Only Person with a clutch problem eh ?

Fr0dders

Fr0dders

Fr0dders

Caporegime
Joined
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Location
West Yorks
Including me the total number of VXR forum members with clutch failure is now up to 4

http://www.vxronline.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?p=1102713

http://www.vxronline.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=74503

http://www.vxronline.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=80776

the latter had his clutch last 3-4 months after he got a Stage 2 tune with 323bhp and 480 lb/ft (mine was 300bhp and 400 lb/ft)

its obvious these things need an uprated clutch to handle the power, but nobody seems to bother making one apart from MidPointGarage. But its never actually been clarified if it really does produce the 380bhp they say their stage 2 makes. They also claim 380bhp is possible on the stock intercooler, which courtenay have had real issues with. See here if your interested

http://www.vxronline.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=77995

Not a lot of facts, and if it really did produce 380bhp, how easy would it be to whip out a graph. They also dont warranty their work, but yet tell you putting 500 + lb/ft of torque through a gearbox that was only designed for 300 lb/ft is perfectly safe. But neither they or vauxhall will warranty this which leaves you ****ed if they are wrong about this.

But then courtenay were the ones who told me nobody burnt out clutches and an upgraded one wasnt necessary. Dont know what to believe anymore. Suffice to say, this has put me well off tuning.
 
Thats a lot more extra torque for it to handle then.

An extra 200lb/ft is going to put a fair amount of strain on items.
 
in hindsight its not surprising

but theres so much mis-information around. The gearbox was only rated for 300lb/ft of constant torque. The argument from the tuners was that the 400 lb/ft was only available from around 2000rpm to 4000rpm so wasnt "constant".
 
Makes me wonder how long my clutch will last to be honest. From what I read on the forums the M32 box is only rated for 320nm and I'm running close to 500nm.
 
I cant understand the confusion. It's obvious that you need to fit an uprated clutch when you increase the torque, that's the basics!
 
Clarkey said:
I cant understand the confusion. It's obvious that you need to fit an uprated clutch when you increase the torque, that's the basics!
Click to expand...

Good thing about my MR2 was it had 300bhp without the silly amount of torque so didnt need to uprate anything.
 
Uprating a clutch is pretty standard is it not?

Most people do it from the offset or leave in the stock part on the assumption that it will inevitably break and need replacing.

At the end of the day if someone says the stock part will take it - prove it? Either that or put your money where your mouth is and cover the part should it fail so blatantly.
 
This is a completely obvious issue, why the 'grief' surrounding it? They're putting twice the factory torque through factory items, of course it's not going to be able to take it and go *bang*.

I think anyone who believes that putting over twice the original torque through a powertrain isn't somehow going to reduce its lifespan considerably, or make it fail almost instantly, needs to have a serious sit down and think about what they're doing! :D

There are only a handful of instances in the world where you can get by on OEM parts with increases in output like that, and they are few and far between.

There's a lot of cow feces in the tuning world and it seems like there's some prime examples of it being discussed there......
 
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Sin_Chase said:
Uprating a clutch is pretty standard is it not?

Most people do it from the offset or leave in the stock part on the assumption that it will inevitably break and need replacing.
Click to expand...

Indeed. The MX5's gearbox will take the power but I'm expecting to have to change the clutch soon (I'm budgeting for it anyway) along with the diff at some point for a torsen unit. They're holding out at the moment though and I'm being as mechanically sympathetic as possible ;) But I'd be naive to expect them to work through their normal "lifespan"
 
Sin_Chase said:
At the end of the day if someone says the stock part will take it - prove it? Either that or put your money where your mouth is and cover the part should it fail so blatantly.
Click to expand...
i could total a new clutch on a totally standard car in 5 minutes. anyone can drive like a tool
 
The issue is I think that they all expect something for almost nothing with no consequences at all. It is a bit like the teenage geek who's read about overclocking skillz online, and decides to double the voltage and frequency on his CPU without even thinking about cooling, and then wondering why the only activity coming from his PC is a small trail of smoke.

Retards.
 
Tuning companies will swear blind that their mods are perfectly safe. It's how they secure customers.

It's only through experience that you learn this is never the case. Any significant mod will always have side effects elsewhere.

Even just fitting a new sports exhaust (which is a pretty simple mod for anyone to make) can cause annoying heatshield rattles and reverberance/rattles with the interior. Of course these are just annoyances but they're things that tuners won't bother to mention.
 
and i think, especially on new cars like that, the owners are particularly clueless so cannot use their own judgement about whether its safe/worthwhile to do this or that to their cars.

"IF" the box is only rated to 300lbft youd have to be a window licking spastic to hope itll take 560lbft. id even worry about 380lbft.

IMO buy german stuff. certain components seem to be bomb proof. the gearbox on my car (standard 150bhp) typically ends up on turbo'd cars making way over 300bhp and torque without breaking a sweat
 
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