I did a search and couldn't find the exact same problem I have - maybe others have encountered it before, though.

I have an 01 with about 39,000 miles on it. Ever since summer my clutch has been behaving very badly. When you depress it, it feels extremely stiff and sticky, feeling like it is catching on things about half-way through the stroke. Near the bottom of the play, it seems to push through and then goes to the floor with a lurch. On the way back up - if you don't work the accelarator at all, it sticks and catches the whole way back up, with that same lurch as on the way down - like it's a barrier being broken through or some type. When you work the accelerator (as in a normal shift), everything seems marginally better, but the engagement point is very hard to predict, as the lurch sometimes is early, sometimes late.

Anyway, it probably goes without saying that it is very annoying to drive the car the way. In November, I got off my lazy butt and went to the dealer (Carrs Honda in Chicago, if anyone is interested). Their first tech drove it and said it felt fine. I told him he was an idiot - they got another guy to drive it, and he immediately said - wow, this thing is fried, they need to replace the entire clutch assembly.

Now, again - this is well under 35k at this point - I thought that was pretty early for a clutch replacement, and I told them so. So the dealer said they would cover the replacement under warranty (I have a 100K mile extended, but this was still way above-and-beyond the call for them, I think). They replaced it in mid-Nov, and for at least two weeks after that, the car was PERFECT. Just like it came off the lot - awesome - reminded me of the reason we all bought the car in the first place. In fact, I totally fell in love with the car all over again. It was like I was driving a 2ton truck beforehand, and now I'm in a roadster again. The best feeling.

Then... it started degrading again. It took about a month, but I'm pretty much back where I started, now. The lurch and stickiness is not quite as bad was it was in Nov, but still pretty bad. The travel is rough - it takes a ton of energy to depress, and the engagement point is very unpredictable.

I took the car in today to have the dealer take look at it. Can anyone give me some advice on this - what sounds likely and what does not? This dealer has been good to me so far, but no one is going to want to admit they did a bad install. Just hoping for people to give me a range of opinions so I can have a standard to test what they tell me against.

Thanks in advance.

 

Did they replace the slave cylinder? I had a very similar problem about a year ago. I had just had the clutch replaced a few thousand miles before so I was pretty sure the clutch itself was fine. I first tried changing the clutch fluid. This worked great........for about a week when the problem returned. Next, I tried lubricating the clutch fork which also worked great, for about 2 days. I finally broke down and took the car to a Honda dealer and they diagnosed a leaking slave cylinder. They replaced the cylinder and 20,000+ miles later, the clutch is still as smooth as silk.

 

Hmm, that sounds like a good possibility - I will definitely ask about it. Given the nature of the works-then-gets-worse-over-time cycle, it sure does sound like a leak. Thanks for the pointer. Anyone else?

 

Well, I'd ask about the throwout bearing and fingers on the pressure plate, but if they replaced the clutch, then obviously they've checked these things. Anyway, go with the slave cylinder first.

 

So I picked up the car from the dealer this evening. They are selling the "we cleaned and lubed up the clutch fork" idea. The clutch does feel pretty good now - but I'm not 100% convinced they've found the core problem. I've got my usual commute tomorrow, and we'll see how it holds up.

 

It is probably that fork. I had this exact problem, and removed the slave and greased that fork on the ends, and on that bearing where it pivots. It has been about 3 months, and it still feels great.

 

That fix sounds like it may have been the root cause of the problem, there was an Atlanta guy who had a similar problem, you can read about it here: http://www.s2katlanta.com/%7Es2katl/forum/...hread.php?t=982

At least you got a new clutch out of the deal!