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Clutch life depends on three things:
1. how often you stop and start. Once moving in high gear clutch life is irrelevant.
2. How hilly your home area is.
3. Whether you let your daughter drive it.
Pretty interesting bell curve so far. It looks like the sweet spot is between 125k and 175k miles.
I'm well aware that it's highly dependent on a number of factors. But it is good to see that a number of people were able to make it to over 200k without a problem.
I have one car with 150k miles on it with the original clutch. I bought it when it had 20k miles. The clutch doesn't slip at all, but it doesn't engage until the pedal is at the very end of it's travel. I only really noticed it when I drove a car with an engagement point that occurs almost immediately when you start lifting your foot off the clutch. Is a high engagement point a sign of a worn clutch or is that something that varies from car to car?
we bought a used car at around 75k miles, less than a few months later we had to replace the clutch. My husband knows how to drive it so he was sure the clutch was probably just about to go before we bought it.
I had a 1984 Mustang GT with the 5.0 engine and a 4-speed manual transmission. I bought it used in late 1985, forgot how many miles it had on it, but it was around 30,000 miles. If I remember correctly I put about 70,000 hard miles on it and I had the clutch replaced at around under 100,000 miles.
I also had a 1993 Dodge Dakota, with a V-6 and a 5-speed transmission. I think I put about 90,000 miles on it (plus the 30,000 miles it had when I bought it in 1996) before replacing the clutch.
I now have a 2001 Nissan Xterra, with a 3.3 litre V-6 and a 5-speed transmission. It has over 85,000 miles on it, and the clutch will probably last for another 60,000 miles.
Like others have mentioned, how long the clutch lasts depends on how the person drives the vehicle. Stopping at intersections and leaving the clutch engaged and transmission in first gear while waiting for the light to turn green is a big clutch killer. Instead of getting 100,000 miles on the clutch, driving like that will cut the life of the clutch in half.
I don't really know how many miles one would have to drive to replace the clutch, but I have a 1987 Civic Si with over 260,000 miles, and the clutch is fine (has never been replaced). But the timing belt broke, so I have to replace that. Then a Susuki Sidekick with 200,000 miles, and the clutch is in perfect shape.
I had a 1984 Mustang GT with the 5.0 engine and a 4-speed manual transmission. I bought it used in late 1985, forgot how many miles it had on it, but it was around 30,000 miles. If I remember correctly I put about 70,000 hard miles on it and I had the clutch replaced at around under 100,000 miles.
I also had a 1993 Dodge Dakota, with a V-6 and a 5-speed transmission. I think I put about 90,000 miles on it (plus the 30,000 miles it had when I bought it in 1996) before replacing the clutch.
I now have a 2001 Nissan Xterra, with a 3.3 litre V-6 and a 5-speed transmission. It has over 85,000 miles on it, and the clutch will probably last for another 60,000 miles.
Like others have mentioned, how long the clutch lasts depends on how the person drives the vehicle. Stopping at intersections and leaving the clutch engaged and transmission in first gear while waiting for the light to turn green is a big clutch killer. Instead of getting 100,000 miles on the clutch, driving like that will cut the life of the clutch in half.
Stopping in gear with the clutch engaged will stall the car. Stepping on the clutch pedal disengages the clutch.
As far as I know, holding it all the way down like that for long periods of time puts more wear on the throwout bearing, but as far as I know when it is fully engaged (clutch pedal up) or fully disengaged (clutch pedal all the way down), the clutch disk is not wearing any appreciable amount. What wears it out is the slipping in between. Taking off from a stop wears it the most, with the subsequent gear changes not nearly as much.
Downshifting does not accelerate clutch wear if you know how to do it correctly.
I think it has more to do with being lazy that I don't down shift much. That and the fact that you have to be so careful down shifting from 5th into 4th gear. If you hit 2nd gear by mistake you can blow the engine. The dealer told me that when I bought the car.
I think it has more to do with being lazy that I don't down shift much. That and the fact that you have to be so careful down shifting from 5th into 4th gear. If you hit 2nd gear by mistake you can blow the engine. The dealer told me that when I bought the car.
In all my miles of driving, I've never even come close to accidentally grabbing 2nd gear instead of 4th.
Here's a tip: don't use any sideways motion on the stick. When the car is in neutral, the shifter is natrually centered so that 3rd gear is straight up and 4th gear is straight down (unless the car is very old and it no longer springs into that position). Use that to your advantage. When shifting from 5th to 4th, pull the shifter out of 5th with just a light downward motion, let it naturally move to the center of the shift gate, and then use a light straight down motion to get it into 4th.
The same goes for a 2nd to 3rd shift, just upward motions.
You only really need to use a sideways motion when shifting from 4th to 5th and from 3rd to 2nd.
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I think it has more to do with being lazy that I don't down shift much. That and the fact that you have to be so careful down shifting from 5th into 4th gear. If you hit 2nd gear by mistake you can blow the engine. The dealer told me that when I bought the car.
