Da Hapa

Yesterday, with about 2,600 miles on my car, I did the first semi-hard launch from a stand still. I got caught at one of those damned red lights at the Bristol entrance to the 405S. that is meant to ease traffic. Well, traffic was hauling so I knew that I had to boogie to get up to speed. I revved up to about 4K rips and started letting the clutch out when the light went green.

The weirdest thing happened. Once the car was in first, the driveline would not engage. the rev's kept rising and I wasnt going anywhere. it kind of felt like the clutched completely slipped but there was not chattering, no nothing.

I shifted to second to try and let the drive line catch up and nothing. I shifted to third to try again, and nothing. I had to completely stop on the side of the offramp and let the car stop. I engaged first again and easily let the clutch out. I pulled away smoothly... no problems other than the fact that the clutch reeked. It smelled real bad.

I pulled off at the next offramp and called the dealership. they had no clue what happened and told me to bring her in. I jumped back on the freeway and headed home. Despite a 20 minute drive at freeway speeds my clutch was still stinky when i pulled into the dealership.

i told the service advisor the story reminded him to park my car inside and not to wash it and left him with my baby.

i got a call today from him that went something like this...

Mr. Asis. We're not sure what happened but your clutch is pretty trashed. we're going to replace your entire clutch the master cylinder and the slave cylinder. The problem is that we're going to need your car another day. No problem I say, i just want her fixed right.

I haven't actually spoken with the shop foreman to figure out his ideas but I get the sense that I had a real freak happenstance.

I'll let you guys know what happens.

In the meantime, any of you gearheads have any insight? Any similar stories?

Penforhire

Do a search on "clutch." This is discussed here all the time. If you let off the clutch too slowly it slips and if you pour on the power while slipping you will spin it without hooking up indefinitely. I've done it 3 or 4 times (racing) but always backed off quickly. Sounds like you kept your foot in it and fried the clutch.

If you do it again the clutch will fry, again. You may think you are getting off the clutch fast enough but you are not (at least not fast enough to hook up the power you wanted to apply).

You, like me, will want an upgraded clutch in the future ($700 ACT set is the only one I know of)

RT

Air Hockey baby!

S2R

The same thing happened to me at a fwy onramp light on the 10 fwy. No big deal. I was able to get the car going again after I let up. There was a really bad burning smell, and I'm pretty sure I caused some damage. However, I haven't noticed any side effects to date. It's been awhile since it happened.

reecespieces

how long was the period in which your clutch slipped, you said you shifted to 2nd then 3rd...I assume this must've been more than 15-20 seconds?

why is the dealership replacing the master and slave cylinders?
which dealership btw?

BTW, were you at Metro Pointe this weekend? I saw a silver with the top up one of the nights driving out of metro pointe, through south coast and onto bristol.

2kturkey

Same thing happened to me over 12 months ago. Dealer quite rightly wouldn't touch it and it has never caused me any problems subsequently (even with plenty, and I mean plenty (100-200), of 7k clutch drops). I finally had my clutch replaced under TSB55 due to noise under deceleration but the original clutch lasted 21 months and showed no signs of failure right up till the end.

Sounds to me like your dealer is ripping Honda off by trying to get some additional business through bogus warranty claims.

Da Hapa

Penforhire - I did do a search on clutch, clutch slip et al. Most of the problems that I found had to do with high rpm launches where someone was dragging another car. This wasn't my scenario as I was at around 4K rpm and doing a somewhat aggressive launch. The driveline wouldn't engage for sometime. I guess that I will need to sidestep the clutch in the future, but i am concerned about that kind of shock to the driveline. I also intend to replace the clutch with an aftermarket clutch once the factory warranty is over.

reeces - I was at metro pointe on sunday. the wife to be and i were doing some pre-registering at Macy's/Pottery Barn/Crate and Barrel. What good fun I doubt that you it was me, though as we had the top down all day and left before the Laker game started. i am not sure why the dealership (Family Honda) is being so aggressive in replacing everything. I have only spoken with the service advisor for a few seconds last evening and I am supposed to talk to the technician this morning. I assume they are using an abundance of caution and/or milking it for more money from American Honda.

Sev

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Da Hapa
[B]Penforhire -

Jason Saini

This is something that's very hard for people to understand, but Sev is right on the money here. By launching at higher RPM, all of the 'shock' gets quickly turned into wheelspin due to the amount of torque at those revs. At lower revs, there isn't enough torque to break the tyres loose, so all that 'shock' gets transmitted into your driveline.

People shouldn't be afraid to spin the tyres on this car... just make sure that you back-off when you get wheel-hop, as this will destroy your diff and axles.

At ProSolos, on concrete and with sticky tyres, we've had to launch as high as 8k rpm. We've done well over 300 such launches to date, trouble free. (vigorously knocking on wood) I think once in a while on the street shouldn't be a problem.

reecespieces

Jason: What would cause wheel hop? Can you give a technical explanation on what needs to happen to driveline components to cause wheel hop and what happens during?