Clutch burned

[bhop]

Here's the scenario. I was on a road trip recently, driving up to the Sequoia National Park, which is in Mountains. While driving up one of the mountains, which was pretty steep and went up for a while, we decided to stop at a scenic overview and take a few pics. After getting out of my car, I noticed some smoke pouring out of my hood and underneath the car, and smelled the nasty smell of burnt clutch. I remembered smelling it going up the mountain, but thought it was the brakes from cars going downhill in the other lane.

So, after letting the car cool off for a long while, we nervously continued on our way, since we were in the middle of the mountains, there wasn't much of a choice anyways. The next morning, I decided I didn't want to be stranded in the mountains, so I cut my trip short and went home, back to L.A. (roughly 5 hours away). Holiday weekend ruined.. thanks dsm.

That was Labor day. I've since bought a new ACT 2100, but don't have the money to have it installed yet (waiting for payday). In the meantime, i've been babying the clutch (still gotta drive to work) and it still stinks sometimes.

Here's the part I don't get. Even though my clutch pedal feels mushy, and the burning smell is there quite often, the clutch still pulls hard enough to spin the tires in first and chirp second (I tried it last night just to see if it would since i'm getting it fixed in a couple days anyways) and hasn't been slipping at all, which I thought it would be by now.

So I guess after explaining all that, I just want to know if anyone knows why my clutch keeps burning but not slipping? (i'm driving like an old lady btw) Could it be something other than the clutch, like maybe a warped flywheel or bad Master Cylinder that is causing this problem?

 

[Vallary99]

Do you currently have an aftermarket clutch?

My understanding is (I'm getting my clutch replaced as we speak) that aftermarket clutches can slip once heated but will still grab hard. Mine only slips in higher rpms on a load. It doesn't slip when switching gears, grannying it around, or if I'm not in boost. Heat buildup, difference in terrain, startings of a fried clutch (mine was doing it sometimes but not all the time), any number of things could have caused it. I'm sure they can check your master and slave cylinders while it's in for the clutch.

Be glad you aren't me. They had to literally cut away part of my suspension to get my tranny out. The guy who owned the car before be ghetto rigged EVERYTHING. I'm paying to replace all these stupid parts and the clutch and flywheel.

 

[bhop]

It's a stock clutch, probably at least 60k miles old if not more, so the fact that it's finally going out isn't a giant surprise, the timing just sucks.

I installed a downpipe and high-flow cat a couple weeks before it all went down. I wonder if the ever-so-slight increase in power because of those had anything to do with the clutch problem?

 

[grn2geclipse]

i used to drive a subaru forester, and i had a similar problem, just driving around normal and i would smell clutch burning, so i had my mechanic take a look when he was doing the head gaskets(you have to remove the engine in order to replace head gaskets on a subaru) and he said the clutch was fine. and i had no troubles since he had it apart, i think he bled the master cylinder, so that could be it.