Hi Everyone,

I'd just like some advice on what to do here.

My clutch just broke apart last night at 26,000 miles. I was merging onto a road, shifted into 3rd gear and heard a "crack". I then could not get into any other gear and was stuck in 3rd gear, and there was no feeling to the clutch pedal at all.

I managed to make it to a service station, even though it was 8:45 a mechanic was still there. We let the car cool off for a little bit and went for a test drive. Barely managed to get into 1st, 2nd and 3rd gear, the pedal still had almost no feeling to it, then we got stuck and had to call a tow truck!

The mechanic has looked at the car and has found that the clutch is literally in pieces. It's like it is non-existent. With the car on he was actually able to move the stick shift without the clutch pedal down, and there was no grinding at all.

Mechanic says the pressure plate, disc clutch and thrower bearings are needed. Not sure about the flywheel though. Checked to see if any other parts places have the part, but no, only Mitsubishi has it. Cost for parts from Mitsubishi is a total of $581.84, or with the flywheel if needed, $1317.85. Also, the mechanic said that labor would go for about $750.

Now, we don't believe the clutch is just worn down or anything. Called a Mitsubishi dealer, and they say clutches are never covered under warranty, but of course for them to make completely sure, car has to be towed there and they need to look. They wouldn't give me any idea on labor costs or potential warranty coverage at all, not until it is towed to them and looked at by them. They do get $98 and hour and I know the transmission has to be removed to take a look at the clutch. Said that would take about 3 hours, so I'm looking at $300 just in diagnostics.

You think it is worth having the car towed to Mitsubishi to diagnose it also and determine if it may potentially be under warranty? Or just get it repaired at the local mechanic?

Thanks for the advice everyone!

-Scott

it will NOT be covered.
even if it were, clutch coverage is 12/12.


you're gonna need to pay to have it replaced. Then Id suggest being a little lighter on it.

The dealer quoted me $1350 for a clutch replacement for my 06 GT. Now I don't know about the flywheel on the GS but the quote they gave me was without the flywheel or the throwout bearing. The flywheels in the GTs' are dual friction setups and can't be resurfaced so it had to be replaced. they wanted $850 for the flywheel and $110 for the throwout bearing so the cost would have ended up being upwards to the cost of $2400 to replace it. I spent about $1500 to redo it myself. $530 for the clutch $110 for the throwout bearing, $370 for an after-market flywheel and I spent $370 on new tools so I would have everything I needed. Then there was the trans fluid at $10 a quart (3 quarts synthetic), brake fluid to re-bleed the clutch (about $2.50), $20 on coolant (2 gallons needed because I needed to remove the thermostat housing on the V6 to get the trans back in), I changed the oil (5 quarts at about $4 a quart for synthetic blend) and a new oil filter.

If you are replacing a clutch at 26k, you need to either learn to drive, or you need to stop holding the clutch and launching the car.

I replaced mine at just shy of 32000 miles. When I am tired (which is almost all the time) I get lazy with the clutch. that is why I had to replace mine.

If you can shift into gears with the car on and no clutch pushed in the clutch is probably not the problem.

Try bleeding the system. My guess is either a hole in the hydraulic system or a bad slave cylinder.

Could the shift forks or cables running from the pedal to the tranny be messed up?

Its possible the shift linkage popped off.

when i first got my 08 eclipse spyder gt, 24hours after i got the car the **** clutch blew...the warranty covered it

but it blew again yesterday at 22k km, the clutch lost pressure competely and when i towed it there was clutch fluid leaking, the warranty covered this as welll

i already read about 2 cases of this happening, maybe its a manufacturs defect?

clutch failures are always from consumer abuse.
they do not just "fail".

the only system that could potentially fail in the entire clutch system would be the hydraulics, which also are quite full-proof.

Nothing is ever produced perfect 100% of the time. There are always and I mean always units that even though they pass initial specs are inferior. It is possible to get something like a clutch disk that has a weak spot and can fail from normal non abusive use. It might be rare but it is possible.

My 06 has been into Mitsu like 4 - 6 times for warranty work. The recall for the heat up catalytic converter was probably started by me. At 1200 miles (beginning of August '05) on the OD my CEL came on. When it was hooked up to their computer it gave zeros for all sensor readings. The one day I was washing my car with a garden hose not even high pressure and my drivers side mirror fell apart. They couldn't figure out why. How many people had their drivers side mirror fall apart? I got an inferior mirror so it fell apart. The fact of the matter is not everything is perfect and there are times when things fail for no apparent reason.