Exedy Stage 1 Clutch, Exedy Flywheel, F1 Counterweigh
 

I have 100000 mile on my 04 rx8, need to replace clutch. I saw some other owners had to replace it within 40k miles i guess depends on how you drive. Total cost about $1000 for Exedy Clutch, Flywheel, Counterweigh and Installation. I'll post the Feed back after 500milles brake in period. Thanks for Reading my Blog

Yep I had to change my clutch after about 45000 miles. I put in a ebay p o s and now 5000 miles later I have an Exedy Stage 1 in my garage waiting to go in.

Let us know how the Exedy does...

BTW The clutch that I am replacing after 5000 miles is the F1 Racing stage 2. I won't know for sure if the clutch is the whole problem until the Exedy goes in and the shop tells me what happened with the F1. Could be the dealer was pissed that I talked them down to about half price for the install and didnt pay for a OEM clutch. Originally they wanted $1150 for clutch and install, I paid $200 for F1 and $300 for install after bargaining. Not going to the dealer the second time around.

Far better gains to be had with the BHR, Racing Beat, ACT Pro-Lite, or other flywheels in the 9 lb. range.

I have 6500 miles on used Exedy stage 1 (ex Swoope) with a turbo - been good so far .

yea,

that was a gift to ray..

his new one went on. well you got the used one.. it was a little dirty! :)

beers :beer:

what is happening.

400 bucks is the going rate for a knowledgeable clutch change.. dealer or not.

beers :beer:

^you can do a clutch change yourself though really. not to hard and no special tools are required. I did mine 6k miles ago, took all day but it was well worth it by the time I was finished.

Got my Car back today, It drives like a factory car and I didn't notice any different, only the clutch engage faster when I release the clutch pedal, for $10000 this is an expensive month for me.
Well, next month i'll put it on dye no test to see how much horse power I get out of this.

If you are around Knoxville TN Area and need to get clutch work done I recommend Euro Asia Automotive on Kingston Pike, Omar the owner was very nice and gave the best price and took only 1 day to complete the job. (865) 249-6331

Thank you for checking out my blog

You wont get any - were you expecting extra hp ?

Lol wait what? Horsepower out of a clutch setup? Maybe I need to order a Hyper Single or Triple Disk from Exedy and get mad power.

He's talking about the flywheel swap, guys.

he wont see any difference on a dyno from a flywheel swap either . Correct ?

Do reductions in parasitic driveline losses result in more power available to the wheels?
If weight were removed from the dyno rollers without recalibration, what would be the resulting measurements/numbers?

yes


depends on how quickly you accelerate the wheels - normal dyno acceleration run would not show a much change i would think ...

I don't think anyone, but an extreme minority of people, would argue that a flywheel in the range of 10 lbs. or less provides noticeable increases in acceleration and those who have done the swap generally do not want to swap back. How noticeable the gains? :dunno:

But, I can tell you that I reduced my 1/4 mile e.t.'s by .3s with a swap to a 9.25 lb. flywheel several years ago. That would translate to a very vague and broadbased equivalent of 15 h.p. at the rear wheels with the average RX-8. I said equivalent.

As RPMs rise, the benefits of a light flywheel increase and become more evident to people. That is an aspect of mathematics which is realized.

Whether or not this translates to measured rwhp increases, I am not sure because I consider the point moot.

At the same time, MM used to argue with me on the efficacy of lightweight flywheels....... until he finally adorned his ride with a BHR unit. ;)

Not disagreing with you here - all I am saying is that they guy wants to take his LW flywheel to the dyno to see what gains he has made and we both know he wont see a gain on a dyno . In real terms - ie in acceleration ........he will .

Yeah, I didn't think we were disagreeing either, but I am wondering if he will see any rwhp gain from the flywheel. Maybe not with THAT particular unit but I do wonder if the gains are able to be measured, how light of a flywheel does it need to be before they become measureable?

My trans is only two months older than the F1 Clutch and was fine with the stock clutch so I am pretty sure I don't have trans problems.

I think I really didn't need a new clutch to begin with, it may have been that the peddle broke. I didn't find out about the peddle problems that occur at 40k miles until after all of this was done. My clutch engaged real good before my peddle all of a sudden dropped to the floor at an angle. I then had it towed to the dealer.

The problems I'm having since the F1 install are as follows...

1. a squeaking sound that sometimes goes away (might be the pilot bearing is what I've heard, maybe they didn't grease it)

2. Idle goes up and down while car is warming up with the clutch peddle in the up position, but car in neutral. If you press in the clutch it idles fine. (seems like the clutch is not aligned good so is rubbing on one part do motor is compensating while warming up) Maybe from not turning the flywheel?

3. If you try and shift while in high rpms 8200+, the peddle sticks to the ground until the inertia is gone (about 3 seconds) and then finally pops up and engages.

4. Chatters like an old buick with a bad transmission when you engage smoothly from a stop.

When the trans was rebuilt my dealer said I had about 500 miles left in my stock clutch, and wanted to do the clutch for $1150 with the tranny rebuild. They said it would be cheaper to do, since the tranny is already out. Then 2 months later when the "clutch" broke, they said it would be $1150. So where was the "cheaper with tranny already out"?

I was always worried about the loss or torque due to the loss of centrifugal force in the lighter rotating mass.

But I am not sure if that is a problem with Rotarys and their power improvement since they use RPMs, more so than engine mass, to help in creating power.

If I could get some of your opinions on that I would appreciate it.

Engines do not lose torque from light flywheels. To sum it up, I always say "Flywheels are for people, not engines." What happens is that flywheels deal with time, meaning that a heavier flywheel delays the onset of engine RPM reduction as the clutch is slowly engaged, due to the storage of inertia/kinetic energy. This provides a greater margin of error before engine stalling for the average driver, and this margin of error is considered when the OEMs determine proper flywheel weight (or, more accurately, polar moment of inertia).

As we reduce the flywheel weight, this margin of error is reduced and the driver must exercise a heightened awareness of the friction zone when engaging the clutch to prevent stalling. (The friction zone is the time from when the clutch starts to engage to the time it is fully engaged.)

After installing a lighter flywheel, place the car on a level driving surface and let the engine idle. As you slowly raise the clutch pedal to engage the clutch, do NOT give the engine more gas as the idle control/anti-stall circuit in the PCM will take over and prevent the engine from stalling. Once you have mastered the art of engaging the clutch without stalling the engine in this fashion, you can then start the process of refining your gas pedal finesse and begin to target about 1,500 RPMs as a take-off point. Try and leave from a dead-stop without going over 1,500 while engaging the clutch at the same time. Once you have mastered THIS, you will be driving your car as smoothly as you were before the flywheel swap.

BTW, I have used this technique to master driving my own light flywheel and light clutch combo and not only can I take off from a dead-stop as smooth as I did when it was all OEM stuff, I can also shift through the gears so smooth you don't feel the shifts (without excessive clucth slippage, either.;)).

Be patient, take your time, and you'll have lotsa fun with that light flywheel. :)

A PPF alignment problem would show they just threw it together.

Thanks for the help, I'm going to check out the neutral pos switch problem.

I don't know if it's a common think for lighter Flywheel to happen, while I was driving at 75mph sometimes 80mph the engine light kept blinking to shot it down I'd had to stepped on gas to increase the rpm. Then the light will go off after 10 to 30 second. Exedy Stage 1 clutch and Lightweight flywheel, F1 racing 4.1 lbs Counterweight. Is it parts or installation problem Anyone have any Idea?

Technically if you dyno a car with a stock flywheel, replace with a lightened flywheel, and redyno you will see an increase to the rear wheels. Same with lighter wheels. You didn't GAIN hp, but you wasted less in the drivetrain. Parasitic losses will go down as it takes less energy to spin the flywheel.

IIRC every lb of rotational mass removed is equivalent to removing like 3.3lbs of static mass as far as acceleration and braking are concerned. Less energy wasted and less energy to dissipate into heat while braking.
BC

A blinking engine light may be a misfire. Did you get your code read? Try resetting the e-shaft profile

If it is a front O2 sensor CEL, your harness may be pinched between the trans and engine.

If it is a rear O2 sensor CEL, the harness probably needs to be re-connected.

Your saying that your motor still makes the same power but you decreased the amount of drive-train loss.

You may have had 17% loss from the motor to the wheels and after a lightened flywheel you might have 15-16%.

Cool, never thought about it like that.

I may need to do a flywheel when I put in my Exedy clutch, so I will probably get that light weight BHR and counterweight. I can't wait to feel the difference!

You are right it's misfire but when speed up a little the light went a way, but it only does it around 80mph. What to do?

^^^ Search

I understand the benefits of a lighter flywheel to a point, but doesn't a heavier flywheel carry more energy. For the drag strip I understand there isn't a need to keep the energy spent. On a road course on the the other hand wouldn't a heavier flywheel allow me to store energy when letting the clutch out.

The lighter flywheel on the roadcourse would spin down much faster. A heavier flywheel would store kinetic energy and keep me from loosing as much rpm in shifting as well. Has anyone played with maybe a 20lb flywheel on a road course for improved top speed and running through the gears.

It's actually the opposite, the lighter flywheel wastes less power allowing you to run faster through the gears and makes the throttle fairly more responsive. You lose some momentum up top in the higher gears (5\6th) but nothing noticeable when compared to the gains in the lower gears (where the flywheel actually has to work).
It's the same as switching to lighter rims from a certain point of view.

I have bhr's spec flywheel and the rpm drop is neglectable when shifting fast, maybe you have to get used to it while daily driving but it's a matter of minutes :)

I am trying to remove the flywheel nut, but don't know how to stop flywheel from moving without buying the 140 dollar tool from the dealer. Any ideas?

Anyone know how to stop the flywheel from spinning in order to take off that huge nut?

ridlle me this batman...

is there a problem with the fly wheel being too light? what is the limit if there is one? I read somewhere that 8lb fly wheels were not good. could you explain?

Direct Quote vvv

"The 8 pound racing flywheels that our competitors offer are too light for a Mazda RX-8 .Too hard to drive without slipping the clutch too much"

Try air torque wrench, or walmart tire a/c adapter wrench. $30 maybe

invest in an air compressor and an impact gun. Once you own an air compressor you never stop using it. Youll eventually own a whole lot of tools to make your life easier. From ratchets, dremels, grinders, impact tools and so on.

Some people don't like them being so light because your motor loses inertial force which intertial force gives you more torque (so you lose torque with a lighter flywheel), although you will gain upper rpm HP.

Also, I think one problem is that because you lose the inertial force your rpms drop to rapidly when switching between gears, so you have to shift faster or rev match the rpms.

Those are the problems I have heard of and there may be more.

Is that a typo? thats interesting

I didn't make it clear enough and it sounded a little confusing so I straightened it up a bit.

okay that makes more sense :D:

I do have both impact gun and the compressor, but the socket is 1 inch and my impact gun is 1/2 inch. You have a 1 inch gun I can barrow?

walmart tire a/c adapter wrench? I have tools I just dont know how to stop it from spinning. Damn flywheel!

go to harbor freight, i bet its under 30 bucks. i get all of my tools there just because of the lifetime warranty. If it breaks ill just get a new one.

So, After two years and 30k miles of driving the stage 1 Exedy Clutch and Exedy Flywheel combo was holding up pretty well. The only thing that bothers me the most was after a burn out the clutch was sticky from heat it generated and I had hard time engaging from first to second. I had to wait for the clutch to cool down before I can drive the car normal again. I wonder if the stage 2 Exedy with the ceramic disk would be better?

nope,

sounds like you slipped the clutch and overheated it. you would do the same with the stage 2. maybe learn how to treat a car..

beers :beer: