Hi guys, I love the show, and have been a listener for years. I don’t have a problem question, but one related to a positive car situation.
I was listening to the show this past Saturday, and the question about the Toyota truck clutch reminded me of this. I had a 1992 Mazda Protege LX that I bought used, when it had about 19,000 miles on it. I had the car until 1999 when I traded it in, not because it was causing me problems, but because it had 215,0000 miles on it. I was driving a lot between South Carolina, and Asheville NC, and I was concerned that it would break down on me on some remote mountain road. The car ran wonderfully. The engine ran as good as it did when I bought it, and the only maintenance I had to do was tires, brakes, oil changes and belts.
Now here’s my question: How is it possible that this car could go 215,000 miles on the original clutch? It NEVER slipped (mind you, I was diving up and down steep mountain roads for years), and the pedal engaged the clutch at the same point it did when I bought it.
Thanks for reading my lengthy verbage. I look forward to your answer. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
The Bro’s Tappet don’t answer here. You’ll have to settle for us regular folks.
The simple answer is: Congratulations. You’re one of the very few out there who is actually good at driving a stick.
The mountain roads don’t really come into play because as long as the clutch is already in good shape when you start going up or down, it doesn’t really care about the hills - -it’s already grabbing and has plenty of bite to keep grabbing as you go up and down. It’s the people that do hill starts by revving hell out of the motor before slowly letting the clutch pedal out that end up replacing their clutches a lot.
Now here’s my question: How is it possible that this car could go 215,000 miles on the original clutch? It NEVER slipped (mind you, I was diving up and down steep mountain roads for years), and the pedal engaged the clutch at the same point it did when I bought it.
It’s a light car…And you if you drive a lot of highway driving that drastically reduces clutch wear. Best I was ever able to do with one of my SUV’s or pickups was 100k…Small cars I’ve owned…well past 200k miles.
The 95 Camry I owned went 250,000 miles on the original clutch.
Tester
If you are good at driving a manual transmission, you will not have to replace the clutch. Many people do not have the ability to make a clutch last forever, but some people do. My father has a 1990 Chevy Cavalier he bought when I was 15 with 60k miles on it, five speed with the original clutch. That car saw me learn to drive, as well as my younger brother and sister learn to drive in it. My father mostly uses the vehicle to scoot around our small town of 3,500 people and currently has 200k miles on, with the original clutch still in it. We did have to replace the hydraulic components about eight years ago when they started leaking, but that was no big deal since they were all external on this vehicle (thank God!). This car will rust through long before the clutch will show any wear. It probably only has a couple years left before it rusts apart.
Engine torque, flywheel weight, torque multiplication from the combined gear ratio in 1st gear and most importantly the driver factor into clutch life.
There was a time when Ford medium duty trucks were engineered to allow for pulling the transmission back a few inches, removing all the pressure plate bolts but one and slipping a new disc in through an opening at the bottom of the bell housing. I wondered why Ford didn’t include a spare disc with each truck. They were under powered and overloading by owners was expected. A clutch disc could be replaced on the shoulder in about 2 hours with basic tools.
First, great job. I had a 95 Escort GT, it think it was very similar to the Protege. It too had over 200k on the original clutch when it was totaled. It’s all in the way you drive.
Your clutch pedal engages at the same point in its travel most likely because your car has an automatic clutch adjuster. These are common now; I had one on my 96 GM car. That one engaged at the same point too for as long as I owned the car; well over 130k miles.
Clutches like many things last longer now in any brand it seems.