Broken Pressure Plate Fingers

[DSMboostin15]

Well I finally got a call from the dealer as to why my clutch wouldn't disengage when the pedal was depressed on my FWD. Apparently from what they said is that the pressure plate fingers were broken. I'm not exactly sure of the extent, but they just said that they were broken and it took out the disk and TOB. Now the clutch is an ACT 2100 with ~8000mi on it - only 1 pass down the strip, mods in profile. How common is it for the pressure plate fingers to break? I'm assuming that the TOB went first, causing it to grenade and get lodged between the PP and disk, ultimately resulting in catastrophic failure. I'll get the car back in a few days, along with a box of souveniers. So I'll take some pics and show you what exactly happened for future reference.

 

[peter535]

The same thing happened to my pressure plate ive had it about the same milage as yours half of the fingers on the pressure plate were broken does anyone know how the fingers can brake?

 

[bling5tatus]

maybe a spring popped out of the disc (common) and broke the fingers by getting lodged in there during high revs.

 

[DSMboostin15]

I think that it is caused by localized overheating on the PP fingers due to poor clutch adjustment. The constant heating/cooling cycles effectively heat-treat the fingers causing them to become brittle over time and then break when force is appiled, i.e. clutch is de-pressed. Again, this is just a possible theory as to why and is not a known cause. A Rockwell test of before and after would help to prove/disprove this theory.

 

[92EagleAWD]

I know this is old, but has this happened to anyone else? Im having some clutch problems as well, and it seems the same symptoms, it wont disengage, and has a strong vibration that gets worse with rpm. Any help is appreciated, im in school at the moment and wont have access to my car till later this afternoon. pls help!