Farely New Clutch burns Out! Why me!

[mc_holla]

Just last winter, I replaced the clutch on my car for the first time at 160,000 miles. Stopped at a stop sign, engaged the clutch and felt it pop. I bought a clutch that was made by SACHS and all was well when I got that in. Car felt like night and day. Guess when I bought it the clutch had been bad and I was used to it. Well now, one year later almost, I take my brother to school and while doing so switching between gears feels clunky. "And I say to myself damn, no again" So I proceed with my morning runs and stop at an autozone. Do what I gotta do and when I get back in my car, I cant get the car to go in any gears. Finally I get it to go in what seems to be second. Ride this gear at 60 mph, while only revving at 3000 rpm (strange huh?) to my cousins shop. On the way, everytime I would come to a stop, the car would stall a couple of times and then finally, and slowly makes it way through the intersection while burning the rest of my clutch up. I dont think it was my driving style or ways that did this. A clutch should last more than 25,000 miles. Right? Even if you abuse it every now and then.

I was also hearing a weird buzzing sound coming from the engine area while driving.

Mc

 

[Quasimondo]

1. Was the flywheel resurfaced when the clutch was replaced?
2. Was the flywheel and presure plate bolts properly torqued down during installation?
3. Was the clutch properly broken in for 500 miles after install?
4. During the break-in period did you avoid performing any hard launches or extended slippages?

 

[mc_holla]

1. Clutch was bought as a complete set, everything was new
2. Everything was installed by a MOPAR technician (my cousin) and I have alot of faith in his work.
3 & 4. Im pretty sure I was very cautious with the clutch when I first had it installed, but I was so excited to have a working clutch that I may have "opened it up" too soon.

The only thing I can remember out of the ordinary was when I launched hard up a hill and it felt like I was digging in to clutch and burning it out instead of burning my tires. Could doing that, that one time killed the clutch?

 

[Quasimondo]

Problem might not be the clutch itself if you can't get it to disengage. Check the master cylinder and the slave cylinder for any leaks. Check under the dashboard to see if the master cylinder is leaking from the inside of the car.

 

[mc_holla]

Okay I will check those tomorrow. Do those cylinders leak "hydralic clutch fluid" when they leak? I checked my little clutch resevior in the engine bay after getting it to the shop and noticed it was empty. Just had sludge, and I do remember seening some dark colored drip marks on my garage floor. Looked different from my normal oil stains. I though it was brake fluid. You may be right. Because it seems funny that the clutch burnt out so suddenly.

And if those are leaking, what process is involved in fixing that? Replacement? Repairing?

Thanks

 

[Quasimondo]

The clutch system uses DOT 3 brake fluid. If it's dark that means it's way past flushing that system out. If there's no leaks, try flushing and bleeding the system.

 

[mc_holla]

Will do. I will keep you upated. The resevior has a nasty black looking sludge in it.

Could that leaking have cause a premature clutch failure?

 

[mc_holla]

Checked the master cylinder today and saw that it was leaking a little on the inside of the car. Not enough to be noticable unless I was looking for the leak. I am going to go ahead and replace that and the release (slave) cylinder as well. I will have to wait until I get the tranny cracked open to see the true condition of the clutch.

It looks as if the clutch is partially engaged by looking at the release cylinder's location.

Dont know if this mans anything, but it also looks as if the gears stick is more to the left. Like when I shift 1st and 2nd are further left, 3rd and 4th are where 1st and 2nd used to be etc. I think I felt it shift one morning and it just felt funny for a while before I got used to it. Just though I would mention that.

Mc