Having a few problems...

[DelTASteve]

I have gotten conflicting answers from people around where I live about what is wrong, so I am going to post up what is wrong with my car, and see if you guys have any ideas. Any help is GREATLY appreciated, as this is my first car, and I am only 17 years old, so what may seem completely obvious to you, I completely overlook.

I own a 1994 Eagle Talon TSi, and it all ran great when I bought it. The only mods are a hacked air can with a K&N filter, a crushed BOV, and removed the boost restricting "plugs" (little rubber things in the BOV line). The clutch slave cylinder went on it about 6 months ago, and I had it replaced by a good shop in the area.

I recently put on some stock rims and tires, and after discovering that I could actually spin these tires, I took it a little overboard (I was used to Kumho soft rubber racing compound tires, which would not spin). I did probably one too many burnouts, and now a few things are going wrong with the car. I understand that this is totally my fault, and was probably completely preventable, but a little too late.

Firstly, the clutch is VERY light, and acts like it doesn't want to go into first gear sometimes. I also hear some sort of clunking noise coming from underneath the car when I start out from a dead stop in 1st gear. It does it in the other gears, but at random times during both up shifts and down shifts.

Secondly, it starts up like crap. I watch the needle go from about 1K RPM's down to about 400 RPM's, and it doesn't matter if I give it throttle or not. I thought this was some sort of vacuum line problem, but they all seem to check out (although I could have missed a bad line). This problem goes away after about 30 seconds.

Thirdly, it does not boost where it used to. It still spools up, but it doesn't actually give me any boost in power until about 4000 RPM's, when it used to kick in right at 3000 RPM's. Is this clutch related, or is my turbo just getting tired?

Like I said, I have gotten so many different answers from both shops and "experts" around here that I don't know who to believe, so I figure this place is a good place to try. Any help is GREATLY appreciated, and thanks in advance.

Thanks Again
Steve

 

[DSMULATOR]

Do a boost leak check. That could solve your rough start and maybe you'll find that the turbo is boosting but its not getting into the intake.

As for the noise on take off. Start simple. Check the U Joints if its AWD. It its 2WD, check the trans mounts, well all of them for that matter. The engine may be torquing over on take off and rattling. Its possible it could be clutch related. I've seen some of the hub springs fall out, or break out. What do you mean by light? You push it all the way to the floor and it has little resistance or it disengages right at the top? Did you bleed the cylinder when you replaced it?

 

[DelTASteve]

Yes, I bled the cylinder when I replaced it. By light I mean that it takes almost no effort to engage the clutch pedal, and it engages the clutch at a few centimeters off the floor.

 

[DSMULATOR]

sounds like you got air in the clutch lines or a bad cylinder. Did you bench bleed it first? Sometimes, if you don't get fluid past the o-rings on the plunger in the cylinder and you just start pumping it, the o-ring gets cut before it gets lubricated and you leak fluid past it. Maybe your slave cylinder down at the trans is bad. While your under there, check to see where the clutch fork is. Road race engineering has a great walk through on this to make sure your not over extending your clutch rod.

http://www.roadraceengineering.com/clutchandflywheeltech.htm

 

[DelTASteve]

That worked like a charm, thanks! I bled the lines again, and now it is working fine. The clunking noise is still there, but I am beginning to suspect a motor mount. How would I see if it was definetly, or definetly not a motor mount? The start up problem was ECU related, I unplugged the battery for 5 minutes and it went away.

Thanks,
Steve