit with flywheel. That was 16 weeks ago... I still have nothing and they aren't returning my calls or emails.
Like you guys I've spoken with Jeffrey Jenkins (now the president). He's promised to return calls and hasn't. He's told me they'll come up with a solution and hasn't. Same story as what you guys are seeing. I gave Jeffrey an ultimatum last week that they needed to supply the parts within a week or I was going take legal action. No response. So... I'm going to take legal action this week.
For anyone out there thinking about buying a Fidanza clutch, don't! These guys don't stand behind their product.