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My 2005 Accord 5 speed has almost 140k on the clutch, no slipping and no signs of major wear. I do hear some chirps from the throwout bearing, I believe, but its been doing that for the past 3 years. I'm not hard on the clutch or the car. A clutch can last over 200k depending on the driver. My friend has a '95 Toyota Celica as his daily driver with 290k on it and he replaced the clutch at like 250-260k, a little more than a year ago I think.
My past two cars have been sports cars with the clutches lasting over 130k miles. Sold the first with plenty of clutch life still left @ 130k miles. And my current car has 135k miles on the original clutch.
My current car has 400 HP and I don't drive it lightly. But I treat the transmission well. I rev-match all the time, I don't power-shift, and I don't toast the clutch if I launch it.
I would say that's not the norm though. I should have added that my cars are also AWD, so there's more strain on the drivetrain overall as well.
The clutch on my camaro lasted 16 years/about 102,000 miles. I had them replace the throw out bearing while the thing was opened up. On my Jensen Healey, it does not last that long. Since the odometers never seem to work on those things, I am not sure how many miles and sine I drive it just for fun, it is hard to tell how many years. I do know it is not very long, but they are very easy to replace.
If I remember correctly the replacement clutch for the Camaro was around $400 - $450 with the throw out bearing.
I cannot remember replacing a clutch on any other cars except a Honda quite a ways back. That clutch went out at about 70,000 miles. It was also very easy to replace.
My Son's 2003 Ion has 220,000 miles. It is showing signs of needing a new clutch, but he may get another 10 - 20K miles out of it.
In 1999 I bought a 1991 Subaru Legacy wagon with 113k on it. I was living in WY at the time. In WY the only driving options are parking and highway driving. The car, bought in a private sale, had been well maintained and driven carefully. Original clutch, brakes, etc. I drove that car for 8 years. When I sold the car in 2007, at 165k, it still had the same clutch and brakes. I had the brakes checked a few times and they were still fine.
I would say that's not the norm though. I should have added that my cars are also AWD, so there's more strain on the drivetrain overall as well.
My first car (that lasted 130k miles before I sold it) was AWD, too. Once you release the clutch pedal, you're not wearing down the clutch.
In reality, the only time you're wearing the clutch is when you start from a stop. You have to slip the clutch it get going. During gear changes, you're not on the gas (or shouldn't be), so there's no clutch slippage and wear there. And if you rev-match on downshifts, you won't have that issue there either.
If you're only getting 40k miles out of a clutch, it's either a pure non-road legal race car or perhaps you're far too aggressive on the transmission.
My current car has 400 HP and I don't drive it lightly. But I treat the transmission well. I rev-match all the time, I don't power-shift, and I don't toast the clutch if I launch it.
With the headers/cats/tune, my M5 is around 420hp. These cars are well known to have clutch failures early on, but I honestly believe it has to do with how they are broken in when new and subsequently driven. If it hadn't been for a disintegrated clutch fork pivot bushing, I think I could have easily reached 125k miles on the original clutch.
Other manual trans cars I've owned, clutch slippage usually attributed to things like rear main seal leaking or oil getting into the bellhousing from somewhere.
Im at 184k with the original clutch in my 97 VW GTi 2.0.
The good thing is, when i need a new clutch, its not soo bad for me to change it myself, the clutch is a couple hundred and it will probably take a days worth of work.
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