BuellRunner

My clutch feels like garbage. My 2000 S 2000 that I recently acquired is a work in progress for me. 160km and I'm looking forward to having a fun build with this car.

Anyway to get back to the point, my clutch feels like garbage. It feels extremely sticky, it is not smooth and when fully the pressed the clutch has a weird feeling at the foot. I was in another S 2000 today and the clutch feels like butter. So I took my car to a well-known Toronto mechanic and he recommended that I change the throwout bearing guide.

He feels that this problem is most likely caused by a throwout bearing that has grooves and inconsistencies in it from the years. Also my hydraulic fluid is extremely dark and he feels it should be changed. According to the service records this vehicle had a new clutch installed only 30km ago.

The reason I'm posting this is so that other s 2000 owners and hopefully people that are mechanical can provide me with some advice as to if they feel that this repair will work? Total cost for this repair was estimated at roughly $5-$600.

Thanks !

s2klariat

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Sticky Clutch

BuellRunner

The s2k specialty shop I visited didn't feel that this was the issue....

I'm going to being it up to him again though.

Thanks for sharing!

Cheers.

CoolGuy094

Your mechanic's recommendations sound solid. My clutch had a similar feel before I change it for the first time, and when I got the trans out the TO bearing guide was very scored/grooved and there was no more grease left in the TO bearing; it had all dried/gooked up. Also dirty fluid can cause poor pedal feel, etc.

I do feel like if he's going to take the trans down, you might as well put a new friction disc, TO bearing, and TO bearing guide in. And make sure he puts a healthy amount of Honda high temp urea grease in the TO bearing and the other grease points. he can also check the slave shaft ball joint to see if its rough/pointed and smooth that out/re-grease if so.

He should suck out all the dirty fluid in the clutch fluid reservoir and thoroughly clean it (I used q-tips to get it extra clean) then fill with new fluid and gravity bleed the clutch lines at the slave cylinder till clean fluid starts coming out.

After that you should be good to go.

BuellRunner

Thanks for the info! I appreciate you taking the time to help me.

I'll have him include all of the recommended additions while he's working on it.

Do you think I should include a new clutch while he has everything apart?

CoolGuy094

Well, the "clutch" consists of the flywheel, friction disc, and pressure plate. If the clutch was replaced only 30k miles ago I would say that the components that were replaced last time are still good. However, the process of getting to the clutch components requires quite a few hours of labor and its not something you want to be doing often. If you want to be 100% thorough, you could replace the flywheel, friction disc, and pressure plate with new parts from Honda. But if the flywheel and pressure plate were new 30k miles ago, I would say that they are fine to just leave in there. Alternately you could have your mechanic remove and resurface the flywheel instead of buying a new one.

The friction disc is the cheapest piece in the clutch, and its also the one that experiences the most wear. You might as well replace that no matter the condition. And the TO bearing and TO bearing guide definitely need replacing with new components since those are the stem of your issue at hand.

So minimum to replace:
- New TO bearing
- New TO bearing guide
- New friction disc

Optional to replace:
- New flywheel (or resurface old one)
- New pressure plate

BuellRunner

Thanks coolguy! I appreciate the help.

Brndon

I had the exact same feeling. It was because the clutch fork wasnt greased properly. It was that shiny bar where it connects inside of the transmission. You can grease it without removing the transmission.

Car Analogy

If clutch was done just 30k miles ago it seems unlikely TO bearing is toast already. I second the clutch slave cylinder pivot. Its so easy and cheap to do (a good easy diy). Best to rule out anything else before doing something as costly as TO bearing.

starchland

Funny how a mechanic would do a clutch job and not change the fluid. Well who knows it is possible that it got very dark after 30k.
Before you dump any more money At speedstar, flush the clutch fluid but more importantly grease the ball on the slave. So many s2ks I try it has this feelin of the clutch being tight and not wanting to come up off the floor with any feedback. Try this. If this doesnt work, or while your under the car, unclip the clutch fork ,get a small long paint brush and add a small amount of grease to the splines .keep us posted