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2018 Mantic Clutch Noise

gqneon

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I'm having a heck of a time with the Mantic twin disc cerametallic clutch on my 2018 GT. I installed it the first time and after about 300 break in miles it started making an awful noise when the clutch was pushed in; but only intermittently.

I talked to Geoff at Mantic and we ran through some troubleshooting and everything appeared in order. Had to drop the trans again and videoed the uninstall and miked everything he suggested and took lots of photos and neither of us could find anything physically wrong.

I replaced the throwout bearing just for good measure (it had 2500 miles on it) and carefully and accurately reinstalled everything how it should be done (the same as the first time.)

Everything was quiet and fine at first just like the first time - but at about 50-60 miles - it came back. And it's just like it was before, again, after about 60 miles.

It sounds like this and it doesn't matter if the cars moving or stopped, when you push in the clutch it seems like the clutch discs don't fully disengage and it causes a racket you can hear loudly and feel in the body of the car.

If you go to shift during this, it will grind as the clutch discs aren't disengaged fully. The only solution is to put it in neutral, release the clutch pedal, push it back in and hope it's corrected itself. Sometimes it does it and sometimes it doesn't, making me think nothings bent. Nothings physically broken and everything's torqued correctly and exhaustively checked.

I'm gonna take the trans out for the third time in two weeks it seems.

Has anyone had a similar problem with the mantic on an 18+?

What clutches are you 18+ owners running and what experiences have you had with them?

I'm taking this out to mail it back to Geoff at Mantic this weekend or first thing next week. Jackstands and trans removal isn't a lot of fun once. Or twice. Or three times. I'm hoping to not have to do it a fourth.

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gixxersixxerman

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Identical symptoms I’m having. IDENTICAL.
What came out of your situation? I’ve spoke with @gqneon through PM. I test drove a 18 with a mantic metallic and it drove like stock, just rev happy more. It may have had a little bit of chatter if I was trying to feel for it, but it was really hard to feel.

I just ordered mine yesterday. I installed the WOT Box and finally for the first time my car was shifting much better, but I guess I pushed it to much enjoying it and the 3-4 shift fork finally gave out. Luckily I have a really good friend at ford so dropping him 100$ to install the Mantic when they pull the trans for the TSB. Here in Vegas we have 2 mantic cars both with over 800whp, I plan on going Whipple at the end of the year. I didn’t wanna pull the trans twice. Both claim they love the clutch.

Every time I read great things about Mantic or McLeod I can find 3 negative things. I hope if I do have issues with the Mantic I’ll be able to return it if need be. I’m also wondering if it is due to disengagement issues, will a adjustable throw out bearing fix it giving a longer stroke.
 
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gqneon

gqneon

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I never resolved it, took three weeks to get a refund once he had it back. He said he sold it to someone else who had no issues but I've gotten PM's from a number of people having the same or very similar issues with Mantic. I wanted it to work and bent over to try. If I would have had to pay a shop four times to pull and reinstall clutches it would have been like $5,500 clutch job that still wouldn't work.

I went RXT and it has worked exactly as you'd expect from the first install. Would never touch a Mantic product again but that's just my humble opinion after my whole experience with it.
 
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Kent Stacey

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After going back and fourth with Mantic and doing everything asked from them for two weeks i decided not to end up like gqneon being a test mule and yanked it out and moved on.

The two cars you’re referring too in Vegas making 800+ on the Mantic clutch are they 2018-2019? I’m yet to speak to anyone with a 18+ that hasn’t had issues unfortunately.


What came out of your situation? I’ve spoke with @gqneon through PM. I test drove a 18 with a mantic metallic and it drove like stock, just rev happy more. It may have had a little bit of chatter if I was trying to feel for it, but it was really hard to feel.

I just ordered mine yesterday. I installed the WOT Box and finally for the first time my car was shifting much better, but I guess I pushed it to much enjoying it and the 3-4 shift fork finally gave out. Luckily I have a really good friend at ford so dropping him 100$ to install the Mantic when they pull the trans for the TSB. Here in Vegas we have 2 mantic cars both with over 800whp, I plan on going Whipple at the end of the year. I didn’t wanna pull the trans twice. Both claim they love the clutch.

Every time I read great things about Mantic or McLeod I can find 3 negative things. I hope if I do have issues with the Mantic I’ll be able to return it if need be. I’m also wondering if it is due to disengagement issues, will a adjustable throw out bearing fix it giving a longer stroke.
 

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gixxersixxerman

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After going back and fourth with Mantic and doing everything asked from them for two weeks i decided not to end up like gqneon being a test mule and yanked it out and moved on.

The two cars you’re referring too in Vegas making 800+ on the Mantic clutch are they 2018-2019? I’m yet to speak to anyone with a 18+ that hasn’t had issues unfortunately.
Both 18’s. One a Whipple the other Paxton. I believe the one with the Whipple had to shim the throwout bearing. Which is why I wondered about the adjustable throw out bearing, I reached out to him to double check. When I drove it, he didn’t have the Whipple on yet. It seems online it’s nothing but bad news, I’m hoping I have the luck like the 2 locals lol. I’ll report back if I have issues also.
 
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gqneon

gqneon

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Geoff at mantic had me making spacers to put under the clutch pedal etc to see if it was over or under engaging - etc. after pulling it three times I said enough, and that includes having sent it back between pulls when we "couldn't find anything wrong." I didn't try any aftermarket throwout bearings but swapped an oem for a new oem with no benefit. Fathouse mentioned to a friend that they've seen that issue and it was a matter of bending the springs to stop making noise but it wasn't told to me first hand so I can't elaborate further. It seemed like it needed a redesign on diaphragm springs or throwout spacing or something - I think it could have been great. It bummed me out to have to go through weeks of trials and what felt like R&D. However I'm very happy with the RXT after tossing it in.
 

TheLion70x77

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Geoff at mantic had me making spacers to put under the clutch pedal etc to see if it was over or under engaging - etc. after pulling it three times I said enough, and that includes having sent it back between pulls when we "couldn't find anything wrong." I didn't try any aftermarket throwout bearings but swapped an oem for a new oem with no benefit. Fathouse mentioned to a friend that they've seen that issue and it was a matter of bending the springs to stop making noise but it wasn't told to me first hand so I can't elaborate further. It seemed like it needed a redesign on diaphragm springs or throwout spacing or something - I think it could have been great. It bummed me out to have to go through weeks of trials and what felt like R&D. However I'm very happy with the RXT after tossing it in.
I'm in a similar boat with my 2016 PP GT. I have a 9000 twin disk organic after my OE clutch let go 4 weeks ago at 30k. The workmanship is stellar, well at least the billet machined parts appear to be. But it appears mine is over engaging AND the disks are NOT sliding across the splines like they should or a disk is warped so it's constantly dragging. The splines were cleaned and greased lightly with OE grease so there should be no reason for that.

Regarding the over engagement, the dealer tried both the original slave that was in the car and a new slave pulled from stock. 80% of the travel it's very light, then the last 20% it gets extremely stiff and I hear a loud bearing type whine start, both the very firm feel and the corresponding whining / shaking of the shifter indicate it's reached it's limits of travel. Over engagement could be fixed with a pedal travel stop, not the biggest issue and better to over engage than under engage. That's an easy fix. But the scraping? That's an issue I cannot solve with simple travel stops and adjustment.

So between the abnormal engagement range with the stock slave and disks constantly dragging even with the pedal fully depressed (well depressed 80% where it's not over engaging), it's been a night mare. $850 in labor (and a new slave) and $1500 for a clutch that doesn't work properly as a drop in is NOT acceptable by any standard. They will be giving me a full refund, especially since I'm going to have to foot the bill for their manufacturing f***up and pay for labor again to install a factory clutch or possibly go another route.

I'm a bit torn right now as to the best course of action. New factory clutch + braided stainless clutch line and hope for the best or try again with a replacement 9000 kit and then dive into shimming the pedal. The 9000 is a very well engineer clutch in terms of performance, but I obviously got one with some significant manufacturing defects that have caused me a world of trouble that is not of my own making....or go with another clutch manufacturer all together.
 
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gqneon

gqneon

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I hope Geoff takes care of you, he's been dragging a friend of mine having the same issues through the ringer over the same problems you're having and I had. Seems like this is popping up more and more now.
 

TheLion70x77

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I hope Geoff takes care of you, he's been dragging a friend of mine having the same issues through the ringer over the same problems you're having and I had. Seems like this is popping up more and more now.
Yah right now I'm trying to weigh my options. I can't keep sharing cars with my wife. I just got a loaner from the dealer finally but not sure how long they will lend it to me free of charge. Geoff at Mantic offered to replace the defective parts (weather it's the flywheel or the clutch disks) in the clutch once he gets it back for analysis and also upgrade to ceramic disks free of charge AND pay of the original labor costs so I'm not paying double install given that their product is at fault and reason for double the labor.

Or I could just send it back, get a full refund for the clutch and original labor, then go OE and back on the road by weeks end. I'm not sure I'm willing to risk another aftermarket vendor and possible defects. I've seen issues from every vendor out there, weather it's Exedy, McLeod, Mantic etc. Every one of them has sold clutches that failed catastrophically within a few thousand miles and most of them thumb their noses at the customer. At least at this point, Geoff has been very willing to try to work things out either way, Mantic or go back to OE.

My big concern about OE is durability long term. The stocker lasted 30k....pathetic. And I had issues with the pedal sticking or getting very spongy since day 1. Obviously the plastic hydraulic line is a big part of that and running a braided stainless line with an OE clutch would probably be fairly reliable, but I still think a 9000 with ceramic disks will outlast a stocker by quite a bit given how robust ceramic disks are compared to organic. I was originally fine with Heavy Duty organic disks as an in-between, better temp range than standard OE organic material, but a little smoother than ceramic. But at this point I REALLY do not want to be messing with clutches again for quite some time, so my intuition says put the higher durability setup in there and stick it out.
 
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gqneon

gqneon

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My recommendation, since I did all that and in tots pulled my trans five times including a stock reinstall in the middle - is go back to stock or RXT. I would take the refund and cut your loss - the solid hub RXT has had smoother engagement than I ever had with the mantic. Just my two cents - you might have better luck - but I know what I'm doing and did the trans work solo on jackstands enough times to know it wasn't going to work. I tried new discs too - it's not the discs. If it worked right it would be glorious. But it doesn't. Midnight performance I think had three mantic they simply pulled out and junked at once for issues like this - I don't have the link but a buddy sent me a screenshot of them all sitting on a bench at their shop. Stock worked great but wasn't going to live with any launching with a whipple that's for sure
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