The saying goes, even for the new models, stock transmission stock clutch. But there are other manufacturers out there that make stock replacements for the car. Depending on what gear he likes to do the hard cornering in, the clutch will take beating. Im pretty sure that the factory flywheel can be turned if its still in good shape. Im not 100 percent sure as when my clutch went out I upgraded everything in that area.

 

I hear you bout the.. stock tranny- keep a stock clutch... If it were anyone else, i'd be skeptical about their claims of "never giving it hell" and "clutch burned out for no reason" but I know this guy and he purposely has been easy on the car. He drives a lot of interstate miles for the job we both work and it's basically his main form of transportation. His plans were to get it paid for then get another car for main transportation and then start playing around with performance upgrades (after warranty had expired)

when I spoke of him hard cornering on curvy country back roads, it's probably not to the extreme as most of you would expect. Bottom line..I'm pretty damned shocked this clutch is gone with only 49,000 miles!!

When it happened he just got to the office and told me about it. He said "man I pushed in the clutch to shift once, it felt fine. Then I pushed it in to go to third, and the pedal was real soft to push and felt really weird and it engaged closer to the bottom. Now it grinds when I try to put it in reverse and is hard to go into other gears."

I instantly thought a problem in the hydraulic master or slave cylinders because slipping and not disengaging are on opposite ends of the spectrum. We checked fluid level and for any signs of leakage (of course) no problem. I checked the travel of the slave cylinder pushing on the clutch fork and it appeared to push it plenty. I went and drove it and it was harder to go into gear (clutch pedal felt weird just like he said) and once we got everything heated up, it was slipping pretty bad. My guess is something broke on the pressure plate causing the weird pedal feel and the low pedal engaging/gear grinding. Then we felt the slipping cause the PP couldn't hold the disc as good. I feel that should be deemed a manufacter defect and thus covered under warranty. BUT.. It has to be torn down to see.. and if it isn't that.. they'll want at very least, a tear down fee.

His concern with going back with what it came with originally is he knows he hasn't been hard on the drivetrain and it is shot at 49,000 miles (1 & 1/2 year old car). If it weren't for me helping him out and doing the job, he'd be dropping $1500 to get it done. Down the road when or if he decides to do some performance upgrades(mild at best) he doesn't want to go back through all this.

 

i dont know the milage limit but a lot of guys have gotten new clutches from the dealer. they are not a wear and tear part anymore. you only get one free replacment though. call SOA direct and ask if 49k is to much. if they say no then take it back to the dealer and tell them to do their fing job and replace it! if they say yes then get an exedy stage 0 off ebay or some where as they make the OEM clutch and their cheap. turn the flywheel or spend the $200ish to get a new one. labors on you, some people can do it cheap because its not that hard. a dealer is about $80 an hour for 5-6 hours.

 

Thanks for the input everyone. I'll tell him to try calling Subaru direct and see. The local dealer here in Huntsville Al told him there was only a 12,000 mile warranty on the clutch but if it was in the hydraulics, it would be covered. They also told him that the flywheel couldn't be turned and he'd have to put on a new flywheel. I've seen on other hydraulic actuated clutches where you'd have to shim the flywheel the amount you machined off of it (to keep the P plate to TO bearing/fork distance the same) but haven't seen one you couldn't turn but who knows?

 

I am having the same issue now. What clutch did you decide to go with? Anyone ever use ( F1 HDSS CLUTCH KIT+FLYWHEEL w ACT 06-10 SUBARU WRX 2.5L - eBay (item 400125271019 end time Apr-23-11 11:13:11 PDT) ) I have no intention of upgrading drive train and plan to only go to about 350HP with 20G upgrade. I have no intention of going over 350 as i would like to try to keep the car reliable. This price seems fair for a lighten flywheel and clutch kit.

 

F1 is garbage, do yourself a favor and don't cheap out on critical parts to your car, never buy ebay parts

Don't buy these clutches! - Subaru Impreza GC8 & RS Forum & Community: RS25.com

 

So would This be a good option? I dont realy want an upgraded clutch just basicly oem replacement.

Exedy OEM - Replacement Clutch Kit SUBARU - Import Replacement Parts, LLC

And what about a lighten flywheel. I figure im in here lets just do it right.

Exedy Racing - Lightweight Flywheel - Import Replacement Parts, LLC

Please any advise would be great. i need to order this today to ensure it comes for next saturday.

 

yes both of those pieces will work great for you, in my experience it's always a good idea if your going with an aftermarket flywheel use the same brand clutch they always work well with each other, and as long as your stock trans remember to run a stock or OEM replacement clutch as its far cheaper to swap out clutches than to swap gearboxes with all the extra shockloading of a HD/upgraded clutch

 

Thanks for the help!!! i ordered these 2 items. Anyone know if this comes with the throw out and pilot bearings? if not can i just go to the dealer and pick these up? or do you k now of online place to order. also any tricks to swaping out this clutch? I have done front and rear wheel drive car but never awd. Can i just drop the lowwer ball joint pull the axles and slide it back or is there a way to do this with out pulling the front axles?

 

It's pretty easy to pull the engine.... I'd rather do that if I didn't have access to a lift. Nothing different about it as the engine still just bolts to the front of the transmission. Separate the two, swap clutch, replace throw out bearing on fork, put back together.

If you got the exedy OEM replacement that comes with the pilot and throw out bearings, as well as the alignment tool.

 

+1 Engine Pull is the easiest unless you have a lift, with a few decent helpers you could have the whole job done in a day

 

This was not very hard compared to any other clutch i have done in the past. Lots of laying on the floor but my garage has a heated floor so wasnt to bad. I got a bunch of pictures i am gonna add to gallery tonight. The lighten flywheel made a noticable differance. The old clutch used to catch almost all the way out. This new one is almost instant catch less then 1" from the floor, and the pressure plate has an odd feeling to it. It has a quick release then smooth after a about 3" from the floor. Thank you everyone for your help deciding on the part to buy.

 

I recently installed an Exedy stage 1 heavy duty and Exedy lightened flywheel combo. Love it! As many in here have said don't get to aggressive over stock or risk breaking other stock drivetrain components. Good Luck!