Andy said:
Nope, But I didn't read where he spec'ed a Manual or auto for his
granddaughter
True, but few folks that have an automatic transmission repaired are
that specific about what was repaired inside the auto trans. Sure, it
may have been a clutch pack in an automatic, but I'd venture to say that
99% of the time when some says they had a clutch failure, they are
talking about a manual transmission vehicle.
Blanket statements of "Car bad" don't tell the story of clutch abuse etc..
These are value priced cars.....not sports cars with Super heavy duty
clutches.
Yes, that is why my response asked a series of questions. It may have
been a failure due to a defective part, but most likely was due to poor
driver technique. I've driven standard shift vehicles for 30 years and
have NEVER worn out a clutch. I've had several vehicles go well over
100K miles and still on the original clutch.
Hard driving will eat clutches........In my 2nd VW bug w/1900cc bus engine I
destroyed bunches of clutches, Drove the poor thing real hard.
That is true, but you can drive pretty hard and still no wear the clutch
apppreciably. The main wear on the clutch is startin from a stop, or
downshifting without blipping the throttle to match rotational speeds of
the engine and input shaft of the transmission. I drove OTR trucks for
several years so I got fairly good at this, but most folks don't even
know they should do this.
Probably the biggest abuse I see of clutches is from people who use the
clutch to hold position on a hill while waiting for the light to turn
green, rather than using the brakes. That will eat a clutch in a hurry.
It got to the point a clutch,Throw-out bearing,Bearing arm took me only 1.5
hours to change in the street...with only my girlfriend helping.
I had two VW Beetles and few cars made before or since are as easy to
work on! I could pull an engine, overhaul it, and re-install it in one
day, assuming all parts were on hand.
However, I drove mine hard and still never had a clutch or t-bearing
failure in the 100K+ miles I put on both of them.
Matt