I just wanted to document my hard shifting endeavors with the community. Within the last month I noticed my s2000 became increasingly difficult to put into gear and wondered why this annoying feeling came about over night. I figured it was a fluke and kept on driving, but the issue never went away. My car had a stage 2 competition clutch kit (disk and pressure plate), rick's header, and act xact flywheel.

The Symptoms:
- Occationally hard to shift into gears while moving
- Hart to shift into gears during high acceleration
- Hard to shift into 1st or reverse while at a stop
- Less bite when shifting hard

The Solution:
After much investigation (thank you s2ki!) it turns out that the friction disk had created a high point thus not allowing the surface area of the friction disk to make contact with the respective rotating parts. Replaced the clutch kit with the oem pressure plate and oem friction disk and shifting went back to normal conditions.


Additionally the high points were also damaging the pressure plate diaphragm springs (shiny area)


Hope this helps!

 

Same thing happened to me with a stage 2 competition clutch. Yet another example of why OEM is the way to go.

 

Agreed, OEM may not bite as hard, but you can rely on the amount of hours of R&D and Engineering that went through to design it as compared to any aftermarket with respect to reliability. Not saying that the other aftermarket components are not reliable, they are designed for a much higher hp / trq. application and not really for stock.

Side question: Does anyone know how much hp / trq. the oem clutch can handle?

 

Stock pressure plate is probably good for 200ft lbs of tq. OEM disk and an HD pressure plate can probably take 300+ ft/lbs.

 

I can tell you that the OEM disk and ACT HD pressure plate definitely slips at 300 ft-lbs.

 

300ft lbs @ 6,200 rpm ~ 350hp and ~ 420 peak hp?

 

Just for giggles, what does this Stage 2 competition clutch kit advertise as its BHP and Torque guaranteed to handle? Doesn't look like it met the advertised capacity.

 

True story... I mean it worked just not sure how long it is suppose to last

A few folks run this setup successfully and a few folks also share the same story I have. Maybe the engineering is there, could be just a quality issue. The website advertises 250ft-lbs of torque.

200ft-lbs of torque, I guess my s2000 probably will never see that number lol

 

This exact situation happened to me. I payed a cheap mechanic to replace my clutch; I purchased all oem components. I replaced my clutch at ~85k miles and at ~100k miles I ran into the same problems you were facing. I took my car in to a reputable S2000 shop to have the clutch replaced (with all oem compenents again) and it turned out the friction disc was worn [unevenly]. The prior mechanic didn't resurface the flywheel. He told me it looked good and didn't need to be done. Expensive lesson learned.