Clutch - Initial Symptoms

[galaxy]

Weeellll, so this started just the other day...

From a standstil (stop light, etc), taking off from a dead stop in 1st gear, normal acceleration, riiigghhttt at the very top of the clutch pedal release, right when you're about to transition from letting the clutch out to no pressure on the pedal at all, I'm getting a very slight little shudder. it's certainly a shudder, it's more prevalent when up to operating temp, and it's repeatable; starting to happen more frequently.

Car drives great, zero other issues, can change gears normally, clutch is not slipping; it'll hold the power.

Thoughts? Is this an initial symptom that days are numbered? Stock, original clutch with 41K on it.

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[Lurker_350]

Mine does this as well. It reminds me of a car with a really lightweight flywheel (I know ours are not lightweight). If I use a little more revs, it doesn't shudder - not sure if yours is behaving this way or not.

My symptoms match yours - only happens when hot and clutch holds power fine. I've wondered if it might be an issue with the dual mass flywheel....

 

[MiamiGT350]

A little bit of shudder "chatter" is normal.

If the throwout bearing is going, you'll hear a whine/squeal that goes away when you push the clutch in. A squeal, metal-on-metal ugly sounds, and/or shifting-into-gear issues would be a reason to seek service.

 

[galaxy]

yeah, I got no other symptoms, noise or otherwise. But it is abnormal for my car.

 

[cerbomark]

yeah, I got no other symptoms, noise or otherwise. But it is abnormal for my car.

isn t there a port to inspect clutch thickness from under car on a lift?

 

[JetGray_Mach1]

Sounds pretty normal to me. My M1 since new does it sometimes (hot day on a incline most likely). My previous 14GT did it as well, got worse as I approached 120K miles. This will happens more as your clutch wears out or contamination or warping/glazed surface from slipping it too much . Could also be other clutch issues but unless its significant I would not worry about it.

 

[Basspro302]

Check your engine mounts the driver side likes to go first.

 

[FISH22]

Have been experiencing the same thing on my ‘20 w/22k miles. Started noticing it about 8k miles ago. When the car is bone cold, it doesn’t exhibit this, only after some heat soak and up to normal temps that it displays the slight shudder.

I’ve been researching this anomaly for months now. I just did a good bleed on the clutch system by applying vacuum, we’ll see if that changes anything.

Like posted above, I do plan to inspect motor mounts. From my research, motor and trans mounts can be culprits to this type of behavior.

 

[wingnutt]

Oh dang, that’s a non-starter right there. the fix for that is all encompassing and uber expensive. Tell ya what, I’ll take her off your hands for a minimal-ish discount and deal with the atrocious nature of things all by myself, just lemme know

 

[FISH22]

I decided to order new OE engine mounts just for sh*ts and giggles. I’ll report back once they’re installed. Shot in the dark, but after reading on the beating the GT350 mounts take, I’m marking these up as a consumable.

 

[galaxy]

I don’t disagree. But I’ve had bad mounts in cars before (engine torques to one side under throttle, etc) and these are not my symptoms.

 

[galaxy]

Since we’re here, let’s do this…

which way to go with a new clutch on a n/a
350.

I did a little searching but nothing overwhelmingly conclusive really for the 350, that I found.

Concensus seems to be certainly stick with a stock flywheel due to cpc dampening.

Stock Ford clutch, any particluar brand, etc?

 

[wingnutt]

Since we’re here, let’s do this…

which way to go with a new clutch on a n/a
350.

I did a little searching but nothing overwhelmingly conclusive really for the 350, that I found.

Concensus seems to be certainly stick with a stock flywheel due to cpc dampening.

Stock Ford clutch, any particluar brand, etc?

did you ever get a bead on this?

if I was still n/a I think another ford clutch would do me fine, as mine went almost 78k miles. But since the last 10k were boosted, need something with a bit more oomph.

i also struggled with the fpc/flywheel thing, since you can’t turn the old one and a new one is 1500 clams by itself. After talking to a half dozen yahoos on here, the consensus was McLeod RXT is a solid option

 

[galaxy]

No, not a ton of info. There’s tons of coyote opinions out there, but not us.

So far, I’m in the camp you just said. And the way my car is driving, I’m thinking I have a pretty darn good ways to go, but I am leaning the route you just described, including the flywheel; albeit I didn’t run across that price, lol.

I did hear @honeybadg reference stay away from the lightweight/aftermarket ones, but also not a ton of other info on that as well.

The aftermarket clutches are pretty, but the coyote community has opinions/experiences that span the spectrum, like most products.

 

[honeybadger]

I’ll say this. As someone who has slowly modified a voodoo away from stock - it got less reliable every time I removed a stock part that absorbed vibrations. And every single thing was related to vibrations. I cannot state of much less the CPC vibrates the car (meaning I don’t have a resonance in the chassis anymore).

Track attack used factory clutches. Use the factory deals, imho. There’s zero measurable benefit other than money unless you’re playing with 850+ hp. And hopefully by the time you’re at that level, you’re ready to write off a motor if needed.

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