06 Acura TL

so i had my clutch replaced at 30K under warranty, they also had to replace the tranny. now at 42K my clutch is slipping again. the dealer says they dont feel it. but i do. dont get me wrong i do drive hard but have driven standard since the first day i got behind the wheel. so its not that i dont know how to drive stick. if i shift hard into to second it slips but i guess the dealer doesnt understand the meaning of shifting hard. the car doesnt really chirp into second anymore. i did notice the clutch got a lot cheaper sine the first time i priced it out. its only 297 list adn the throw out is like 50 bucks. probably all under 300 for parts cost. and the labor im sure i can find someone to do it cheap. as far as for the clutch i have been searching for an aftermarket high performance but cant find one... any suggestion?

SouthernBoy

Wow, 30K out of the first clutch is really a short life. Barring anything extraordinary/abusive/ignorant, you should be getting at least 5 times that kind of mileage, and more like 7 or 8 times it. I do see where you say you drive hard, but with just 30K miles (again barring the above), you'd almost have to be trying to roast the thing.

06 Acura TL A-Spec

I also had to replace my clutch around 30K. I feel like my tranny is slippin, because 2nd gear grinds a lot and 3rd gear pops out, also my car wouldn't go into 1st gear or 2nd gear sometimes and I have to put it back to neutral and reshift again. I took my car to the deal and said they can't duplicate the problem. I belive its because the tranny is slippin and the clutch is wearin out faster.

06 Acura TL

well the first time my tranny was replaced due to it being bad. it made noise on downshifts. also my axles have been replaced 3 times. torqued down twice, my cross member had to be torqued as well, my front end bushings were gone, both my seat have been replaced, my horn, my left speaker, my brakes make a clicking noise. aparently i think my car is a lemon but acura doesnt seem to agree. but hey my 04 has 48k and has never gone in for anything. that was my only pulling point when i went in with a bad trans and clutch. but now its slipping again after 10K

iLL TL

Wow reading this makes me just think if it might happen again... and so soon... I too had my clutch replaced at about 20K... my TL is a 04 and when i took the car to the dealership to get it checked out the service guy comes out and says it's not covered under warranty because it's a wear and tear part like brakes... I was like how the hell could i have burned the clutch that fast... I had to come outta pocket 2000$ bucks to get my babee right again =(
Then the more I thought about it, the only other reason i could think for the clutch to go that fast was because when i went to buy the car, i didnt want to wait or nothing... I wanted to leave there with the car. So It had to be a 6MT... With my luck the only 6MT was a gorgeous WDP that i feel in love with as soon as i turned it on and saw all those blue lights glowing at me lol. Well It had 110 miles on it... This was end of December of 04... I have a feeling my car was a test drive car and those 110 miles were the hardest 110 miles it was ever driven =( because i remember when i test drove it, i did at least 120mph before the salesperson was shitting in his pants gaspping for air to try and ask me to slow down lol. I was 23 at the time relatively young and didnt know any better,,, i thought eh 110miles its brand new... Now... Now i will wait for how ever long i have to... I want to peel the plastic of the seats and hood... My 2009-10 model is going to be done very different trust me =)
If I have to go thru another clutch anytime soon and i mean 1-3 yrs, then it's def something wrong with the car and then i will be forced to trade it in.. and if i do before the new model comes out, Infinity G37 here i come =P

timmahh

was your car salvage or something?

SouthernBoy

Scary thoughts and for o6 Acura TL, I am really sorry to hear of your problems with your car. That is definitely not a good thing. My '04 manual, and my '05 automatic, have been gems. I have over 46,000 miles on my '04 and the clutch is as it should be with such low mileage.. tight and positive and sure. Absolutely no sign of any problems whatsoever.

DMZ

O6 Acura TL,

It's easy to wipe out a clutch real fast if it's not driven properly.
What exactly do you mean by 'hard shifting'?

trancemission

Im with DMZ.

I guess I dont understand either, Im more then willing to bet that its you not the clutch... You're only going to get so many second gear chirps before you need a new clutch IMO

HEK

30K for a new clutch?/...wow I may be on the low % of people that get over 100K or even better 220k on a clutch ( a 1987 Si ) and a 1981 Celica with 178K....now my TL has 32 K and I'm letting my wife use it, even with 2 people driving styles ( I downshift to slow down and she brakes) it still feels new.....

SouthernBoy

Here is a short list of the worse things you can do to a clutch to end its life early (in no particular order);

1. Improper downshifting.
2. Holding the car on a hill with the clutch.
3. Starting off in second gear.
4. Riding out the clutch a lot from a stand still.
5. Towing.
6. Racing.
7. Power shifting (I am assuming everyone knows what this is - if not, please ask).

For sure there are other reasons, but I would put the above right up there.

As for "hard shifting", from his context, I suspect he just means something akin to speed shifting (again, I am assuming everyone knows what this is).

Now as for the clutch in the TL, I would bet the engineers built a decent one in terms of sufficient clamping pressure, surface area, and material. So even a little bit of spirited driving should not destroy the clutch in anywhere near 30,000 miles. Hell, I get on mine from time to time (though I admit, I am pretty tame with it most always). When I do get on it, I do a variation of speed shifting and it will break traction in second and third gears. So the clutch is just fine in my '04.

SouthernBoy

Hey, good for you!! Over 200K miles on a clutch is what I have been preaching from years as the norm for clutch service life. I have even seen a few go over 300,000 miles with the stock clutch. Unless something goes haywire with my '04 that is outside of my control, I would wager my clutch will last the life of my ownership of this car. I have never gotten over 83,000 miles on a clutch for the simple reason that I have never owned a car with a manual transmission with more miles than that (a 1966 SS396/360HP Chevelle). I have never replaced a clutch due to driver error. I did have to have a clutch replaced under warranty in my first car at around 8,000 miles due to a broken transaxle seal leaking oil.

Anyway, congrats on the longer service life of your clutches.

dejavecu

geez all the poor guy asked was for a recommendation on a aftermarket clutch. I will make a small contribution in sugesting comptech and spec clutches, although, the latter has been called into suspect. However, a vendor was the one who questioned it. Not many users have commented on ownership of this clutch other than 6spMike.

MrHeeltoe

iTrader: (1)

I have a kit that I can get made, but I need 5 people.

Comes complete with clutch disc, pressure plate, aluminum flywheel, bearings, and hydraulic clutch hose.

$1500 shipped is the price. Will hold 480 ft-lbs of torque. Stock-like pedal.

06 Acura TL

well i dont hold the car with the clutch on a hill, i dont start in second, and believe me if you driven a 6 spd when the clutch is new u dont have to try to shift hard to chirp second, but if i get on on an shift at 5- 6 RPM u can feel it slip a lot. im not sayin im the best at driven, but i sure damn well know how to drive stick from goin to a bronco to about 4 integra 2 civic and a twin turbo Z that were all stick n never had a problem with any of thier clutches. i just think the TL's clutch cant handle muich. i bought the car new and i think its a lemon its had too many front end problems. i cant see a yr old car go through 3 sets of axles a tranny and clutch, mind you the axles nedded to be torqued down twice and so did the cross member

SouthernBoy

Gee.. reading this would almost make me think you didn't see my previous post (#7) above.

The one which you have paraphrased some items was for general information.. not a flame.

Tripnbeats

Welcome to the club bro....but I just had mine installed like 2 weeks ago and had 70k on it. it was about that time.

black label

Being some one who takes a lot of pride in the longevity of my clutches, I have to chime in here.

I drive an 03 CL-S 6mt (amoung other things) and have had more than enough seat time in the TL 6mt to have a very good feel for the car.

My CL has a much stiffer clutch than the TL has. It's heavier to push down and it's much snappier when it catches.

The TL on the other hand has a very soft clutch, it pushes down easy and doesn't have a lot of feel to it when it grabs. In my experience, it takes a little while for some one new to the vehicle to figure it out, once they do, they start shifting very smoothly.

If you are a hard driver, I think you have the potential to be killing a TL clutch without realizing it. You end up giving the car more gas than necessary when letting the clutch out (especially in 1st gear) which causes pre mature wear.

I guess my analysis would break down to this...
On a CL poor clutch work roasts tires because the clutch grabs so agressively.
On a TL poor clutch work roasts the clutch because you lack feel of engagement.

97 Prelude 154k and counting, 03 CL type S 6mt 63k and counting, both still on their first clutches. Redline is not a destination, it's a way of life.

Tripnbeats

I think mainly the reason the clutch blows on the tl is because the car is drive by wire and you cant feel the engine the way your supposed to. so it throws off ur sense of engagement.

KN_TL

iTrader: (3)

Isn't there also a 'feature' of the clutch that doesn't allow it to 'slam shut'?

I wonder if that has anything to do with some of these clutches going so quickly.

For the most part, I use the clutch conservatively but there are many times when I am shifting quickly, I get a response that is like the clutch is sliding in rather than just engaging. It's not all of the time though, so it could very well be my mistake.

I could be on my way to the 30K club

Alex911

I dont understand how these clutches die, a clutch is suppose to last 80 k atleast, i learned on a 03 CL-S 6MT and it had 96k on it, when i sold it at 118 the clutch was still fine. now i have a 04TL with 64 k and the clutch feels amazing.you guys guys must be starting off in first and reving it past 1k...which after half a year the clutch will start slipping.There is no reason u should rev it past 1k to get the car going, its also easy to get the TL going with just clutch. All these clutch replacements at low mileages are from bad drivers, design is not the issue here.

SouthernBoy

Raising the engine to 1000 RPM for startoff is not at all injurious to a clutch. In fact, 1200 RPM for a startoff is preferred under most circumstances. Believe me, doing this will in no way be detrimental to the clutch.

While it's possible that driver error could be the culprit in all of this, unless I rode with someone to see how they operated their transmission (or asked very pointed questions), I would not be in a position to take that assumption. Replacing a clutch in 30,000 miles with a driver who claims is not his doing, and where he seems to know pretty much what he's doing, is not only highly unusual, it is very suspect that some other factors could be at play here.

SouthernBoy

70,000 miles is pretty low mileage on a clutch. Were you experiencing any problems?

6spMike

I had mine replaced at 18k.
I drive it pretty much like a grandma, using all of Southernboy's suggestions.
It failed by being unable to disengage, instead of slipping too much.
The dealer at first want me to pay for it, but after I asked a bunch of questions, they replaced it under warranty. Thet didn't say exactly what the failure was, but the only thing that made sense was there was a problem with the self-adjusting pressure plate.
A previous poster mentioned the pedal effort.
I made a simple tool to test that and the pedal travel.
After the clutch was replaced, the pedal effort was 20lbs. Now it's 29 lbs.
The travel seems relatively close to the spec (see the Acura manual scan from the Competition Clutch Thread) except the clutch pedal height is 6 in instead of 7.5 in.
So I think something is going wrong with it again; it has 24k on it now.
It's due for an oil change so I'll bring this up.

SouthernBoy

Normally as the surfaces wear, pedal effort will increase due to the change in folcrum angle. However, with the TL's clutch, this is automatically compensated for so that the effort remains the same. If your effort has changed, and also the travel distance, I would certainly suspect some problem lurking there. Great that you have taken the proactive approach of measuring.

trancemission

I cant see it either.

A-TLvic882

Is it same "filling" with VSA ON or OFF?

Tripnbeats

kinda had a stutter prob it was getting on my nerves and the old clutch had about 20% on it he said about 10k and since evrything on the car was dropped to get work done to it i said do that too as well, Honda actually paid for labor. I bought part through the internet.

gauravp123

this is very dissapointing news...you drive hard? I mean you say you don't drive "that hard" though I'm sure you have fun from time to time like the rest of us MT owners....anyhow, good luck with it

I have an 06 with 34k and no problems with slipping etc...I drive the "fun" way sometimes but not really that much. Albeit, I did have 3rd gear notchy-ness/popping out and then I met my almost best friend "GM SYNCHROMESH FRICTION MODIFIED TRANNY FLUID" and since then, life has been above average.

Tripnbeats

dude u got the 6spd ur beatin it.... here n there. lol we alllll do especially if u have a CAI. u wanna hear it gurgle a lil bit =)