Hey guys, I had originally posted this in gears and axles because I thought it may have been a blown rear but I was told to check in this forum as well so i'll copy and paste my original message.

A day or so ago I started having some odd problems with my t/a. In sixth, if I gave the car more than 20% or so throttle it would stop acceleration and the rpms would shoot up as if I had thrown the car in neutral and started revving while in motion. The problem has progressed to now affecting 5th gear, 4th gear and 3rd to some extent. It seems to be worse in the higher gears than in the lower. I'm worried that the car will be undrivable soon enough if it starts happening in 1st and 2nd, as I'll barely be able to accelerate without the car trying to rev.

Is it possible that my rear has finally blown? I never felt any sudden jarring or heard any noises that would have indicated a mechanical failure. I have 4.10s in my m6 so is it possible that the gears have blown to **** finally and they aren't catching anymore if spun too fast? Is it a tranny problem instead?

Thanks in advance for the help.

 

Sounds like a clutch. The easy way to check is to pull the diff cover and check the gears. If they look OK it is in the trans, most likely the clutch.

 

Well my question is that if it's the clutch, then why can it still hold like a champ when I try shifting hard on the 1-2, 2-3, and 3-4 and then doesn't start to slip the rpms until the very top of 4th, middle of 5th, and lower end of sixth. I would think that the clutch would have more trouble holding all the torque in the lower gears and be fine in the upper gears. Also this clutch is less than a year old and has never been raced or dumped except for once or twice for break-in (and that wasn't above 2500 or so rpms).

Argh. TIA guys.

 

I had a car do this once too. It did turn out to be the clutch and the way I figured was that it slipped in the higher gears at part throttle because the lower gears give you more mechanical advantage so the clutch doesn't need as much clamping force. When you're in higher gears though the engine has to work a lot harder against the rest of the drivetrain in order for the car to accelerate. That's my reasoning, it might be complete BS but that's the way it works in my head. I can almost guarantee that if you replace the clutch then the problem will be gone.

 

sounds like you need another clutch...rollinna65's explination is right on!

 

My Z06 clutch did the same thing to me when it went. I had to drive it like that for 30 miles to the repair shop; where it wouldn't let me rev past 2K in any gear. NOT fun!

 

Another vote here for the clutch.

 

Argh, I just paid 1300 less than a year ago to put a spec 3 in because I was stranded down at school and couldn't do it myself. Judging by what I said is happening, is there any way to know how much longer the clutch will last? I have to drive back to school on sunday and then back home again two weeks later for winter break. The trip will be about 120 miles each way and i'm not sure I even have time to get this thing fixed. Is there any way to just get away with replacing the clutch disk or do I need to drop yet another 400+ on an entire new assembly and then install?

Just last winter this thing blew out at the exact same time almost and I came home 3 days late and almost missed christmas with my family, my god damn car must be cursed.

 

On a related note, what the hell would cause a clutch like this to blow out so fast? The car has never been raced, saw minimal hard driving in the summer months but was babied for the most part, and runs mid 12s at best. I'm basically stuck right now because I'm a student without the money to be dumping into yet another clutch when I had planned on getting at least a good few years out of it.

 

My Spec just did the same to me a couple of weeks ago. Upon inspection of the flywheel it looks like some oil had seeped past 3 of the flywheel bolts and made its way to thr friction materiel. I couldnt find any evidence of oil actually on the clutch but there was a trail of clutch dust stuck to the flywheel. When it went back together I made sure to use ALOT of loctite on the flywheel bolts.

There is also a seal on the back of the crankshaft that looks like a freeze plug. Its just in front of the pilot bearing. Check there for leaks as well or you may end up doig this again.

You will definatley need to resurface your flywheel if not replace it all together from the damadge cause to it by the clutch slipping so much.

No tellin how long it will last. Get a new clutch in there soon!

Brad

 

I'm assuming i'd need to replace the flywheel this time since it has already been resurfaced once. I really don't know what to do right now, I just e-mailed spec somewhat angrily about the situation since I was told by their salesperson that it would last several years easily for my application.

If it was install error I doubt there's any way I could go after the shop that did it since it's been almost an entire year and I have no proof that I didn't monkey around with it in the mean time.

If this thing blows I have no idea what the hell i'm going to do as I'm a college student and have absolutely no cash to fix this for yet a second time already. That was the entire point of dropping all this cash into the clutch and hydraulics in the first place .

 

Spec will probably not do anything as they have a short warranty period. 4 months I believe. There is probably something else that caused it to fail. Just double check to make sure there is nothing leaking before a new clutch goes in.

You will need to buy a new Flywheel. You can surface the GM fly wheel a little(gm does not reccomend) so if its already been cut once you should definatley look to getting a new one.

Brad

 

my spec 3 took a dump a month and a half ago, i'm just now getting it back together after dealing with them for warranty work, which still cost me 200bucks... If this happens another time i'll never deal with spec again. it was only 900miles old.

 

Sound like you have a spec clutch, its the clutch, you would know right away if it was the rear end!

 

What'd you say you did for break-in. A few clutch dumps and a little racing ? not exactly how your supposed to break it in.

 

My SPEC Stage 3 carbon carbon did the same thing after 1000 miles. Just get ur self a good clutch. Stay away from SPEC stage 3. I heard people are happy with stage 4 spec. Or just get the Mcloed if you are not planning more than 500rwhp. My mcloed started slipping with sticky tires and hard launches now.

 

It is the clutch slipping.Here is a few idea's of what might of caused it.
Oil leaking onto flywheel
Improper breakin (yes it does wreck the clutch and gives it a short life)
Improper driving-- Means slipping the clutch alot from stop light's ect.Any performance clutch is not made to slip hard,wears them down very fast.
I've had SPEC warrenty a clutch before and they were great.

So far SPEC has been the only clutches that has lasted for me. I've melted RAMS in under 1000miles,Blew up a Mcleod in 600 miles(they suck for customer service) and the stockers just don't last.

Hope it works out for you.

 

I have never raced on this clutch and it was never driven hard until 6 months after purchase since it was installed at the beginning of winter.

For break-in I was told to do several heat cycles over the course of a couple weeks, then throw 2 or 3 dumps at it. I followed all of this and continued to drive the car lightly until June came around.

 

Spec will rebuild your clutch for the extreme most will be 200.00. I'm taking mine out in the next two weeks and shipping it to them, to get rebuilt.
Mike

 

Thanks for the heads up. Spec just contacted me the other day to let me know that they could possibly work something out with me if it didn't involve warranty work, so i'm assuming the rebuild you're talking about is what they're referring to.