slimmyjimmy

Hey everyone,

I purchased an 06 TL MT without the A-Spec package and recently upgraded everything to the A-Spec body kit and rims. I checked out my friend's A-Spec TL and noticed that his clutch was much stiffer than mine and I actually liked it a lot better. I took my car into Acura and asked them if they could adjust my clutch to the A-Spec settings but they said that the clutch in all 06 MT TL's is the same and self-adjusting. Acura told me that when anyone gets the A-Spec package, the only things they do to the car is body kit, rims, steering wheel, and suspension. They said that they don't even touch the clutch but I know for a fact that the clutch in my friend's A-Spec TL is different than mine.

This is my first manual tranny car so maybe I don't know how clutches work but is Acura correct when they say that the clutch is self-adjusting? Is there really no way to tune my clutch to the tighter sportier A-Spec setting?

And lastly, I'm in Virginia so if it is possible and if anyone knows anyone in this area that could do something like that, please let me know

Thanks in advance!

alexg240

How many miles are on the car? I know that in most instances your clutch pedal will stiffen as it breaks in. If your friends car was fully broken in and yours was not then that is why his is stiffer.

Also the clutch in the Tl is self adjusting to the best of my knowledge.

pimpin-tl

TL and A-Spec TL have the same clutch. No difference. Possible a problem with his if its much stiffer.

slimmyjimmy

There are 8,000 miles on my car right now. My friend has an 06 TL too and I think has like 6,000 more miles than me right now.

Do you think my clutch will stiffen as I get to that range?

MichaelBenz

iTrader: (2)

only time will tell....relax and enjoy!

SouthernBoy

If by stiff you mean greater resistance to pedal depression, then the only thing that should make a clutch stiffer is a deteriorating hydraulic system. If, on the other hand, your friend's TL has an after-market clutch installed (specifically the pressure plate), then yes.. this would create greater resistance.

Anyway, unless there is something wrong with your clutch, I wouldn't worry about it. And yes, our TL clutches are self-adjusting. BTW, when we say that a clutch is self-adjusting, we are not really speaking of the clutch, but the clutch pedal and actuation components.

slimmyjimmy

Actually, my friend's TL clutch is just the standard clutch put on all TLs. He just got the A-Spec package already installed on his car whereas I put mine on separately. But like the others on this thread and my Acura Rep told have been saying, this shouldn't have affected the tuning of the clutch at all. It's kinda weird that his is different then especially since he doesn't have that many more miles than me either.

By the way, SouthernBoy, you sound like and are known as the Yoda of manual trannies on this forum haha

Silver Bullet

I have an 04 ASpec and my clutch has never felt stiff. I drove my friends 05 and his seems stiffer and is not an ASpec. I have 55k miles on mine and if anything it seems to have maintained with time/miles.

No, the ASpec did not have any clutch/tranny mods with the package. it's exactly as the dealer described.

and you also stated you purchased an ASpec car and then upgraded it with the body kit and wheels. It wasn't an ASpec TL without all of that.

SouthernBoy

There is no "tuning" of a clutch. The closest thing that could possibly be referred to as tuning a clutch would be the actual replacement of one or all of its major components (the flywheel, the pressure plate, the clutch (friction) disk). The amount of resistance one feels through the pedal in a very basic setup (such as those of many years ago - as, say, the mid-60's for example) is directly related to the clamping pressure of the pressure plate. With those cars, you did have to periodically adjust the rod which contacted the release fork. In modern cars, as in our TLs, this is not needed since our clutch actuation system is hydraulic.

Oh boy.. Yoda, eh? Does this mean I have to have a very limited amount of hair, a great deal of wrinkles, and short like a toilet?? (heh, heh - I couldn't resist this one).

jennarocks

You could be... i've never seen ya, so until you post a pic or something, i'll assume that is what you look like.

SouthernBoy

Wow, won't my wife and daughters be surprised. Yoda looks kinda like ET with funny hair.

slimmyjimmy

Legend2TL

Good and some amusing notes in here, but what has already been written is true. Clutch's are not tuned per say, but some interesting things can happen. Toward the end of our 86 Acura Integra with 240K+ miles the clutch engagement/disengagement became harder. The clutch pedal was well-lubed and working well, the cable was also OK and lubed. What was probably happening was the clutch throwout arm pivot inside the bell housing had worn to the point where the arm was binding making the clutch engagement disengagement difficult. A few things will affect clutches as they wear

1) As the clutch wears, some amounts of the clutch friction material will be deposited on the gearbox splineshaft (where the clutch is inserted into). This splineshaft allows the clutch to have movement in the shaft direction to move back and forth. When the clutch friction material dust clings to the small amount of grease on the splineshaft it causes the clutch to stick slightly causing some binding.

This will change the engagement/disengagement feel and accelerate clutch wear somewhat. On cars with multiple-disk clutches (common in racing or high performance) this can be a big problems. There is no easy solution here to keeping the splineshaft clean and lubricated since you have to drop the gearbox to get to it, so whenever you change the clutch you clean the splineshaft and lubricate it with some light grease.

2) The pivot arm also gets clutch friction material dust in it, again this causes the clutch action feel to change. Again most of the clutch throwout arm pivots are inside the bell hosuing of the transmission making it difficult to clean and lube them.

At 8K miles I doubt there is much clutch material in there to make it feel different compared to another TL's 6MT clutch. The biggest difference in feel will be the actuation systems (wheither it's mechanical or hydraulic) and the pressure plate.

3) One last thing is the self-adjusting systems for hydraulic clutches can sometimes behave erratically. My brother has a BMW M6 and every year or so, I have to completely drain all the the brake fluid and rebleed it from scratch (not a typical clutch fluid replacement since it needs to be done dry) in order to make the self-adjust mechanism work properly. Otherwsie the clutch pedal engages at half distance which makes it annoying to drive. I've played around with Toyota self-adjust clutches too and a similar thing happened there.

I've not had another problems yet with the Honda hydraulic clutch master/slave cylinder setup but if the clutch has engagement problems always rebleed from scratch. This has worked on my Honda motorcycle too with a self-adjusting mechanical clutch

SouthernBoy

Superb job of explaining. Excellent!

Legend2TL

I must proof-read before submitting

Some corrections

Glenn Davis

I think what you are noticing here is normal production variances between each vehicle. On top of that, break-in/useage/wear can also contribute to identical vehicles having different "feels."

The more familiar you are with your car, the easier it will be for you to notice a difference between it and another like it. When my brother and I both had EX V6 Coupes, we could tell the difference in feel between them. But our other brother thought they drove the same.

slimmyjimmy

hahahaha wow.....I think Luke Skywalker (Yoda's disciple) has entered the building

slimmyjimmy

Glenn Davis,

Thanks for the info! I'm sure I'll get adjusted to and even learn to like my clutch better over time too.

Legend2TL

Does this mean I have to levitate a TL out of foggy swamp in front of SouthernBoy?

SouthernBoy

You could do that. Just make sure its covered up and protected so we can use it.

slimmyjimmy