I have a 2004 Acura RSX 5 speed (not the type S) and noticed lately that after I shift and get back on the gas, I get a dip in RPMs if I am trying to get up to speed quickly. Took it to my mechanic and they said I need a new clutch.

My question is I bought the car at 23K miles in 2005 and it now has 60K (a fair amount of that highway driving). Given that I learned how to drive stick on it (and so did my wife), does this sound like typical wear and tear or did one of us severely screw up? I know I at least do not drive the car hard. I've read some other forums saying 70K-100K on a clutch is typical, so 60K doesn't seem to bad given we probably tore it up some learning.

5/7/2009 12:40:51 PM

Quote :

"I get a dip in RPMs if I am trying to get up to speed quickly."

explain this more.. if you get on it and the clutch is slipping the tachometer should be going up quicker than the speedoo..not going down.

easy way to tell if it's slipping is to go around 50mph in 4th or 5th and floor it for a second or soa nd let off real quick. there should be very little movement from the tach.. if it goes up a lot and falls back down when you let off even though your speed has barely changed, it's the clutch. anything else then it's probably something else


[Edited on May 7, 2009 at 12:55 PM. Reason : i can haz spellingz?]

5/7/2009 12:44:39 PM

more than likely the rpms wouldget higher, if the clutch was bad.

5/7/2009 12:50:42 PM

I once read that a good way to see if your clutch is still good is the following test: Rest the car's front wheels against a curb. With the engine running put the transmission in the top gear (5th in your case) and slowly let the clutch out. The engine should stall out. If it doesn't, and your clutch slips instead, then you need a new clutch.


Based on the wear you're describing, no way should you need a new clutch. Granted you don't know how it was used for the first 23,000 miles so that is an unknown. But to put that use in comparison I've done the following to my Integra's clutch: countless 6-7,000 rpm burn outs, 3 seasons of autoxing (probably 50-60 autoxes total), 4-5 trips to the drag strip (5-8 runs each time), have done smokey burnouts for the fuck of it, and once on a surface that was too grippy ended up smoking the hell out of my clutch. And after 120,000 miles its still going strong, no slip.

5/7/2009 1:07:48 PM

Yeah, didn't phrase that well at all. I'll elaborate:

You hit the 3000rpm point (ballpark) around where you would normally shift, shift and get back on the gas. Instead of the RPMs going back up to around 3000 as they would if I would normally accelerating and then gradually go up, it shoots up to about 4000-4500 before dropping back to 2500-3000 and then gradually building back up. I know that sounds like I'm just giving it too much gas, but I'm not. It just feels like there is no power.

I seem to notice it more when I'm trying to get up to speed quickly. Not like I'm excessively trying to peel out at a light or anything, but if I'm trying to get onto the highway or making a quick left across traffic and want some speed.

[Edited on May 7, 2009 at 1:11 PM. Reason : .]

5/7/2009 1:09:26 PM

i dont know much about those cars, but do they have a self adjusting clutch

5/7/2009 1:17:26 PM

Yeah sounds like the clutch then.

60K on a clutch? doesn't sound too unreasonable to me.

5/7/2009 1:19:00 PM

Quote :

"Given that I learned how to drive stick on it (and so did my wife), "

clutch is toast /thread

5/7/2009 1:29:03 PM

lol

likely the truth

5/7/2009 1:30:03 PM

lol, yeah that was my conclusion as well She didn't like that theory however.

5/7/2009 1:41:08 PM

get off TWW, and go do my test!

5/7/2009 1:56:47 PM

I'd bet that your clutch is worn out. Not atypical given that both of you learned how to drive a stick on this car. I used to get 30k to 50k miles on my old integra clutch. But it saw a LOT of abuse.

5/7/2009 2:05:00 PM

only time you should need the clutch in normal driving is starting out in 1st, then sell the car before it needs synchros

5/7/2009 2:09:47 PM

i have a 135k on my saturn's clutch and it's just now starting to slip a bit...and that's AFTER driving it for 4 months without first gear

irrelevant to thread, but now i'm pretty proud of my plastic gas-sipper

5/7/2009 2:10:01 PM

Quote :

"only time you should need the clutch in normal driving is starting out in 1st, then sell the car before it needs synchros "

Negro, please...if you were as baller as I am, she would slip into gear with almost NO effort, and little to no wear on the baulk rings.

5/7/2009 2:15:04 PM

thats what she said: it would slip in without any effort

5/7/2009 2:15:58 PM

I killed my Evo's clutch in something like 24k miles.

5/7/2009 7:14:13 PM

Cobras and GT500s are especially bad for eating clutches. I have a friend who is a tech at Ford and he's seen two GT500s get about 12k on their original clutches.

5/7/2009 8:40:24 PM

iwonder why that is?

5/7/2009 9:16:32 PM

i must be setting some kind of world record here- 247k on the factory clutch in my 95 civic, at least 6 people have learned to drive stick in it that i know of... 4 of them being women. still doesn't slip!

5/8/2009 2:01:11 AM

95 civic, less power than my chainsaw, no wonder

5/19/2009 10:47:42 AM