Subaru clutch flywheel

Maintenance/Repairs
1

I recently posted a question about going through 3 clutches in 4 months on a 2001 Subaru Legacy wagon. The consensis was bad driving by my 17 year old son. Another possible explanation by the dealer is that on both the October and December repairs the flywheel was turned rather than replaced by the local mechanic. They said this would make the flywheel thin and the clutch more prone to burnout. Any comments? This is an academic question as we have bought a 2009 automatic 4WD Matrix to replace the Subaru. Plan to donate the Subaru to NPR.

2

The comment about the flywheel being too thin and causing burnout is incorrect. If one makes the assumption here that your son is not thrashing the clutch there are several things that could cause premature clutch failure.

  1. The guide sleeve that the throw out bearing mounts on is binding on the nose of the transmission. The guide sleeves have a large grease groove on the inside and the machined edges are knife sharp. The nose of the transmission is soft aluminum so it is quite possible for the steel guide sleeve to start digging into the nose. This is a obscure problem that many do not know about. Every time I did a clutch on a Subaru the sharp edges were ground off and the groove repacked with grease. (I’d be surprised if anyone at the Subaru dealer is even aware of this).
  2. A pushrod on the clutch hydraulics could be too tight and not allowing the clutch to engage completely. (Similar to driving around with a foot depressing the pedal a bit).
  3. Possible Hill-Holder problem if the vehicle is equipped with one.
  4. Depending on flywheel design, machining could be responsible for this problem. If the area where the clutch disc rests is machined and the area where the pressure plate mounting bolts is not this may not allow the pressure plate to have the ability to apply the full pressure that it should. (Again, similar to riding around with a foot on the pedal).

If I give your son the benefit of the doubt here on driving habits, it seems to me that whoever is doing the clutch repair is overlooking something simple and it should be obvious. Seems a shame to unload the car over this, but…
Hope this helps. :slight_smile:

3

I think its driving or poor repair. I have known a few early 2000 Suburu’s on oem clutches with 150k-225k.

4

at least you got an automatic this time, a bit more difficult to destroy.