OK i just tore up the clutch in my car learning to drive a manual (noob) and so now that i have to replace it i’m wondering should i buy OEM, or the premium version of my clutch or should i drop a little more money into it and buy a 6 puck ceramic race clutch? I don’t plan on drag racing my car its my daily i just like to take the time to put some more quality in my vehicles and nothing wrong with some more performance and gas mileage. please tell me what you know.
As Tester mentions, a stock clutch is fine and with most people will outlast the car.
What you need to do before replacing the clutch is think long and hard about how you drive the car. If you’re doing something wrong then the next clutch will not last either.
Yeah, if you have trouble with a regular clutch, you’re gonna stall constantly on a race clutch. And if you have to drive in any sort of stop and go traffic, race clutches are just plain no fun at all.
Besides, you’ve got an Accent… They’re good cars, but they’re not exactly… You know… Fast…
The stock replacement will have all the quality you need , forget race clutch you wouldn’t like on the street anyway. More performance and gas mileage work this way : performance upgrades = less miles per gallon . You have an Accent , never meant for performance upgrades in the first place.
I presume you intend to the install the new clutch yourself. If a quality part is the objective, suggest to buy an oem clutch kit for your car from a Hyundai dealership parts department. Most owners would probably buy an aftermarket kit that supposedly meets the specs from their local parts store in order to save a few dollars. But you’ll know you’re getting the oem part if you buy it at a dealership.
That would be typical of a racing clutch kit.
The springs that provide some annular cushioning for the clutch plate when sandwiching between the flywheel and the pressure plate will be stronger, the radial “fingers” in the pressure plate assembly that push the clutch plate against the flywheel will be stronger, and the clutch plate pads will be a composition that will accommodate the forces normally damped by the annular springs in the PP assembly better without getting torn up.
None of this will equate to better clutch wear. And I really don’t think the Hyundai Accent, as decent a car as it is, has enough power to need a racing clutch. If anything, it’ll just make it tougher to shift smoothly in normal traffic. And in the city you’ll need better legs. And your release bearing may not last as long. Greater forces are being applied.
My recommendation is to get an OEM replacement clutch assembly. And be sure to get the whole kit, not just the clutch plate.
Just get the OEM clutch. The quality level will be fine.
Also, take a friend who knows how to drive a manual transmission on a ride and have him or her assess if you’re doing everything correctly now. I’d hate to see you tear up the new clutch if you’re still doing something wrong.
Stay away from a 6 puck race clutch. You will hate it in traffic. Is is grabby, hard to modulate the slip and will tear the living heck out of your flywheel and pressure plate and likely have a much shorter life.
Race clutches trade driveability for the ability to take more torque before slipping. And you don’t have any MORE torque than Hyundai put in, right?
Race doesn’t mean better, just different priorities.
I can just imagine an inexperienced driver with a racing clutch stopped on an incline at a red light with a car 3 feet behind him when the light goes green. The video would go viral.
After allowing my daughter to teach herself to drive an S-10 with a 5 speed on a private drive I needed a new clutch and replaced it with an Luk. 150,000 miles later I sold that truck with the Luk clutch working like new.
I recall the brand because my 1st call parts house carried that brand exclusively for as long as I was in business and there was never a complaint after installing a great many of them.
my 83 colt with 65hp wore down the disc which i replaced alone for $25. pressure plate looked ok as did flywheel. i suppose quite a few vw bug owners with low hp motors changed clutches. its wear issues. disc wears, clutch slips. dont need 300hp to slip
Actually the old VWs clutches were long lived if the driver didn’t ride the clutch. Even stopped riding the clutch was a problem due to the carbon throw out bearing used for many years. But the heavy flywheel and wide ratio gears made pulling away from a stop easy.
