Here’s the story:

I was on my way home from work today and got stuck in a serious traffic jam. Stop and go traffic for about 30-45 minutes. It was about 90 degrees outside. After the traffic started moving again, I stopped at a red light. Light turns green, I shift 1st to 2nd…no problems. However, when shifting from 2nd to 3rd @ about 5K rpm, the clutch basically went to the floor of the car, but I was still able to change gears.

I was probably about 2 miles from home so I went ahead and finished the drive. The clutch was extremely soft and wouldn’t engage until it was practically down to the floor. When making a shift, the clutch seemed to disengage after just barley letting off the pedal. After I parked in the garage and turned the car off I noticed a horrible smell coming from the car. I’m fairly certain it was the clutch.

After letting the car cool for a while, I pushed the clutch down and the pressure in the pedal seemed normal. However, after I started the car, this horrible squeaking sound started coming from underneath the car while the clutch was engaged and the smell returned.

My car has 60K miles and is a 04 model. I realize there was a problem with the pressure plate on some earlier build dates, but my car does not fall into that vin range. I’ve been driving manuals for about 12 years, so I know proper shifting techniques. I actually put 150K miles on my miata with no clutch problems whatsoever.

Any ideas what this could be? Is the clutch gone? Any help would be much appreciated.

 

http://www.finishlineperformance.com...04-06-1641.pdf

 

Thanks for the link. I'm not certain that's the entire problem though. Any ideas on a means of diagnosis?

 

This a.m. I just wanted to check my car out before driving my girlfriend's car to work. There's a slight noise coming from what seems to be the clutch pedal as it is in the process of being depressed when the car is not running. You can actually feel something in the pedal as the noise occurs.

I started the car up and I still had the squeaking noise coming from what I originally thought to be under the car (maybe the clutch). The noise is more prevalent when the clutch is depressed. After releasing the clutch, the sound changes somewhat but it still does not sound normal...it's definately not the throwout bearing (so I think)

I also noticed quite a bit of smoke coming from underneath the hood while the car was running. I don't have very good lighting in my garage, so after opening the hood I really couldn't tell where the smoke was coming from, but it was a sizable amount and it had a horrible smell to it. I installed some UR pulleys over the weekend, but the belt tension looks seems ok...

Here are my questions: Do you guys think there's anyway that I could have 2 concurrent problems? One being my new pulleys and the other being the clutch?Is there anyway that the pulleys could affect the operation of the clutch? I can't think of any...

I love to here some ideas as to how to go about diagnosing the problem.

 

No one has any info they'd like to share with a fellow 8 owner??

 

Thanks for the advice abbid. I did a MS CAI install a few weeks back, but the car ran fine for ~400 miles and then the problem occured. I've checked all the hose connections and everything seems to be fine with the intake. I'll check the build date and post again later.

 

ok guys now the car won't start. I could smell gas under the hood, so I figured it was flooded. I've sinced replace the battery and all 4 plugs, but the car still won't start.

Does anyone know anything that might help? The engine turns over, but it simply refuses to crank.

 

update....the clutch is toast. It basically fell apart. I'm having an act street/strip clutch and prolite flywheel installed as soon as the parts arrive. I'll post my thoughts on the new setup when time allows.

 

Come to find out it was actually the throwout bearing causing the problem. It was in about 3 different pieces when the tech removed it. The clutch was in decent shape considering I put about 60K miles on it. I've still got all the old parts including the oem flywheel if anyone's interested (yeah right)...

I'm loving my new setup...act street/strip clutch with the act prolite flywheel. The car has a totally different feel to it now. It's like having a new car!

 

hey my car hass 41k miles and the clutch is shot to hell!!!! if it cant last but 40k miles....i would like to go your route.....where did you place your order...?