Stealthy_S2K

Gee, that sux. I have Active Autowerke LTW aluminum flywheel on my BMW. It has been 40K miles now. Still the same clutch disk with at least 3K track miles on it. I have no problem with it at all. Maybe just yours have problem? I think most of the LTW flywheel in the market are aluminum. I am sure there is some aluminum flywheel makers are in US. Maybe you can custome order one. If I were to custome order one, that would saved me lots of money. I wish I knew that back then.

AusS2000

Most aluminium/steel flywheels I've seen advertised talk about 'bobbins' between the aluminium and steel which is designed specifically to allow for their different expansion rates. Did the Fidanza make any allowance for this (other than the elasticity of the rivets)?

Don't shy away for aluminium just because the Fidanza is a bad product.

lvs2k

My '70 Beetle was purchased new and soon had engine failure due to a similar situation. It had aluminum heads and iron headbolts. Due to high operating temperatures and different expansion rates of dissimilar metals, the heads came loose. It must have been a wide-spread problem because it was fixed under warranty without question. I traded the VW in on a used '71 BMW 2002 about a year later. Best trade I ever made.

Munch

Get a blow shield, it saved my legs when a clutch exploded in my old 69 Camaro.

The Reverend

Stealthy_s2k:
The symptoms we noticed were not obvious. There was a slight noise when the clutch was depressed, but we did not hear the noise when the car was in neutral with the clutch pedal released. So we knew something wasn't right with the clutch or the pp or the release bearing or something that worked with the clutch. It was rather faint sounding. The rivets were not yet ready to give way, but they certainly weren't planning for a long life.

AUS, I didn't see anything sandwiched between the aluminum and steel. It looked pretty damn simple. Aluminum flywheel, steel contact surface attached with crappy rivets that were starting to wear on their heads.

---------------------------------

Another bad experience I've had with Fidanza
You know, I have another bad story with Fidanza... when I wanted to change the flywheel in my car, I didn't want to spend $500 for a Toda flywheel, so I called them up. They said they didn't think there was a market for them to sell an S2000 flywheel but that they'd gladly make me a "one-off" for like $800 or some sh!t like that if I send them my stock flywheel to prototype off of. So basically, they wanted me to supply them with everything they need to have a new product to sell AND cover all their expenses and then some in the process! I said f- that and just got the Toda flywheel.

Then, a few weeks later this dude from the Hybrid board that goes by the name "dreamcivic" emailed me that he wanted to buy my stock flywheel for like $50 or something. I asked why he wanted it and he was kinda vague, like he wanted it for a souvenier or some sh!t like that. I mentioned this to my friend Sean who immediately went into a rage. I didn't recognize the name at first, but this guy sold my buddy Sean a motor a couple years back for more than it was worth, then packed it in like two sheets of newspaper and stuffed it in a cardboard box that was already falling apart and shipped it off to him insured for way more than it was worth. Of course when we opened the box, the motor was totally trashed. So Sean reports it to UPS as damaged, Dreamcivic gets a fat insurance check for WAY more than Sean had paid, and then doesn't refund Sean his money until Sean and I damn near had take a road trip out to beat his ass down.

ANYWAY, Dreamcivic lives across the street from Fidanza and is homies with them. Turns out they had him try to buy off my flywheel for next to nothing so that they could make a flywheel for the S2000 for next to no overhead. So basically, first they told me they needed a huge sum of money to make me a flywheel because no one wanted it. Then, because they lost the chance to TOTALLY profit while doing their R&D with my sh!t, they tried to have this guy buy it off of me for next to nothing so they could make a flywheel "THAT NO ONE WOULD WANT" and not have to pay for R&D costs like going to the dealer and buying a flywheel to get measurements off of.

So shadey.

Anyway, needless to say once I had it all pieced together I told Dreamcivic off properly.

babylou

[QUOTE]Originally posted by lvs2k
[B]My '70 Beetle was purchased new and soon had engine failure due to a similar situation.

aznhc

i dont noe if this story is true or not, but its kinda related, this guy was racing, and when he burned out the clutch exploded because he was revving too high and it came up and hit him in the head. Later the guy died in the hospital from a concussion + serious bleeding in the head

<is this one of the storys that trys to scare little kids from street racing?>

bbsilver

[QUOTE]Originally posted by The Reverend
[B]
AUS, I didn't see anything sandwiched between the aluminum and steel.

The Reverend

Well, more importantly than the cost of replacing your S2000... look where your flywheel is. If it breaks, you're gunna loose a leg or worse.

I should note that when my friend contacted fidanza about the flywheel, they apologized, said this has since been fixed, and offered to send him a new flywheel with bolts/screws instead of rivets. I'm not impressed. They should have recalled them. Most people aren't like us and don't check their flywheel after 7000 miles to make sure it's ok. Those people are going to get seriously injured.

docofmind

Holy crap. I saw a cheap flywheel on Ebay and got all excited. Thankfully, this board and all you brilliant members saved my a$$, or leg, or even me for that matter

I guess its not a bad idea to bring this to the top of the board. Anyone else surfing Ebay should take note of this as well. Thanks Rev!!!