how long does the clutch last? and is a light gonna come on telling me I need to change it? thanks..

 

If you drive right, life long. Do not ride and let it wear excecively. On my all manual in the past, I've never changed the clutch.

 

If you are a good driver.. It should last 100k miles..

I never changed below 100k on any of the cars ive owned.

 

They way some of the guys on here drive, I wouldn't expect it to last too long (Dropping the clutch @ 2K+). Are you a hard driver? Do you "drop the clutch"? Do you race? If you do, all bets are off. I do not think the car will tell you when the clutch is dying. Since this is an 04, you should not even be asking for another 3 years (or around 70K at earliest).

 

Here's the last two manual cars I've owned:

1993 Talon Turbo AWD - Daily driver right out of college. Autocrossed for a couple seasons. Sold w/165k miles on it and the orginial clutch still ok.

1994 Integra GSR - Wife's car - Daily driver right out of college. Sold with 155k "girl-driven" (i.e. clutch-eating) miles on it and the original clutch was fine.

I have no reason to believe that I won't ever have to put a clutch in my TL.

 

dropping the clutch is bad on driveline, not on the clutch. riding the clutch is much worse.

 

Treat an Acura clutch right and it will last for the life of the car.
95 Acura Legend 6-speed coupe – no problems with clutch after 140K miles.
90 Acura Integra GS coupe – no problems with clutch after 115K miles.
75 Olds Firenza coupe - two clutches in 80K miles.

 

Barring racing (drag racing in particular), towing, or some other similar endeavor, a clutch should last, at the very least, over 100,000 miles.. assuming it is of proper design and installation. If you can't get at least 100,000 miles out of a clutch, you are doing something wrong and should give serious consideration to your operation technique.


To Diver;

Dropping the clutch (I am assuming the definition of this technique from my experience and exposure) is not only bad for the clutch transmission, it's bad for the entire drive train, including the engine. To clarify, my experience with dropping the clutch, AKA dropping the hammer, is the following technique: rev the engine up to, at the minimum, the RPM range where peak torque is produced; let your foot slide off of the clutch so that it engages through the spring action of the clutch pedal. VERY HARD ON EVERYTHING.

If your description is different, I'd like to hear it, please.


To jime;

I nearly agree with your post. Properly operated, a clutch should last the practical life of the car. What I mean by this is the time the average person keeps a car.. say 5 to 6 years and 100 to 150,000 miles.

There really is no reason why a good clutch in a car can't go over 200,000 miles, again barring the extradinary circumstances.

 

I think it depends on too many factors, such as city/highway driving, car/engine size, and of course, driver behavior. I had a Toyota Corolla as my college car, and that damn thing is still running w/ the original clutch after 178K. I bought a 1994 Mitsubushi 3000GT VR-4 in 1997, and drove 50k in 1.5 years. Raced people here and there, when you got 320HP AWD car, you can afford to keep up w/ the 911s, Vette, and Ferraris on the highway a little bit, then there're the punks in Civics w/ big mufflers that wanna race. So I put quite a bit of use on the clutch, and of course, w/ a leak in my clutch fluid line it didn't help(broke down on teh side of highway, couldn't shift to save my life). So the clutch on the VR-4 went around 70K, replaced it about 10k after the clutch fluid line problem, not sure if that problem caused the death of my clutch, but probably didn't help.

Most of the cars that people mentioned w/ long clutch life is usually less powered cars and less raced cars. Back around 1998, 320HP/315 Torque was still somewhat rare on the road, unlike now days every other sedan and coupe over $30k got at least 250HP under the hood. So I'd say it would give different clutch life than driving a Civic w/ 150HP and 120 Lb. I'd be interested in hearing people who's got cars w/ at least 280HP, moderately driven(once or twice a week gunning from a stop light, no big smoke out though), see what kind of clutch life have they experienced.

 

To PuffyY;

More powerful cars are no harder on clutches than are lesser powered cars. In fact, the opposite is more likely to be true, again barring any undue driving situations.

This is primarily due to two factors. Cars with more powerful engines (torque, in particular) require clutches made of sterner stuff (higher clamping pressures, larger disks, and better materials) bacause of the increased power they must handle. The other factor is with a low powered car, the driver is more likely to use more throttle when starting from a stop and more likely to slip (ride) the clutch longer because of the reduced torque.

My second car was a 1966 SS 396/360HP L34 Chevelle with 420 lb/ft of torque. For about two years, I street raced that car most every weekend. Five and a half years and 83,000 miles later, that car would still get rubber in all four gears.. and the rear tires were 10" Mickey Thompsons.

 

My 1994 Honda has 102,000 miles with the original clutch and it's still going strong.