Clutch slipping or something else? Please help

[Guest Eastwolf]

Heya,

Manual B4 TT 99 Legacy.

When cruising on high way I sometime experience strange things with right pedal.

Eg: pull into far right lane and accelarate (in 5th gear), but I get a brief patch of noisey exhaust and the revs go up but I don't get that usual feeling of boost/accelaration. Immediately after, the revs drop and it accelerates as normal.

Also happens sometimes in residential areas in third.

Does this sound like a clutch problem?

It never happens in 1st or 2nd or when taking off from standstill.

[Guest keltik]

Yup sounds like a clutch to me. If you floor it in 3rd or 4th gear does lots of bad smelling blue smoke come out of the car?

[Guest Eastwolf]

By "floor" do you mean red line?

If I red line in 3rd black smoke comes out. No smell tho.

Er... red line in 4th is too fast.

[Guest keltik]

Lol no i mean just floor the accelerator pedal at around 3,000rpm in 3rd. If your clutch is poked it will slip like hell and smell nasty, revs will also increase way quicker than they should for that speed.

Got any torn CV boots on the car?

[Guest Eastwolf]

OK - my bad. I will give it a shot once we get some good weather. Thanks for the responses mate.

[Sean]

I had the same thing in my 98 GT manual legacy, 3rd and 5th the revs would jump, could not smell clutch burnin tho. ended up the clutch was on its way out, you willl probably notice it starts slipping more and more, my advice would be to get it done now before its to bad

[log1call]

The best way to test clutches is to get them in third gear, going slow, about 1500 revs or so, then put the throttle about half way to the floor and before any revs build up give the clutch pedal a quick jab and let it out again.

If the jab is about right the engine will go up to about 2500 or so and when you let the clutch pedal up again quickly you should feel a nice sharp grab to the clutch. If the clutch is good you will feel it through the seat. The car will jump forwards a bit with a jolt and a bit of a thump through the driveline perhaps.

If the engine revs come back down slowly, or don't come down, the clutch is buggered.

If the clutch is good you can let the revs get up quite a bit more, like a bit over 3000 maybe, but you don't really want them near 4000 because by then it's right in the power and the clutch will be struggling a bit anyway to grab quickly. Start off at low revs anyway and try it, if it's ok try the revs a bit higher, you'll soon realise what it takes to make it slip. If the clutch is really good, well, it will pretty much take anything you give it. Practice before your clutch is buggered so you know what they should be like. If you think your clutch is already buggered... borrow a mates to compare yours to. Experiance is the best guide.

[Guest keltik]

If you leave it too long you risk damaging the flywheel, so worth getting it done as soon as it starts slipping

[Guest Eastwolf]

Thanks guys, I did as suggested: building a revs in neutral and letting go of clutch. It DOES actually catch instantly; revs die down.

I can even take off no problem, under heavy accel.

I can't be anything else right?? ( I hope) with the revs jumping up like that??

[Guest keltik]

Well if it doesnt slip when you do that - theres no other explanation i can think of. What your describing is mechanically impossible. Anything which would slip when your cruising along would slip even worse when you pull off or drop the clutch.

[Guest Eastwolf]

I will try and video it and post up a link this weekend.

It seems weird that the clutch can handle a mild launch and/or thrusts but can't handle accelaration when boosting in 5th at 3k RPM.