[ScoobyRu]

2006 OB 2.5i Limited 5spd, 93,000 miles, bought used in January at 74,000 miles.

I first noticed a clutch slip this past weekend. I had my car loaded with 4 people while driving around Birmingham, AL. I was stopped at a fairly steep hill. When I started to drive, I thought I felt a little "hic-up" from the drive line. I didn't think much of it at the time as I thought it was a clutch handling error on my part.

A couple of days later I was driving by myself and was stopped on a VERY steep hill, aka required lots of gas. I did the usual steep-hill foot dance, but the clutch slipped even though my foot was completely off the pedal. The car stood still for a little bit (engine revs at around 5k), and then started to slowly move up the hill, at which point the engine of course revved down. I held the gas pedal at the same position. I feel like the car should have moved as normal, or stalled. Oh, and of course the smell of burnt clutch filled the car too.


I've only owned manual transmission cars, and I've never had a clutch go bad. The ones I have replaced were a "while I'm there" maintenance. I replaced my Saab 900's 2.0T original clutch at 205,000 miles, and my Porsche's at about 160,000 miles. Is ~90,000 normal for a Subaru? My car also has the "normal" Subaru clutch shudder every now and then. Maybe replacing the clutch will address that issue too.

 

[subiesailor]

Prior owner did a number on it - proper clutch job is new plate - new release bearing and new clutch. Do it!!! A mechanic family friend who ran the local Subaru dealer shop said that they see more cars today than he can ever remember coming in with as few as 30,000 miles on them with clutches completely gone. His take on it is simple - if people can't get 100K out of their MT clutch they are prime candidates for an AT given unless they are completely reprogrammed to use a clutch correctly there is no fix for improper use and early demise of the clutch.

 

[StuntmanMike]

Prior owner did a number on it - proper clutch job is new plate - new release bearing and new clutch. Do it!!! A mechanic family friend who ran the local Subaru dealer shop said that they see more cars today than he can ever remember coming in with as few as 30,000 miles on them with clutches completely gone. His take on it is simple - if people can't get 100K out of their MT clutch they are prime candidates for an AT given unless they are completely reprogrammed to use a clutch correctly there is no fix for improper use and early demise of the clutch.

This is why I would never buy a MT car (unless it was a sports car). If you plan on keeping the car for over 100k miles, IMO the reliability of modern automatics makes them the more cost effective tranny to run.

Or if I was leasing a car, and was going to turn it in at 36k miles or whatever, I'd be okay running a maunal. Let the next owner deal with the clutch job.

 

[ScoobyRu]

Any info on which clutch kit to get? I think I read that Exedy is the OEM supplier. Rock auto has it for $169, which is a lot cheaper than the dealer. I was expecting a lot more honestly. The Sachs that I put on my 944 was almost $500.... Also, do these cars have some sort of sleeve that might need replacing? A bad sleeve was actually the reason why I replaced the Saab's clutch. It was really worn and caused the pedal to become way stiff, to the point that it kept breaking the auto-adjusting clutch cable.

What about the flywheel? Can these be ground? I'll probably just take it off and have the surface profile checked at work. I'm an engineer at a Job Site/"Machine Shop".

 

[subiesailor]

Any info on which clutch kit to get? I think I read that Exedy is the OEM supplier. Rock auto has it for $169, which is a lot cheaper than the dealer. I was expecting a lot more honestly. The Sachs that I put on my 944 was almost $500.... Also, do these cars have some sort of sleeve that might need replacing? A bad sleeve was actually the reason why I replaced the Saab's clutch. It was really worn and caused the pedal to become way stiff, to the point that it kept breaking the auto-adjusting clutch cable.

What about the flywheel? Can these be ground? I'll probably just take it off and have the surface profile checked at work. I'm an engineer at a Job Site/"Machine Shop".

The subaru tech I grilled bac in the day when I had mine done at 144,000 that was San Francisco commute and towing boats by the way. Said replace the plate! The basics were the plates today are not over built and not worth keeping if you want trouble free 100+k clutch life out of the next one. No cable the subaru is a propper hydrolic set up. The only sleeving ive heard of is to sleeve a damaged input shaft due to a failed release bearing which the subaru 5spd is known to happen before the clutch material is done. I had 10% CLUTCH left when my release bearing started sqealing at 144K.

 

[subiesailor]

Exedy I recall is oem full kit is plate, clutch and bearing.

 

[ScoobyRu]

Noticed this weekend that the throwout bearing is making noise. Pretty amazing how quickly the noise has escalated.

 

[ScoobyRu]

I just bought the stock Exedy KSB04 clutch kit for $78 on Amazon! It was a "Warehouse Deal", something I've used in the past with no problems with a camera lens. Hopefully this deal will work just as well.

I think I'll order the flywheel from subarupartsforyou.com. They have it for $229.