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Serious issue...I hope not.

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Anachrome

Proven Member
39
4
Oct 8, 2014
Mulberry, Indiana
Today, I drove 2 hours to purchase a 1990 Eagle Talon Tsi Awd.
before I looked at the car, I knew the following:

Had a new clutch, just needed bled.
asthetic issues
no power steering.

The seller lived in an extremely urban area, and I wasn't able to get up past 30 in our test drive due to stop signs, etc.
I knew the clutch had an issue simply because it went straight to the floor. Anyways he wanted 1500 for it, and I was like nope.jpg. Ended up getting it for 1080. What a steal right?
Nope.
On the way home, I filled up with premium just because I know turbos love them some premium. As I was filling up the filler neck was slightly leaking...Yay.
As I went on, I "assumed" that the slow take offs were due to the clutch issue, and I didn't think anything of it. Once I got to 60, whatever, it was a fairly simple ride. My buddy was leading in my car. However when he'd pull away, I'd try to accelerate and as I would accelerate the car would rev....think about it...and then I'd feel something bump underneath me and I'd start to go.

After 2 grueling hours of no PS, a bad clutch, and the rain. I got home. Parked it, and headed to work. After work my friend came over and we decided we'd park it at my dads so I could do the power steering pump swap. It came with a bunch of random parts, including a "new PS pump" and another clutch from a laser RS.
After letting her warm up for about 8 minutes or so, I back up, and theres a slight incline from the driveway to the road. I couldn't get up the incline. After my friend pushed me up that incline, I popped it into second, and just tried to go. It was midnight, (ie an hour ago) so I kept the revs low-ish, but I still went about 5mph. I stopped, put it in first, and was able to get to 15 or 20, at about 5k. I went into second, kept the speed. went for 3rd, and hit 35, where I was able to go no faster. after a bit, I went for 4th, and started slowing down. peaked at about 7k revs for a bit, trying to get it to go, downshifting to first, my buddy stopped me. The intake was cherry hot, and smoking. Needless to say, we let her cool down for about 20m, and tried again. After I got back to 25, I didn't get anywhere, so I parked it. 50 minutes later, and I made it 3.5 miles. How was I able to drive 89 miles one way, at speeds around 55-70, and yet now I can't get out of a simple incline.


My concerns:
My buddy was able to smell burnt clutch from his car. My thoughts: The clutch isn't disengaging, and I'm just burning the hell out of it.
Could this also be a transfer case/transmission issue?

Some information about the car:
158k miles
rebuilt head within the last 8ishk miles, as 2 previous owners before tried to freeboost 30psi in it. After rebuilding the head, the shop he frequented threatened to cut him off of rebuilds if he didn't remove manual boost controller. The most recent owner then put it back on, and ran it at 15psi.
Its got an aftermarket air intake
"new clutch just needs bled"
And I've got an extra ps pump that is supposed to be good, along with a second clutch and pressure plate.

Guys, I've been lurking here as I've wanted an AWD for the winter, to save wear and tear on my Scion TC, and after finding this one, I figured it'd be fairly solid. I assumed the slow starts were from the clutch. Would a clutch hurt the ability to go anywhere, that badly? Or could it be a tranmission/transfer case issue. I appreciate any and all help.
 
I just don't understand how I drove 89 miles home, yet now that nothing has changed, I can't get anywhere. I wanted to get it to my dads, simply because hes got a shop and I was gonna do some wrench time this weekend, but if I can't get it there...
 
I agree. Have you even popped the hood and looked at anything? One big thing i have learned since i bought my gsx is that you just cant kick the tires and grumble. You gotta keep on keepin on and troubleshoot, research, inspect hoses plugs wires connectors. You have to do work for sure. I hope you get it figured out man. I know its frustrating.
 
I'd say if your hitting 7k rpm and not moving.... then
A) if it revs slowly - check for boost leaks timing issue. Stopped up cat. Fuel or spark.
B) if it revs quickly- your clutch is not fully engaging (yes engaging) disengaging is what happens when u press the pedal down. And/or its slipping horribly.

Try this. Sit it flat. Don't touch the throttle. Place foot on clutch hit the floor ease shifter to first (no more pressure than a fingers worth). Depress the pedal very slowly and feel the clutch. This point of engagement can say a lot about condition of the clutch in general.
 
^^ exactly if the peddle is super high to engage than it's most likely toast. If it grabs closer to the floor or middle it's prob not so bad. I was thinking of suggestion the same thing, atleast you can kinda rule it out. If you've ever driven a car with a good clutch. You will be able to tell the difference from a good and bad engagement! How is it going into gears?
 
now that nothing has changed

You are assuming. You may have completely fried clutch. Could have skipped timing. Cherry red manifold? I assume you meant exhaust not intake. You need to disgnose. The fact you drove 89 miles is not relevant at this point. The fact it couldnt move up the driveway is.
 
If your hitting 7k reving it up I would check your piping. You could have blew a intercooler, intake pipe off and it's got a boost leak. With a boost leak your car won't move and if it does it will be barely with no power. Does your car have a big front mount intercooler? After I installed mine I blew pipes off like crazy
 
Use hair spray to put the couplers on the pipes. If you were blowing pipes off their couplers they were not installed properly, or are not rated couplers.

Roughing up some of the finish on the end of the pipe will get the coupler to stick better as well, just don't rough it all up as you don't want to cause a leak from doing it.

Use quality clamps for the couplers, cheap clamps won't hold.
 
So if it has a new clutch and need bleeding then that is what you should do! also make sure you adjust your clutch so it functions correctly.
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It sounds like your clutch is not functioning correctly
 
I'm gonna borrow my dads trailor probably friday, and take it to the garage and do a full maintence on it. I didn't do it yesterday due to time, and I hoped/assumed I'd be able to go another 20miles to his house after work, and then park it and do everything I needed to do.

Its probably gonna receive some extreme TLC this weekend. New oil, oil filter, all of that. I've got 2 months before I "need" to drive it anyways, so thats plenty of time.

@JimGsx getting home I inspected and didn't see any major issues. When I got off and it wouldn't go anywhere after I parked it, I looked at the hoses but it was...pitch black because it was 12a. I will grab some hairspray and probably some hose clamps, because I'll just go ahead and replace them anyways.

@91_talon_tsi_awd It revs quickly.

@Dsmkauai The pedal engages at the floor, but its mush until then. But it doesn't disengage until the very top. And in 1st, I usually didn't have to rev it to get it to not die either. I could just pull off the clutch and it'd never bog down. I have driven a manual, the TC is, and going into 2nd I ground a few times coming home, but I chalked that up to the clutch. It did clunk into 3rd most of the time. (I also have never driven with a short-throw, so maybe thats to blame too.)

@GSTeclipse1999 I don't have a mounted front mount intercooler. It came with one, but its not mounted or connected.

@rough Definitely gonna do a boost leak test then.

@ervin00 I'll watch that and probably go from there.

Anything else I should look into grabbing from the parts store this weekend? Looking at oil, hose clamps, oil filter, and fluid for the clutch.
 
As a side note you might want to check the car body. If they salt the road in Indiana the rear end of those cars are well known to rot out which will screw up the rear end. I guess if you back up with a rotted out rear end the car will shift off to the side (not back up straight). I have a 97 GSX with 150k miles on it and luckily the rear end isn't rotted out, but there are literally holes in the rocker panels and in the rear of the car so that when you drive the water sprayed up will go into the interior of the car.
Those cars don't drive that well in the winter anyways. You might think so because they are AWD, but your best bet is a 4x4 IMHO :p
 
Dude I just realized, you're in Francesville! My parents live in Medaryville, I'll be there this weekend! Do you drive to Rensselear or Winimac for your parts?

If you need some help and I'm in the area I'd lend ya a hand!

I live down here in Indy, but once or twice a month the parents hit me up to come out and help them out!
 
Dude I just realized, you're in Francesville! My parents live in Medaryville, I'll be there this weekend! Do you drive to Rensselear or Winimac for your parts?

If you need some help and I'm in the area I'd lend ya a hand!

I live down here in Indy, but once or twice a month the parents hit me up to come out and help them out!

Wow you are awesome to offer that!! I wish I had DSM guys out here in western Massachusetts as cool as you (or if there are any out here at all!!)
 
@rough, I'll be hitting up Renn Friday to grab the oil, and my dad's garage is outside of medaryville. My weekend plans other than the car (dnd) have cleared up, so I'll probably just cleaning it, working on it and cleaning the TC with the ole lady. If you wanna help, the more the merrier LOL.

I totally appreciate the offer too! :) You guys have seemed to be the best forum I've looked at for DSMs

As a side note you might want to check the car body. If they salt the road in Indiana the rear end of those cars are well known to rot out which will screw up the rear end. I guess if you back up with a rotted out rear end the car will shift off to the side (not back up straight). I have a 97 GSX with 150k miles on it and luckily the rear end isn't rotted out, but there are literally holes in the rocker panels and in the rear of the car so that when you drive the water sprayed up will go into the interior of the car.
Those cars don't drive that well in the winter anyways. You might think so because they are AWD, but your best bet is a 4x4 IMHO :p

It does have some rust on it, on the rockers fenders, etc. But everytime I've backed it up, its went straight. I'm not too worried about the rust meow, simply because this spring I'm gonna park it, and do some body work.
And the awd will still be better than my TC that spins on wet pavement until third gear. :p Besides that, I'd rather run a dsm off the road than my DD.
 
Thanks Robotech! DSM'ers are getting farther and fewer between, lot's have been burned out, some have moved on, and some still lurk!
I probably will always have a dsm, just because when I started driving as a teen is when the 2g's came out, and this is number 3, and won't be the last one!
As technology keeps getting better, there is still new things to do and try, with time comes new myths and new ideas!

Anachrome would be bound to run into me at some point, Francesville's population is the low 800's!
And it has the only car wash of the two towns!

If Family express doesn't have what he needs, he's driving to Medaryville since we have another gas station and a new DOLLAR STORE WOOT LOLOL!
Getting car parts thou, driving a good 20-30 minutes! But Rensellear has pretty much everything.

I Just got a few things to do on my car this weekend as well,
Rehang my drivers door as it drops too far when closing - "Has the lambo hinge kit"
Modify one of my extra 1G BOV's with the dodge mod
Create my boost leak tester, I got everything I need but a fitting to hold the gauge on the valve stem.
Test for leaks.
Finish hooking up my remote start car alarm.
Secure the tips of my spoiler, it rocks a little with pressure and going over bumps.
Rebuild hatch lock "just rebuilt the drivers lock"
See if one of the local yards has a fuel pressure solenoid, "tired of looking at the cel"
Just to name a few things :D

I'll swing on through, always cool to shoot the shit, troubleshoot, whatever :) I'll be in town early Saturday, and Leave around 4-5 Sunday Night, if you hear the blow off valve, look for the car in the avatar and holla! :D
 
Thanks Robotech! DSM'ers are getting farther and fewer between, lot's have been burned out, some have moved on, and some still lurk!
I probably will always have a dsm, just because when I started driving as a teen is when the 2g's came out, and this is number 3, and won't be the last one!
As technology keeps getting better, there is still new things to do and try, with time comes new myths and new ideas!

Anachrome would be bound to run into me at some point, Francesville's population is the low 800's!
And it has the only car wash of the two towns!

If Family express doesn't have what he needs, he's driving to Medaryville since we have another gas station and a new DOLLAR STORE WOOT LOLOL!
Getting car parts thou, driving a good 20-30 minutes! But Rensellear has pretty much everything.

I Just got a few things to do on my car this weekend as well,
Rehang my drivers door as it drops too far when closing - "Has the lambo hinge kit"
Modify one of my extra 1G BOV's with the dodge mod
Create my boost leak tester, I got everything I need but a fitting to hold the gauge on the valve stem.
Test for leaks.
Finish hooking up my remote start car alarm.
Secure the tips of my spoiler, it rocks a little with pressure and going over bumps.
Rebuild hatch lock "just rebuilt the drivers lock"
See if one of the local yards has a fuel pressure solenoid, "tired of looking at the cel"
Just to name a few things :D

I'll swing on through, always cool to shoot the sh**, troubleshoot, whatever :) I'll be in town early Saturday, and Leave around 4-5 Sunday Night, if you hear the blow off valve, look for the car in the avatar and holla! :D

Sounds like quite an extensive list too, LOL.
Friday turned out to be rough for me, but Saturday I'll be doing routine maintence and everything. And sunday I should have a buddy helping me drop the transaxle assembly so we can drop the spare clutch into it, and then do the reverse.

For hose clamps btw guys, what kind are quality, and what size do you assume I'd need. Everything looks OEM. ...Edit I just was googling hose clamps, and everyone said to use T-Clamps, my only question is what size I'd need.
 
Trailered the car to my dads, and then parked it in the garage. Picked up some Synthetic, An Oil Filter, and some power steering fluid/brake fluid for bleeding the clutch. My mechanic buddy bailed on me this weekend, so I'll be soloing this car. God help me, LOL.
 
Question for anyone who can answer!
I have a 98 GSX and when I go from a stop to a go, my clutch isn't grabbing onto first gear. if you hold the gear stick there, it grinds. sometimes it will smoothly go into gear but other times it won't. I'm not sure what the issue is with it. :( I've had ppl recommend adjusting the clutch pedal. some say possible throw out bearing. Any suggestions???? I also had another question. I was looking in the hood and took my spark plug cover off, and there seems to be oil in that area. Is it possible that the gasket valve covers need to be replaced?
Sorry that I'm posting on your post. I can't post my own since I just joined and this group sounds really helpful!!!
 
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