Did your ACT clutch fail on you? If so, post here

[turbosax2]

Same thing happened to my friends car a couple weeks ago. Three fingers broke off the pressure plate. Relatively stock car, about 15k on the ACT 2600.

 

[prostreetdsmx1]

i've had two issues recently with parts customer bought. Just got them new clutches and threw these POS's in the trash.

 

[DamionGST]

I had a 6 puck unsprung 2900. After a 2000 miles, the rivets holding the disc together came apart. It cost me $100 tow truck ride and left me or the side off the road for 2 hours. The pucks still looked brand new, and ACT wouldn't do any thing about it.

 

[95talongirl]

ugh, that's dissapointing. It looks like ACT is going to give me a new clutch... but honestly, I'm leary about it. I mean its no fun having to pull the trans every six months!

 

[98eclipsekidd08]

I just got my ACT 2600 and streetlight flywheel and am having engaging problems or something. It makes a god awful noise and sometimes wont go into gear. This was the same day it was installed at Buschur racing. They said they have had a number of these same instances and no longer sell ACT due to these issues. I didnt even beat on the new clutch one bit! Buschur also said ACT was not a good company to deal. So now I need a new clutch again (1 day later), will have to get it installed, and they said it "could" cause syncros to get messed up. Has anyone got ACT to refund them money or send them a new clutch?

 

[v8s_are_slow]

I've called them and they said they won't refund money. Just replace the clutch. But of course you have to send it to them to have them inspect it of course their warranty is only for like 6 months I believe. If you're having a disengagement problem, that could just be because of an adjustment problem. I've put them on a brand new Fidanza flywheel and still had issues. I had to take the bracket off the back of the clutch pedal where the rod goes thru and weld on another nut to give me more adjustment to solve that problem.

I now have my 3rd Spec clutch and love em. Lighter pressure pedal and good grip without being grabby at all. This is a stage 3 btw. I got mine from Titanmotorsports.com for a pretty good price as well.

 

[prostreetdsmx1]

I now have my 3rd Spec clutch and love em. Lighter pressure pedal and good grip without being grabby at all. This is a stage 3 btw. I got mine from Titanmotorsports.com for a pretty good price as well.

I've been preaching the Spec and Competition lines as reliable alternatives for years!

 

[98eclipsekidd08]

I have enough adjustment but its eather not disengaging or it makes some loud screech noise so its a lose lose

 

[98eclipsekidd08]

I have enough adjustment but its eather not disengaging or it makes some loud screech noise so its a lose lose

 

[Flash]

I've been preaching the Spec and Competition lines as reliable alternatives for years!

And I listened!

 

[RoasT BeeF]

And I listened!

More like you listend to me when I told you not to get an ACT after the 3 failures I had.

 

[95talongirl]

Yea, I'm thinking of jumping ship over to Spec as well. Maybe....

This is what happened to my car... it got really difficult to enage and disengage the clutch. So I though it was an adjustment/hydraulic issue. Replaced the slave cylinder (again) and bought a SS line to replace the steel/rubber ones and resevior. It seemed to be ok for a day. As I was driving it to school, I go to downshift and had to pull HARD to get it to come out of gear.... and then I could not get it back into gear at all. It also made a click type noise when the pedal was pushed in.... which went away when I could not get the car to engage any gear at all. After limping the car home, took the inspection sheild off the trans and little pieces of pressure plate fingers fell out.

Now, when this clutch was installed, the master and slave cylinder were both replaced, along with the flywheel being resurfaced. The clutch was a kit (pressure plate, TOB and disc) so everyhting was new. The pedal was adjusted as per the book. I mean, it's possible somehting was amiss with the installation I suppose, but I've never had a clutch fail like this before. Usually its just burning the discs up from drag racing.....

I might give ACT another try, tho.. as they still seem to have success stories. I guess I'm just lost as to what to do really. I didn't expect to have to do a clutch again so soon.

 

[subie22]

Ok well im still kinda stumped on how this exactly happend. I called ACT and they said that my clutch pedal was over adjusted and put to much strain on the center portion of the disc. I'm guessing the tob. It seems to me that the center section decided to remove itself from the clutch disc. The clutch disc didnt really look old. The friction disc looked a little smeared. But looks like theres plenty of meat on it. But if it was the clutch rod over adjusted whats the best way to go about this, without destroying a new clutch.I know you can adjust the pedal, but will that give me a little more play, instead of it engaging at the very bottom, maybe it will engage in the middle or so. Thats what is boggleing the mind right know. To give you heads up, the clutch engaged right off the floor. I was told a bunch of different things it could be. Like my clutch was over adjusted. Or the clutch is going bad, time for a new one. Where would i want the clutch to engaged. I always thought if a clutch is going it would engaged higher up. So any help would be greatly apprecated. Sorry i explained it the best i could.

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[mattdev]

I got another failure story to add... I've had the clutch for about a year now. I DID have it professionally installed.

I just finished installing my FP 18g, went to the gas station to fill up and got stuck there. I drove there fine with no issues, as soon as I pulled into the station I went to put it in 1st to pull up to a pump and wouldn't go into gear. I got it to go into reverse and it felt like the clutch was not engaging. I thought my TOB might have burned (it is an ACT TOB) as it showed most of the symptoms. That same day I magically popped my transmission off (the spell took about 8hrs to perform). And to my dismay I was missing a finger on the pressure plate, it was lodged b/t the pressure plate and clutch disk and luckily didn't mess up anything ELSE.

I called ACT today and they said to ship it to them to have it inspected to see if a refund was applicable. They said they COULD refund it if they discover flaws in workmanship...

How often do they actually stand behind their work, or do they just blame in on the mechanic that installed it? (or in most cases, the driver/mechanic/owner)

 

[JackM]

That was NOT cause by an over-extending pressure plate. Looks to me like there was a bell housing bolt missing between the engine and trans, missing dowel pin, loose bolts, distorted trans input shaft, or improper install that could have bent/damaged the disk when the tranny was installed. A disk does that when it is not in perfect alignment with the engine. The pressure plate and flywheel tries to tug it one way and the disk/input shaft want to go another.

Jack

 

[gsx951]

I got another failure story to add... I've had the clutch for about a year now. I DID have it professionally installed.

I just finished installing my FP 18g, went to the gas station to fill up and got stuck there. I drove there fine with no issues, as soon as I pulled into the station I went to put it in 1st to pull up to a pump and wouldn't go into gear. I got it to go into reverse and it felt like the clutch was not engaging. I thought my TOB might have burned (it is an ACT TOB) as it showed most of the symptoms. That same day I magically popped my transmission off (the spell took about 8hrs to perform). And to my dismay I was missing a finger on the pressure plate, it was lodged b/t the pressure plate and clutch disk and luckily didn't mess up anything ELSE.

I called ACT today and they said to ship it to them to have it inspected to see if a refund was applicable. They said they COULD refund it if they discover flaws in workmanship...

How often do they actually stand behind their work, or do they just blame in on the mechanic that installed it? (or in most cases, the driver/mechanic/owner)

I sent a clutch to them and had no problem in getting it replaced under warranty.
Most of the issues that people bi*** about are straight up installation errors but where the fault is with ACT, ACT warranties their goods.

 

[subie22]

oh thanks for the info. I noticed i didnt have all my bolts. i think i had 3 out of the 4 and i noticed one of the 3 were loose. And i also noticed that one of the dowels were missing. Input shaft seems ok, the end play seems ok. I was told that missing a dowel wouldnt really have an effect on something like that.

 

[JackM]

Yes, it would. A missing dowel will allow the trans to shift out of place and screw up the alignment between the engine and trans making the disk break like your did. Loose bolts will do it too. Seems like there was a lot going on there against that poor disk...

Jack

 

[nytescion]

I thought the 1g's awd only have 3 bolts...

 

[Avionixx]

Pretty sure there are at least four; two at the very top, one by the slave cylinder, and the one on top of the transfer case.

 

[JackM]

Agreed. The one above the t-case that points in the other direction has to be one of the most important ones and people always miss it.

Jack

 

[subie22]

yea theres four, i will make sure i get them all in. Should i use blue lock-tite, so they dont become loose. I have solid motor mounts so alot of thing in my engine bay become loose. I will deff make sure i get the other dowel. I've searched, since this is my first clutch job ever, how do i put that dowel in. Whats the best way?

 

[Avionixx]

Blue Loctite will be fine, I hear the red Loctite is almost impossible to get out without some kind of heat.

As for the dowel, you just slip it in; nothing special about it at all.

 

[subie22]

Another thing i noticed that the trans bolts are diff sizes, is there a diagram somewhere where i would know which goes where. The reason being is i was missing i beleive 1-2 bolts, so i want to make sure i have the right size.

 

[Avionixx]

http://www.vfaq.com/proj-pics/clutch/1G/bolts.gif