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I have a second job delivering in the evening and weekend. A couple of months ago I think I overheated the flywheel. After 10 hours of short trips up and down shifting, my car started shuttering as I let the clutch out in first gear. The next day, it didn't happen. But after a week or so later, it started stuttering out of first gear again. This only happens after driving about 2 hours. I DO NOT ride the clutch or burn it leaving from a stop. Am I correct in thinking that the flywheel is heating up and causing the shuddering? If not what else could it be?

The flywheels in these car's aren't serviceable. We have something called a modular clutch. The clutch, pressure plate, and flywheel are all one unit. With that being said, is it the stock assembly?

If so, how many miles?

To my experiences the clutch will shutter(I call it chatter) more when it's cold then if it's hot. I drove my car for about 12 hours straight. Alot of those hours in city stop and go traffic, and it only chattered when I left the house when the car was cold.

The chances of it being the clutch are better then the flywheel, but if you still have a modular clutch it doesn't matter, as you will have to replace the whole unit.

heydockyle wrote:The flywheels in these car's aren't serviceable. We have something called a modular clutch. The clutch, pressure plate, and flywheel are all one unit.

wow really. its all one unit. i didnt know that. its good to know these things.

Check the axles as well, sometimes the cv joint can have a similar chatter like that. Mine would do it every few months at random, then after a year it finally broke.

Neon4Life wrote:

heydockyle wrote:The flywheels in these car's aren't serviceable. We have something called a modular clutch. The clutch, pressure plate, and flywheel are all one unit.

wow really. its all one unit. i didnt know that. its good to know these things.

They did this to speed up production. Making them modular means you don't have to line them all up, plus they are able to use the same plate on all motors and bolt either an auto trans or a manual trans to the same plate.

You don't have to put a modular clutch back on though, you can split it up.

i guess you do learn something every day

It would be cheaper to just replace with another modular clutch. You need '95 parts to go non modular. My Spec clutch gets more shudder when it is hot. Driveability is best when cold.
My stock one had a bit of shudder begin at around 130,000, and it failed about 10,000 miles later. The pressure plate is more of a likely candidate to overheat, as it has far less mass than the flywheel, and shares half the clamping load.

occasional demons wrote:Driveability is best when cold.

Is this always the case? Because in all three of these cases the clutch was much more chattery and jumpy when it was cold.

05 Sxt with stock clutch
05 Sxt with pt clutch brand new
98 sport with pt clutch

Sorry, that was in reference to mine. I imagine each clutch will be different, depending on just which part/combination is the cause.

My car still has the original clutch and has about 52k on it. In reference to the above posts, my car acts perfect cold and only starts acting up after driving it for 1.5 to 2 hours. It is annoying to really baby it for the remainder of my shift. At this point I have no perceivable slippage in gear.

Sounds like you overheated the clutch. Very easy to do with the stock unit; it doesn't hold up very well under severe conditions. Do it enough and it will start acting worse and worse. Clutch issues can be hard to diagnose, especially if it isn't slipping.

Mine chatters quite often. It does seem to do it more when cold for sure. My gf's 05 does it too, sometimes really bad. It almost feels like wheel hop (shakes the whole car HARD). Funny thing is, neither one has ever once slipped. Both cars have just over 40K miles and both clutches are stock.

So you guys who swapped to the PT unit get the chatter too? I was hoping to do away with it when I upgrade. Damnit.

Well mine is the nature of the beast. The hotter it gets, the better it hooks. It will either launch or stall. If you try to slip it, you may get shaken baby syndrome.

Unless you slip it to the point of burning.

OB wrote: So you guys who swapped to the PT unit get the chatter too? I was hoping to do away with it when I upgrade. Damnit.

My orange car has like 6k on the clutch. It does it a little bit when it's cold, not as much as the stock clutch though.

1gn is supposed to have a pt clutch with around 10k on it and when it's cold you would think the clutch is shot. It grips real hard and feels like I'm driving over a thousand bumps.

Sounds like whoever put it in might have done so with greasy hands. Doesn't take much oil on the friction material to cause chatter. That's common clutch knowledge though.

Even with greasy hands, they would have to have globs of grease on their hand being the discs and everything are all pretty much sealed in the unit.