7500 miles and clutch problem already?!?!?

[liquidiq]

On my '02 WRX I had 50+hp/tq more than stock, on a stock clutch, and a stock transmission. I launched that car, autox'd it, track'd it. Not one clutch problem. I think people are generalizing this "clutch problem", so we've got two cases out of the THOUSANDS of cars on the road. Doesn't seem like a "widespread problem" to me. I'm not worried about the clutch or transmission. It does suck that these two people are having problems, but there is a certain amount of error that can happen when building anything, including cars. That's what the warranty is for.

[mccorry]

[quote name='melayout']If you launched on snow/dirt/loose gravel, then that's ok. But if you did it on asphalt/concrete then you are not babying your car. Are you kidding me, even one launch above 2,000 is not normal. Unless you don't mind picking up the tab to fix your transmission, please THINK about what your doing. AWD have more traction than RWD/FWD cars. Therefore when you launch AWD cars, the extra power is drained into the powertrain instead of the tires in RWD/FWD cars. But if you launch in snow/dirt/loose gravel, the extra power is drained into flinging snow/dirt/gravel around and doesn't damage the car's powertrain compared to launching on hard surfaces. If you don't mind a void warranty, burnt tires, a fscked AWD system, and a hole in your wallet, then by all means launch on asphalt/concrete, else do it on dirt/snow/loose gravel and you will be much more content. Mojo[/QUOTE] [b]Why so quick to jump into the a##hole routine?[/b] When I say that I baby my car...that is exacty what I mean. I do not need you to infer or interpret the way I drive. By Launch...I mean slipping the clutch, not a sidestep. This is not abuse the to drivetrain.....:rolleyes: My car has 4,600 miles on it. I drive it 50 miles a day. Two hard driveaways in 3 months is not abuse! NOT EVEN CLOSE! Don't lecture on what you obviously know nothing about.... :mad: Rimfaxe, I agree with your comments....

[Legacy05GT]

I launch off of 80% of all stop-lights just because its so hard not to. Not that its mechanically difficult, i mean [b]i fucking get off[/b] on the rush of a perfect launch off the line. Thats my excuse anyways.

[Xenonk]

ummm, oook.... anyways, I creep on hills without the need to go over 2,000 rpms just gotta keep the car from stalling out.. the main thing is that 1st gear is soo short, you can pretty much climb a side of a mountain without thinking twice about it. 10,000+ miles and no burning clutch for me. Keep practicing on the creeps.. if you ever try to parallel parking in San Fransico streets with a manual in a tight spot in rush hour traffic without smoking the clutch or rev over 2k rpms, then you pretty much got it.. just all a matter of practice.. ebrakes are not neccessary if you learn heel/toe correctly. Keefe

[moriarty]

I have similar situation here - burning smell accompanied by a little pedal chatter when creeping in heavy stop-and-go traffic. It got almost unbearably stinky in the car this weekend - to the point where I thought my wife was going to get ill. I have 11,300 miles on the car, and have not abused it at all (I have a GTI for that!). I've also been driving manual transmissions for 15 years (including split-rear "cdl-type"), so I won't buy into it being driver error (at least, not yet). I'd really like to hear from someone who had this checked out by a dealer. That way I know how hard to push them on it. I'm not having any clutch slippage or mechanical difficulties yet, but the smell is quite offensive, and given the cost of the car, probably shouldn't be something I have to deal with this early in the life of the car.

[Xenonk]

with 11,000 miles on my car, I havent had any clutch problems at all. This is also including autocrossing and track days. I also drive through bumper-to-bumper traffic and havent had any smelly or burning clutch. Keefe

[moriarty]

That's great news - for you. I'd really like to hear back from the people who were complaining of the problem, although they may have already been scared away by some of the more abrasive posts in this thread. I'll gladly accept blame for the problem - if it's truly warranted, but I'm gonna need some proof. Considering that there are people autoxing and whatnot, I doubt that I drive my car harder than anyone else out here - but again, I have no basis for comparison. In comparison, I drove the wheels off of my VR6 GTI (inlcuding some rather foolish stunts) for 150k miles and didn't need to replace a clutch. In fact, I only replaced the clutch when I swapped the diff and put a L/W flywheel in. I'm not suggesting a this brand vs. that brand war, I am strictly attempting to illustrate the basis for my belief that the trouble isn't driver oriented.

[NewScooby]

[color=black]I am also worried about the lifespan of this clutch. I have found that the times that I get it to stink are when I am backing up a steep driveway, or dropping my daughter off at school and pulling away from the pickup area going slow. The clutch is fine for me when I am wringing it out.[/color] [color=black]I have owned 6 manual Trans vehicles previously with no clutch/trans issues. I really don’t like how this, or should I say my clutch seems have a spot right before the clutch pedal is out where I swear the clutch is all the way out and then it seems to reengage slightly. My clutch is not smooth and consistent like every clutch I have driven for the last 13 years.[/color]

[Xenonk]

well, hopefully you guys dont have dud trannies, that's what I am trying to say. I guess it's also a soft clutch as well, so it's really easy to not feel or even hear the engine and clutch disengage and allow the rpms fly up. Keefe

[scubie02]

When I first got my car, I'd get the clutch smell just slowly backing out of my driveway. After the first week or so it went away. Now that its been getting cooler it seems to be happening again. The clutch is also fairly crappy feeling as clutch's go. I swear, if the legacy turns out to have a crappy clutch too, this will be my second and last subaru. If you are going to build a performance car, it damn well better have a halfway decent clutch! I've been driving MT vehicles for most of my life, and never had clutch problems before. Numerous vehicles that have gone 130k-almost 300k miles on one without clutch problems. In my youth I drove several of my vehicles way the hell harder than this legacy. Saying you should never do a launch about 2000 rpms is bullshit, I'm sorry. If your cars can't handle that, start making Kia's or ovenmitts or something, subaru, because you have no business making cars. How many years does it take to learn to make a transmission? :(

[Deer Killer]

FYI [url="http://www.legacygt.com/forums/showpost.php?p=47919&postcount=33"]http://www.legacygt.com/forums/showpost.php?p=47919&postcount=33[/url] No, it didn't glaze either..

[GTSpecB]

Strange thing happened to me a few weeks ago, I was climbing a hill in a very heavy stop and go traffic condition so I had to use my e-brake when I come to a stop in the middle of the hill, soon the traffic started to move and my RPM suddenly gone over 4K when I trying to move but my car its going no where and this time it started to roll back so I pull up my e-brake again. This is only about a 3-4 secs and the smoke and smell is everywhere already, I was blocking the traffic behind me so I had to try it again, same thing happened and this time its even more smoke and smell, so I had to force the car to move to the side of the road (car will move very very slow when the RPM is over 4K) After cooling it down for about 10 minutes everything thing went back to normal but I did notice some slippage when engage the clutch on my way home after all that. The next day I took it to the dealer to get it check, I was told my cluch was overheated and they also adjust my e-brake because I was suspecting it was seized and cause all that.

[PGT]

Well, after a road trip today for business in Richmond, my confidence in my first Subaru is a bit shaken. As soon as we got on the interstate, it was a dead stop. It took us 75 minutes to move 1.5 miles. We had to endure the clutch stink the whole time for constant stop and go driving (emphasizing the STOP part). It smells like sauerkraut! After about 20 minutes of it, the clutch started shuddering when engaged in 1st gear. I have 1500 miles on the car. The rest of the trip down was uneventful, but coming back out to the car at 5pm, the sauerkraut smell was overwhelming inside the car. I have a service app't on Tuesday to look at what is causing the car to drift right on the highway (funny how that went away when I put the Volks on - tire pressure issue on the stock wheels maybe?) - I will have them look at the clutch and see what is going on. I have driven manuals for 15 years and have never had this kind of issue, so please withold the "you need Skip Barber lessons" and "driver error" comments :) P.S. I also will have the dealer look at the nice gouge left in my rear bumper cap by a lazy driver who found it easier to park by bouncing off my car. At least they waited until a day after I took the 30 day tags off and put the permanent ones on. :rolleyes:

[c_hunter]

You get no respect with a new car, nada. I will be interested to hear what's up with the clutch. SOunds like it's affecting a lot of people. After Subaru fixed the clutch judder issue in 03 and reinforced the gearbox for 05, I figured we'd have a bullteproof 5MT at this point.... CRaig

[Deer Killer]

[quote name='Patagonian GT']I have driven manuals for 15 years and have never had this kind of issue, so please withold the "you need Skip Barber lessons" and "driver error" comments :)[/QUOTE] Yeah, I see a lot of those posts not just on this topic. I get the feeling they don't even own the car.

[Xenonk]

wow, I havent had that problem with my car through the 495 killer traffic at 5pm every Friday night... Keefe

[moriarty]

[quote name='Patagonian GT']Well, after a road trip today for business in Richmond, my confidence in my first Subaru is a bit shaken. As soon as we got on the interstate, it was a dead stop. It took us 75 minutes to move 1.5 miles. We had to endure the clutch stink the whole time for constant stop and go driving (emphasizing the STOP part). It smells like sauerkraut! After about 20 minutes of it, the clutch started shuddering when engaged in 1st gear. I have 1500 miles on the car. The rest of the trip down was uneventful, but coming back out to the car at 5pm, the sauerkraut smell was overwhelming inside the car. I have a service app't on Tuesday to look at what is causing the car to drift right on the highway (funny how that went away when I put the Volks on - tire pressure issue on the stock wheels maybe?) - I will have them look at the clutch and see what is going on. I have driven manuals for 15 years and have never had this kind of issue, so please withold the "you need Skip Barber lessons" and "driver error" comments :) P.S. I also will have the dealer look at the nice gouge left in my rear bumper cap by a lazy driver who found it easier to park by bouncing off my car. At least they waited until a day after I took the 30 day tags off and put the permanent ones on. :rolleyes:[/QUOTE] That is exactly how it went for me. I am anxious to hear what the dealer has to say. I have an appointment for next week, so I'm hoping I can be well informed before I go in there. Just ignore the "You must need to practice shifting" and the "I don't have those problems" posts. I was getting really irritated by that at first, but now I just let it ride. Good luck with your appointment.

[P06781]

Let us know what they say about the clutch stink issue. I personally think there is a bad batch of clutch plates that certain cars have. We should be getting a warrenty recall / swap on them. I started the other clutch stink post and live in the hills with a steep driveway that is unavoidable not to do a gentle 2k slip into the tight bay. I am going to my dealer for a talk about this issue and perhaps have them test drive it into my garage without stinking . Best of Luck Jim

[SoldonSubie]

This is happening to me too. Especially when I’m backing into my sort of steep drive way. I thought it was me and my relative inexperience with a stick (maybe 25,000 miles over the past 5 years in my wife’s car and then only on weekends). So, I asked my wife, who’s only had a stick and she’s been driving for 20 years, this morning if she’s ever had the burning smell. She said yeah, all the time. Neither of us get it with her car, an 01 V70, 5MT. So, next oil change I’m going to tell the guys at Subaru just to get it on record incase there are any problems in the future.

[jaycee]

I get the clutch stink thing too. I've been driving MT cars for 20+ years and I think I'm pretty good about cleanly shifting the car without a lot of clutch action. It's a little tougher on the Subie because the clutch is so light and doesn't have a lot of feel to it - but - I think I've adapted. Nevertheless, sometimes when I'm pulling into the garage (albeit up a pretty steep driveway) I have to hesitate for a second to make sure the door is all the way up and I don't scrape the walls. When I have to give a little extra to get in the garage I get the wicked stink. I had to drive around with the windows open the other day in 25 degree weather to get the stink out. However, overall though the clutch seems to perform well and I haven't experienced any shudder problems or slippage. Maybe I just need to wear the stink coating off. I'm at about 4k miles now. (BTW - when I'm shifting and accelerating aggressively I don't notice any clutch problems or smell.)

[PGT]

All - I posted on another thread, but thought I would here as well. I took my car to the dealer for my SSK install and asked them to look at the clutch problem. They looked it over, test drove it (20 miles worth) and couldn't replicate the problem. The service guy told me they didn't do anything to fix it because they couldn't replicate the problem. I have a good relationship with the guy, so I hope he would tell me if there was something wrong or they did something. Two weeks of driving now and the smell hasn't come back. My suggestion is to have the dealer check it out - if there is an issue, the more people that do this will flag the SOA service people to look for a problem and issue an official FSB. My gut feeling is that this is a known problem and the dealer did something to fix it, but isn't allowed to tell me.

[racerdave]

I still think the problem might be related to Subaru's implementation of a clutch delay valve. [url]http://www.legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php?goto=lastpost&t=5377[/url] We need someone with a manual to explode the parts pages for the clutch master cylinder, hose routing and slave cylinder.

[PGT]

Is the CDV adjustable? Maybe that was the fix with mine?

[racerdave]

Highly doubtful that it's adjustable. See the the BMW link in the other thread. Subaru's is probably similar... a mechanical restriction of the hydraulic clutch system to control the fluid flow. I'd suggest picking up the discussion in the other thread where it's been discussed in greater detail... ;)

[moriarty]

That's an interesting concept, and not something that I've come across before (my VWs are considerably more low-tech it seems). For my part, my dealer drove the car and told me that it is operating "as-designed". They did log my complaint though, so should I be unfortunate enough to have to enter discussions with SOA, I'll have that giong for me.