I’ve got an 07’ Ap-2 with 83,000 miles. Clutch feels fine to me but shop people who drive it says it feels weird to them. Regardless, how do you know when it’s time to replace a clutch? Is it crazy to do it as preventative, as I don’t mind spending the money on something that might leave me stranded somewhere.

Thanks!

Eric

 

I think you need to press for more specifics. "weird" is not a sufficiently diagnostic description.

Put car in fourth, apply brake so car won't move, give a little gas and let out the clutch. If the car stalls, you probably still have life left in the clutch. If it doesn't stall, clutch is in need of replacement. If it is warped or the throw out bearing is damaged, it will be a completely different set of sounds and performance issues.

 

What's the stroke on the clutch pedal? Why do people say you need to change it? I would suggest gravity bleeding your clutch master cylinder to get brand new fluid in and flush out any air or moisture, and potentially adjust your clutch pedal if it needs it. Otherwise if it feels good, keep it. My clutch lasted around 70k before the throw out bearing fell apart, and the clutch still had plenty of life on it. Like brake pads, it depends how you drive as far as if it needs to be replaced

 

The stock Honda clutch is fantastic. Built to last. Most aftermarket clutches for this car totally suck in comparison.

Its entirely possible, likely even, that replacing clutch with whatever he shoo decides tobise will result in clutch falling apart in considerably less miles than the stock clutch still has left in it.

Further, the stock clutch will just slowly wear out. It'll still be mostly working when it fails the stall in 4th test described previously. Aftermarket clutch will invariably drop a spring, and clutch fails abruptly, leaving you stranded.

The worst part about the stranding is then you'll be forced to have whatever junk clutch is available, and installed by whoever close enough you can have it towed to.

On top of all that, if they think it shifts weird now, wait till they replace it and use the wrong grease or fail to grease everywhere you need to, and the clutch will really start acting up on you. This clutch is highly sensitive to not fully releasing, and shifts start getting crunchy, car won't want to go into next gear. Won't want to go into first at a stop, etc.

I'm assuming they want to just sell you a clutch, and that they'll do it as cheaply for them as possible. Which means not buying the urea grease from Honda, not using Honda parts, and not reading up on and diligently following the Honda service manual procedures.

There is all likelihood you'll spend close to $2k for the privilege of your clutch failing for real much sooner, and shifting much worse the whole time. I didn't even mention the damage to transmission that occurs when clutch doesn't disengage properly.

What will happen is car wills shift fine at first. But then when parts rust from lack of grease and/or wrong grease gums up, clutch will drag, shifting will suck, and shop will just say must be your driving, it worked fine when it left the shop. They'll follow that up with that explains why we had to replace it the first place, you must not know how to drive stick.

So....get someone that knows these cars to see if clutch is really the issue. That knows to first gravity bleed it and adjust clutch rod. And if it does really need a new clutch (doubtful), will know how to do it right.

Where are you located?

 

All my cars (except for a Tacoma truck in the past) were MT.... I've driven many Hondas, Toyota, Nissans. All their clutches felt the same to me, more or less... except the S2k.

S2k, to me, feels noticeably more sensitive and perhaps more tricky to drive smoothly than all the other MTs I've even driven or owned.

I really believe this is mainly due to its' very light flywheel. It's almost half the weight of all the other cars. Faster rev response, but also much less inertia and weight to make it feel smooth (numb) and easy for a daily.

 

Ok, yes the shop I took it to was not familiar with S2000s, and they may have thought it felt odd to them. Feels fine to me and I like the idea of just leaving it alone. I’m located in Knoxville Tennessee and I’m taking it to Billman in New York in the middle of September. Was going to have him install the clutch, but I would rather have him do the engine work as I could always find a good clutch person locally or somewhere else I can drive to. Might even consider going down to Florida to have that specialty shop work on it.

thanks for the advice!

Eric

 

$10 says its the clutch delay valve they are feeling.

 

You can't feel that unless you're ripping pretty hard.

 

My two cents here...

I recently replaced my clutch. It only had 53K on it. Before green lighting the work, I did some research on SK2I to get an idea of how long to expect the clutch to last because I don't drive my car hard and was expecting at least 75K out of the clutch I replaced 15 years ago. The results of that research? Wildly inconsistent. There were SK2I users with as little as 20K and as much as 125K on their S2000 clutch. Largely driving style was noted as a contributing factor.

I can't speak to the clues that you should look for that would indicate a new clutch is needed - I have replaced my clutch twice in 16 years of ownership (MY2001) and I am still at a loss as to what evidence is presented when driving the car to indicate the need. However, if your car has 83K on the odometer I would bet you need a new clutch or are at least very close.

 

it may not be your clutch itself, but perhaps your clutch pedal needs adjustment ?

I just recently adjusted my clutch petal freeplay and it made a whole lot difference.