Burned clutch really badly. Need expert advice.

[15GTBEN]

Guys I need some advice. I made a huge mistake by letting my fiancee's brother (who insisted that he knows how to drive manual) take the car for a spin. Turned out he has never driven a manual car, only motorcycle. He came back within a few minutes and the car reeked with burning clutch smell. When I drove the car again, the clutch definitely felt looser, down to 70-80% stiffness from how it was before. I'm beyond pissed. I'm thinking of taking the car in to get the clutch inspected. Can anything else be damage? How durable is the clutch if I can tell a difference? Help.

Is the clutch slipping in-gear(especially the higher gears under load)?

Probably just knocked some life off it.

Hopefully you learned your lesson...I don't let ANYONE drive my cars, not even my wife, lol.
If I get my car serviced needing a test drive, I go with them.

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[wireeater]

Why would you ever let someone who you never actually watched drive a car take yours out alone? If this is true and not just a way to "hypothetically" ask a question because you messed it up and didn't want to admit to it, that sucks and lesson learned. Sounds like he was trying to do a burnout which would make me question his character even more. Who would take someone else's car out and rag the shit out of it. He sounds like a real class act.

I let someone drive my car the other year with me in it. I told him to launch it (AWD) and he ended up slipping the clutch WAY too much and the car reeked for a day. I didn't get mad though because I knew he didn't mean it and I was in the car, so I knew that it wasn't THAT bad. I'd never toss the keys to someone and just let them take my car unless they were extremely close and had nice cars as well.

 

[jasonstang]

If its not slipping, it's fine but you might need to replace it earlier than you think.
I hope he didn't glaze the fly wheel but you will feel it because the car would jerk and the drive train will jump when you take off slowly because the clutch is shuddering.

 

[15wile]

How the hell does a person even do that? When I bought my Mustang, I was a pretty crappy manual driver. Put 25k miles on the car driving like an asshole and probably burning through a lot of clutch life, and still the clutch is good, don't feel anything odd, and never had that bad of a burning smell, even when doing dumb shit with the car.

It takes a real idiot to drive it THAT badly, even if he was new to manuals.

 

[QRK]

Is the clutch slipping in-gear(especially the higher gears under load)?

Probably just knocked some life off it.

This. He probably didn't do as much damage as you fear in just a few minutes of driving. A buddy of mine in high school got an '07 STI as a graduation present and let people drive it all the time (wasn't the most responsible kid). One time he let one of our other friends take the keys for a few minutes while he and I waited on the sidewalk in front of my house. Our friend came back and we immediately smelled clutch. My buddy whose car it was got in and drove to see if there was any damage and he said the clutch was ruined. However, he said it returned to normal after the car had a lot of time to cool off.

I wouldn't call myself anything close to being an expert but I think that loose feeling you experienced is just due to all the excess heat in the system. See how it feels this morning.

 

[GoBlues38]

relax. the car is fine.

for 100 year people have been learning to drive a manual. yes, there may be some short term smell, but in a day or so the friction plates will normalize and the car is fine.

If your clutch has a 150,000 life expectancy, you may be down to 147,000 now. no big deal.

These cars are not creme puffs. they can take some abuse.

 

[GoBlues38]

Hopefully you learned your lesson...I don't let ANYONE drive my cars, not even my wife, lol.
.

Let me know how your divorce goes

My car is just as much my wife's as it is mine. And it is just a car. I had no problem teaching my 15 year old daughter how to drive a stick in my GT.

 

[PatrickGT]

My expert advice is to not let other people drive your car.

Other aspects of this include don't get so wrapped up being p-whipped that you'll do anything to please her, that pedestal is bullshit and only going to come back around to cut you off at the knees later in life so get control of that sh*t now and get some equality in your relationship. What I'm saying is, this should have never presented itself because your fiancée should have told her brother he isn't going to be driving your car before you ever needed to do so yourself.

 

[cop on my back]

Heat checks in the pressure plate and flywheel very likely. Likely going to have clutch chatter now. After just grenading my clutch last week, I suggest replacing it. I don't know how a person can inspect a clutch without removing the transmission, so while someone inspects it, get them to replace it at the same time!

 

[JuRuKi]

It it really that bad to burn the clutch once? Sure its not good but i dont think you need to replace anything.

 

[Joe 5.0]

If the clutch does take a crap on you, upgrade it to a better clutch while you're there. No point in putting the crappy stock clutch back in.

Sorry to hear about this situation, OP. It is just a wear item so it is not the end of the world!

Good luck!

 

[daltron]

If your clutch has a 150,000 life expectancy, you may be down to 147,000 now. no big deal.

These cars are not creme puffs. they can take some abuse.

^ This. I changed out my clutch and flywheel. I believe they had 6-7K miles of driving on it. This was my first manual car, too. So, that's 6-7K miles of learning to drive stick, launching the car 8-10 times, and A LOT of WOT shifts and A LOT of canyon runs. I smelled the clutch quite a few times. Moral of the story? The stock clutch and flywheel look completely fine, zero glazing. They can take a lot of abuse. IMO, let it cool down and as long as it's not slipping or acting weird you are fine. IF it is bad, then upgrade! Besides the wallet hit, the toughest part will be the 500 mile city break in lol.

 

[ForTehNguyen]

clutch probably glazed, just drive it until it smoothens out

 

[whatsup62]

Guys I need some advice. I made a huge mistake by letting my fiancee's brother (who insisted that he knows how to drive manual) take the car for a spin. Turned out he has never driven a manual car, only motorcycle. He came back within a few minutes and the car reeked with burning clutch smell. When I drove the car again, the clutch definitely felt looser, down to 70-80% stiffness from how it was before. I'm beyond pissed. I'm thinking of taking the car in to get the clutch inspected. Can anything else be damage? How durable is the clutch if I can tell a difference? Help.

I have a stock clutch, pp, flywheel with 4500 miles in great shape - $200 + shipping.

 

[Lost]

Here is the fiancee's brother driving his friend's Corvette last week. :shocked:

That was some funny shit!

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