JAH Bless

WOW...40 posts (not including mine ) and still no word of clutch replacement or premature wear. That is good. i'm also glad to see some of the other discussions, however tangential, that have been written...

So i tried the "hill test", and i'm pretty sure that the acceleration of the car was pretty much on par with the increase in rpm's. i didn't get the impression that the rpm needle was "outrunnin" the speedo so to speak. But then again. It's hard to know if i'm doing the test right without knowing what is "supposed" to happen. i'm also not sure if the grade was steep enough for the test to be considered successful.

I want to try this WOT test, but i want to make sure i understand it correctly.
1. get the car to about 4-5k (in respective gear)
2. simultaneously hit the accelerator and brake (1-2 seconds)
3. watch to see if rpm's stay consistent or if they rise as speed decreases.

Is this correct?

and also, is it safe for me to assume that at this point the consensus is to stay OEM with the clutch in the event that it DOES need to be replaced in the future?

jayare627

84,000 on my 2004 original clutch still going strong! (knocks on wood)

VmtSquad

iTrader: (1)

90,000+ miles on mine !! Original clutch, no problem at all!

SouthernBoy

Yes, that is pretty much it. What you are trying to see is if the tach indicates engine RPMs speeding up when the car is not increasing road speed. This would definitely show that there is slippage going on.

As for premature clutch wear, there are only a few things that will cause this.
o Faulty equipment installed at the factory.
o Poor design.
o Faulty installation.
o Bad operator habits.
o Mechanical failure or change in mechanical operation.

By far and away, the most common of these is #4. Frankly, most people really do not know how to properly operate a manual transmission. They may think that they do, but they don't. This is not arrogance or such on my part; it is an observation and consensus over years of watching people and talking to people who drive manuals. For the most part, it is due to having been taught by someone who had bad habits and not having enough knowledge of how things work to correct those habits. Two things: learn how everything works, then just apply sound logic and it will all make sense.

The clutch in the TL is fine and should give a long service life, barring anything unusual.

JAH Bless

hope i can hang my hat on that...

So i tried the "WOT Test" and it went as planned. The RPMs stayed put and i was a happy man. Still not happy about what i experienced the other day. Maybe it was operator error and i'm too arrogant to realize it..lol. But in any event, i'm just glad the two "tests" later, my clutch appears to be operating the way it should. Thanks for all who gave input.

I don't care what the people in the MDX forum say about you....you guys are the SH!T....

HQTL6SPD

im a bit confused.. Is Acura going to have a recall on 6MT 3rd gears??

SouthernBoy

Good question. Right now as far as I know, it's just a TSB since there are a lot of people who do not have this problem (I am one of them). Also they may not consider this to be a safety issue - yet.

JAH Bless

Same Here....

6spMike

My 06 clutch was replaced under warranty at 18k; it wasn't slipping, though, it was the opposite, you couldn't get it in gear. I'm an experienced manual trans driver, the last car went 140k on the clutch and wasn't slipping by the above tests when I sold it.
If you search on 'clutch', or threads I've posted in, others have had premature failure as well.
For I and many others, the GM fluid completely fixed the third gear grinding problem, so the dealer probably won't do the third gear fix if you can't get third to miss.

sho_nuff1997

iTrader: (2)

I had mine replaced @ ~37K. The car was in for warranty tranny work and the tech said the clutch was pretty burned, so I decided to have it replaced to save $1K on labor down the road.

JAH Bless

Yeah, i did do that search, but wasnt able to find out exactly what i was lookin for. but yeah, as i stated before, even tho i haven't had the 3rd gear issue i still had them throw in the GM fluid at my last service. And since i "passed" the two clutch tests, i hope to get plenty of performance out of this clutch as i understand that the replacement costs are up there...although, if for ANY reason i have to have an warranty tranny work, i will have them inspect the clutch to determine if it needs to be replaced...

Dads05TL

This thread has tons of good info! (05 ASM 6MT/Navi, 47Kmls, 2nd owner) My clutch started slipping last week and the dealership couldn't get me in until next week...this weekend I called and got them to bump it up to this Wed. The clutch isn't engaging until the pedal is about 90% out. When I called, the Service Rep was very surprised at the problem and mileage. I'll see what they come up with Wed. I also know about the 3rd gear issue and it has popped out of gear once, and only about 10% of the time has a slight issue of going into 3rd...all of which will be looked at Wed.

mmade22

^^ That little miles and the clutch is shot. Sounds like someone needs to learn how to drive stick.

SouthernBoy

From what he has described, it sounds more like a problem with the hydraulic control system. Especially if this very late engagement seemed to just start happening.

Tripnbeats

yea ive had probs with the clutch master cylinder....its junk.

Dads05TL

Someone does know how to drive a clutch, have been for 20yrs, and have never had clutch issues with this few miles...even on American made vehicles. Thanks for your input though...it added alot to this thread.

JAH Bless

Agreed! you beat me to it..lol

SouthernBoy

Yeah, he might want to get this addressed as soon as possible. I would also advise him to drive in lower gears since less engine torque would be needed to move the car in lower gears. But the down side is the more "touchy" throttle feeling in lower gears so if he does this, he needs to really be careful and use his ears and watch the tach so as not to cause slipping to occur.

And when I say "drive" I mean as in driving to his dealer for the repairs.

Dads05TL

Thanks, that's been the plan, I take her in first thing in the morning. I've been riding my bike since Friday...and it's HOT, can't wait to get back behind the wheel.

eduble2

On my 2005 TL, I'm experiencing some slipping as well. I have about 85,000 miles, but all of them are highway. I'm trying to find out if it's going to be better for me to just replace the clutch with OEM parts or look for an performance one.

JAH Bless

Funny, that was the original question i asked when i started this thread...lol

have you tried the "clutch tests" suggested here to confirm if the clutch is indeed slipping? From the posts i've seen so far, it looks like those who have replaced the clutch (and it aint many) went OEM.

6spMike

Wouldn't a hydraulic problem result in the clutch engaging close to the floor? Dads05TL says it's 90% out, or close to the top of the travel.

A suggestion if they want to charge you for a clutch job, since it's a 'wearout item':
Have them measure the clutch friction plate thickness. I'll bet that it's still pretty thick and within service limits. Then it doesn't make sense why the pedal would be almost all the way out before it grabs.
Hopefully you haven't slipped it a lot as a result of the high pedal, which I'm guessing is accompanied by less clamping force. They may claim you overheated it, causing the problem.

I think there is an issue with these cars' self-adjusting pressure plate. Mine over-adjusted to the point where you couldn't get it in gear. It took a week of asking questions the dealer couldn't answer before they replaced it under warranty. It was lucky that I'm kind of a geek.

I think yours under-adjusted, so it doesn't take much pedal travel to disengage the clutch.

Why some work well and others do not I can't explain. I did find a article that stated large trucks recently started using self-adjusting pressure plates, but went away from them due to problems caused by excessive vibration.

I always tried to get the clutch out at low revs, under 1k if possible. This resulted in sometimes bogging the engine, which could have contributed to the clutch issue if the vibration thought has merit. I modified my technique so I'm no longer bogging; I'm not sure if that's helping or not, the clutch engagement point still seems to be creeping closer to the floor, just like before. I have 32k now, and the clutch was replaced at 18k.

It seems under-adjusted would be a different cause, though.

Sorry about the rambling post, just trying to provide my
Mike

6spMike

I'd look into one without the self-adjusting pressure plate feature.

SouthernBoy

Good points, Mike.

With hydraulically operated clutches, I suspect any one of a number of things can happen from engagement too low to too high to lack of complete disengagement. As for the self-adjusting pressure plate, I don't know much about these or how they operate so I'll try to remember to dig out my Service Manual to check it out, but you may be on to something here.

Incomplete engagement does result in lack of complete clamping pressure which can, if too low, lead to slippage.. that's certain, not to mention the other components which will suffer additional wear. You know, clutches are such simple mechanical devices, you have to wonder why a car company would want to make them more complex. They've been around a long time and for the most part, work just fine.