Saturn ION RedLine Forums banner

Nightmare ,clutch problem!!!

4670 Views 35 Replies 15 Participants Last post by  yrethguad
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I dont go wot often
But its not cause i dont want.
Having big issue to got my car fixed.
Clutch slipping real bad, been complaining about noisy clucthbearing since i got the car. Took taht to the dealership, twice and they kept my car 2 days each times. Conclusion thety are telling me its inside tranny, the gear i know that there is a noise there but its not what i complain about!!!!!!!! anyways got mad leave with the car not fixed.
Few days latter notice something really wrong with the clutch, begin to slip bad but not all the times.
One more time again take that to the dealer and ask to go for road test with the guy who gonna fix (or supposed to fix my car)
At first he drive normaly never floored it driving like my mom and told me everything seems find.
Told him how to drive to make that happen and he did
Agreed with me its sliping a bit.
Told me ok i will take a look at that.
Cool my baby gonna be fix
Two days latter got it back, and fu** all been done one more time again again
Talk with the manager (that guy should work at toys`r`us) and he told me its not slipping all his tech told him
Been in the car with that guy and he aggred thats slipping a bit.
Thats bull sh*t and ask if its possible to talk with that guy and the answer had been no.
Left so mad and now my clucth is a lot worst slipping
every time i go wot, it s why i dont go wot often.
U all know the smell of a cluctch slipping and the feeling.
Sometimes i really feel like if the slave not working properly.
But i guest the manager there not listening at me at all or just dont gave a sh*t, thinking is better then every body else.
Now im stock with my problem and i have to call customer service.
Cant enjoy driving my car cause something is defect and eating my clutch away..
anabody got advice for me?
See less See more
1 - 20 of 36 Posts
I am pretty sure my clutch is going out but, this is my first Manual car and I really haven't had the chance to ask any of my friends.

My symptoms are when I give it anywhere around half-throttle the engines revs 500-1000rpms the drops back down and the car accelerates. Pretty sure that's the clutch if not, please tell me.
Guys, not to sound like dad here, but after being a GM service manager, and doing what I do now, there's no "fair" in life when it comes to stuff like this. There's not a manufacturer in the US, other than Porsche and Mercedes, that provides any type of warranty on the clutch on manual trans vehicles. Period. If you're dogging it a little, or learning how to drive on it, yuo've caused some good clutch wear, and that's just life.

Sorry, but you have to buy a clutch.
Well, considering I myself have put maybe 5000 miles on the car and my dad put 2000 on the car. It seems a little weird, don't you think, that at 7000 miles the clutch is going out?
Who am I to say? I mean, your grandma could be driving the car - my point is that just like road hazard on tires and wear on wiper blades, it's not a warranty covered item. Fair or not doesn't matter - going to the dealership and getting yourself arrested because you hit the service manager for telling you the same thing I'm telling you doesn't make sense, either. And yes, I've seen it, and yes, I'm trying to prevent it.
It all depends on how you drive it, yes it does seem a little fast, but this is not the easiest manual tranny I've ever driven. In fact, I'd say it was about as touchy as the Muncie that was in my TransAm. I couldn't imagine learning how to drive stick on this thing. It's VERY easy to slip the clutch when going into gear, and do that a few too many times, a little to hard, and you've got some glazing or wear the hell out of it. I'm not gonna call you a bad driver or anything, but it dosen't take too much to burn a clutch out. Even an extermely high quality one can go fast. You watch Monster Garage? They installed a brand new tranny into an old Impala, ran it to 150+ mph a few times, and the clutch was smoked.

That said, I have heard some people complain about the clutch before, I think at least Aeian has as well. It's something that you should get checked fast, cause letting it get too bad can only lead to worse issues...
See less See more
Used to work for gm 4 years,i am a former mechanics working for hyundai now. And i know for fact there something wrong since the first week i got the car. Mean it`s my 3 new saturn 1st had been 1999 sc2 , drove it for about 60 000km and gave a lot of hard time to that car and never once the clutch did that, i am 30 years old and driving since 16, and every car i own beside my L300 2001 had been manual and i never ever ever got problems like that right away with any of my car.We got problem like that on some of our model (hyundai) cause of the slave cylinder have a spring valve to relaese the pressure slowly, the clutch got wearn so fast, by the consummer protection thats a defect causing more dammage if you dont fix it.
Conclusion we were obligate to replace cluctch bearing pressure plate, send the flywheel to machine shop, and replacer the faulty slave cylinder that start and cause all these problems.
And i believe that can be something similar in my case.
Anyway i will try to get in touch with my prvious employer( gm).
Cause in the past i used to rebuild transmission and engine for them.
I been qualified good enough for theme to pay me doing that after i diagnostic
the problem, I know im not workins for a saturn dealer now, sad but if i been i
listen and really try to see if the customer might be right on that. and if he is!
See less See more
is the clutch that bad

i was just wondering if the clutch is that hard to use i had one in my old car and it was not hard but every one says that this one is i just want to know if it is really that bad
I don't know but, I will admit I learned to drive on this car. I have done some small burn outs, hard launches, and the such.
Good news to anybody who wounder how my story gonna end.
Just talk with custumer service and since its my 3 rd saturn own, for the financing of my car The know i been working for them where , when and for how long the did pay me to do what they know they were paying me for.
I think that help my case a little.
I will find out monday, but they told me i should go to an other dealer to got the diagnostic straight.
I will gave feedback on that next week.
Sorry, dude, I'm on your side, but your posts are hard as hell to read.
Sorry jim. :(
I`m better at doing my trade than typing on a computer.
I will try to do better.. :rolleyes:
And appriciate the fact that you are telling me you are on my side.
Thats real fact happening and real problems i got..
Aeain said:
I don't know but, I will admit I learned to drive on this car. I have done some small burn outs, hard launches, and the such.
The biggest offender is using the clutch pedal as a foot rest. Constant pressure on the throw out bearing will induce premature wear. THen again there might be underlying problems with some Red Lines. I have done a dozen hard abusive launches now at the drags, some very spirited driving on the highways and 2 times at autocross events. My car has 8300 miles on it and the clutch seems no worse for the wear. Now, last night, I met my first "other Red Line" at NRP and the wife told me he had a terrible run of 21 something. WTF??? Must have been a Quad coupe automatic, I thought. Nope, it was a silver Red Line with 5000 miles and a toasted clutch. first run ever at the strip with the car and the clutch went out. He claimed he drives it hard, (like who doesn't??) and wondered If I had problems too. So, maybe there are certain cars out there that are prone to problems. So far, I have suffered no problems other than the "lag" in 2nd gear up to 4500 RPMs.
See less See more
Thanks body i really appreciate to have more info of case like that.
Might help to got some issues straight.
If other onwer are in the same situation or got that fixed might help me or other.
Cause many other did mods or raced with out problems like that.
I wish i did but still hoping to be abble to enjoy driving my ride like supposed to. :rolleyes:
whats the noise you hear? i hear a whine when i drop it in first right before the gear catches..
Boosted ion said:
whats the noise you hear? i hear a whine when i drop it in first right before the gear catches..

Um, this was from last april... I hope it has been taken care of in 6 months.....
I need to figure out what kinda clutch is in my car that I have now, the car's got a 140k miles and it's still on the original clutch with no slipping whatsoever
I traded my Redline in with just over 10k miles on it. I also learned clutch on that car. I was running stromg tuntil the day i traded it in.
Also one thing that I could be wrong about when it comes to the clutch, and someone feel free to correct me if I am. But from what I've heard about clutches, is clutches do have some sort of 'break-in' period. And if you think about if you bought a RL with say 500 miles on it, chances are that 500 miles were HARD 500 miles, and with people who weren't great at driving a clutch anyways, effectively ruining the longevity of the clutch. Combine that as well with riding the clutch when you buy the car when you try to launch well, or if you just learned how to drive a clutch when you bought the car, if I'm right about the break-in period, then that might explain why some clutches are burning soq uickly
A beginner learning on a clutch will tend to wear it more. I would say there is no break-in period on a clutch. It doesn't need to "bed" like brake pads, or "wear-in" like piston rings.
1 - 20 of 36 Posts
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top