First let me say that I've never launched or dropped the car. Yesterday, I was trying to merge in with traffic and had the rpms up around 4k to let the clutch SLIP when the last car passed. As soon as I fully released the clutch, I kinda floored it but barely moved, then shifted into second flooring the gas and it still didn't move as fast as it should have. After about 10 seconds, it stunk like rotten fish (I burnt the clutch). Would the clutch still be engaged even though I lifted my foot off completely? My MY 00 Civic Si was like this too - I never dropped the clutch on that car but sometimes I would let try to let the clutch slip when merging at a mid rpm (since the car doesn't have too much torque low).

 

While others have complained about the S2000 clutch (mostly MY '00 & '01) I've not had any real problems. At 17,000 miles my '02 feels great. I don't do as much engine braking as I used to because of all that I've read, however, there is another guy in town that has 80k+ miles on his 2001 and the clutch is good.

Maybe the S2000 is very sensitive to how the clutch is assembled and there is a small tolerance window that if something is out causes the clutch to wear prematurely. This is my best guess as to why some have problems and others don't. The only other reason would be driver related factors. I've driven with owners that engage the clutch smoothly and with owners who don't.

 

SiDriver-

Okay so let me get this straight- you're trying to make the clutch slip on purpose and you complain your clutch is fried?

If you're consistantly revving up your car w/ the clutch in, and then letting it out at a higher rpm, thats just about the same thing as launching it from a dead stop.

 

SiDriver,

Is it possible that slipping the clutch at 4k RPM for too long was what caused the burning smell? I've never tried it on my car, so I'm not sure if it could, but it seems plausible that slipping the clutch for too long at too high RPMs could do it.

Also, I think some S2000 owners have experienced a problem where the clutch won't disengage. If memory serves, though, those cases have been total failures (i.e. the car is undriveable), rather than intermittent occurrences.

 

mikecl713, something sounds fishy. If you are not totally abusing the clutch it has to be bad parts or bad instalation, 4,800 miles is just too early for major slippage.

Honda actually makes a very good clutch in my mind. I have 92,000 miles on this thing, and almost 10,000 of those were driven like this...

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by SiDriver
[B]First let me say that I've never launched or dropped the car.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by SiDriver
[B] Yesterday, I was trying to merge in with traffic and had the rpms up around 4k to let the clutch SLIP when the last car passed.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by SiDriver
[B]Yesterday, I was trying to merge in with traffic and had the rpms up around 4k to let the clutch SLIP when the last car passed.

 

Well, I needed a quick way to blend into fast moving traffic. I held it at 4k when I was about to cut in so it only lasted for only 2 seconds. I didn't want to just let off the clutch instantaneously (clutch drop) and break the tires loose so I thought quickly slipping off the clutch for a smooth transition would be OK. How do you guys quickly blend into traffic without having to raise the rpms a bit? Seriously educate me, since it seems that what I'm doing is bad practice.

 

SiDriver,

I clutch in, downshift, tap the gas pedal to raise my RPMs a bit (to match where they will be in the target gear), and then clutch out. The important part is to match your RPMs to where they should be in the desired gear.