SPEC, A picture of quality...

[FSUDrifter]

Here is the story. I bought my sr swapped 240 this summer not running. I go to school full time so I have been working on the whole GT2871R upgrade and general restoration of the whole car on weekends for the past few months.

The guy I bought it from said it had a SPEC Stage 2 clutch with less than 2k miles on it. I have had the car running and drove it a couple times, but I always had to force the car into gear and it was hard to shift. I figured it was the master or slave or both, but when I looked under the car with someone pushing the clutch it seemed to be operating perfectly.

Pulled the engine and when removing the slave I noticed the rubber boot was full of fluid = bad slave. I was happy that that was the problem, $20. Or so I thought...

Here is what I found when I pulled the transmission off:



Where did those come from? They were sitting in the bottom of my bellousing.



SWEET! A twin disc clutch! (not really)

All of the rivets the disc were sheered off and the disc was separated into 3 pieces.















Damage to Pressure Plate:



Damage to flywheel:







Time for lightweight flywheel and a REAL clutch. (maybe Exedy)

[SeVa-S13]

Nice carnage!

Exedy rocks me.

[captainclutchkick]

i ran a spec stage 3 clutch in my ka-t for about 3000 miles and i loved it, it worked great and engagement was awsome, i could not get it to slip for ****, unless i slipped it myself. i loved it, i would suggest making shure it was installed properly before you say they suck , it might have been poor driving who knows but i dont know anyone who has had a spec clutch do that before. just my 2 cents. but as for exedy i just put one on my bros 240 and i had to drill out the alighnment holes and it looked like poor build quality.

[AmoebAssassin]

Wow, extreme failure!

BTW, the Exedy super single is awesome. I have a Cusco super single, which is similar, and it performs great.

[amolao]

Whoa! Total carnage!!

I'm surprised the disc stay on without disengaging off the housing cutting your car in half.....

[Chief_Suicide]

Nice pics of the damage. I would never know what those specs were unless you showed the other pictures..... ugly.

[FSUDrifter]

i ran a spec stage 3 clutch in my ka-t for about 3000 miles and i loved it, it worked great and engagement was awsome, i could not get it to slip for ****, unless i slipped it myself. i loved it, i would suggest making shure it was installed properly before you say they suck , it might have been poor driving who knows but i dont know anyone who has had a spec clutch do that before. just my 2 cents. but as for exedy i just put one on my bros 240 and i had to drill out the alighnment holes and it looked like poor build quality.

That's great, but I won't be buying another Spec. When I talked to them and sent them the pictures, they were like "wow we've never seen that before, maybe if you order a whole new clutch and lightweight flywheel there is a possibility that we could take a few bucks off" AWESOME!!

Well maybe if I get a replacement disc for a good price if my pressure plate and flywheel are still re-useable I MIGHT stick with it.

I really wish I could have heard that when it happened: "WHhaaaaaaaaaa-CLICK-tink-tink-ta-tink-tink"

Looking at this baby now:
Modified by FSUDrifter at 8:49 PM 11/29/2006

[zenkii]

that looks kind of worn out, +1 for exedy clutch and so far so good

[boost_creep]

you said you bought the car with the clutch in it.so how are you gunna hate on spec when the guy that sold it you is prolly full of crap.that thing looks beat.it looks as though the clutch was bad,and was still used way passed the replacement period.just cause the guy said...doesnt mean sh**.i have a spec and i love it.i think you should get your facts straight before you start badmouthin spec.

[whiterps13]

Id hate to see how the previous owner drove that car. That is BAD.

[NiSmo240luvR]

i will never touch anything SPEC. for every 2 good stories you hear theres 3 horror stories, usually very similar to yours. definitely invest in a real clutch/flywheel.

btw, i have an HKS single plate clutch and flywheel. i love it

[KingPastry]

sorry to hear about that.. that's just bad luck

the exedy clutch that you're looking at is a nice piece though.. i was running one on my 400hp rsx.. never slipped and ran like a champ

good luck with whatever you choose though

[S0lid_Snake]

wow! if that clutch was that badly beaten id check over other driveline parts... just my $.02

[maroon240]

Whoa! Total carnage!!

I'm surprised the disc stay on without disengaging off the housing cutting your car in half.....

That would be some crazy *** ****.

[TOPSECRT88]

haha wow....im def. never rolling with SPEC now...

[Delearious02]

Just my 2 cents incase anyone wants to know i have been running a clutch masters stage 3 clutch for 10k miles and its held up good. ( sucks for daily but o well)

[SPIRONIUM]

I also had a mis-manufactured SPEC clutch, one of the springs popped out and ****ed everything up. It only had break in period miles on it and it was installed correctly with new throw out bearing and bolts. I didn't even get a chance to beat on it.

[sensibleS13driver]

That last pic is ****ing hilarious

[gizzerd]

Wow...bummer. I do wanna throw in though, that I've been running a Spec Stage 3 for 10k or so of hard daily driving, and I love it! No problems at all, and installation was a breeze. I'd buy another myself.

[FSUDrifter]

you said you bought the car with the clutch in it.so how are you gunna hate on spec when the guy that sold it you is prolly full of crap.that thing looks beat.it looks as though the clutch was bad,and was still used way passed the replacement period.just cause the guy said...doesnt mean sh**.i have a spec and i love it.i think you should get your facts straight before you start badmouthin spec.

Ohhh someone's gettin a little defensive. All I said was here is my clutch, I won't buy another one.

I AM NOT TELLING ANYONE TO NOT SUPPORT SPEC.

I'm sure they wouldn't be a very successful company if most of their clutches turned out like this.

I'm just stating facts. It's up to you to form your own opinions and make your own decisions.

And no, I don't consider my shattered spec clutch a real clutch, that thing is rated for 380lbs torque, the damage was done with a blown stock turbo (maybe 150lbs torque max), sorry just doesn't cut it for me. Stop crying.

[Invalid Zero]

RPS Max Series with full face disk FTW. Rated for 475 lb-ft and daily driver friendly.

[Ender_Zero]

do you think the disc could've been installed wrong?

haha those rivets look like expended 9mm rounds.

[ILikeMy240sx]

you said you bought the car with the clutch in it.so how are you gunna hate on spec when the guy that sold it you is prolly full of crap.that thing looks beat.it looks as though the clutch was bad,and was still used way passed the replacement period.just cause the guy said...doesnt mean sh**.i have a spec and i love it.i think you should get your facts straight before you start badmouthin spec.

Dude I dont care what the previous owner did to that clutch. No clutch should go in one piece and come out as 3 pieces... Thats farked up. I've abused a POS stock maxima clutch disk on my current setup for good 500 miles.... It was burnt out so bad that I could go in 2nd gear, pop the clutch and would engage smoothly. It came out as one piece not multiple pieces.

[ILikeMy240sx]

RPS Max Series with full face disk FTW. Rated for 475 lb-ft and daily driver friendly.

I have this clutch and I love it. It's a VERY VERY streetable disc and still holds crapload of torque. Only downside is the engaging point is a bit higher due to the design of their pressure plate.

[SPIRONIUM]

even if the disc was installed wrong, out of all of the other available clutch companies SPEC seems to have the highest amount of posts dedicated to them failing. I strongly believe that SPEC has higher manufacturing tolerances than other companies, my reasoning is that there are a number of freak SPEC clutch incidents floating around the inet. SPEC is obviously a good company for the number of happy customers that they have it just seems like theres a slightly higher gamble with them compared to other companies.

My only proof is that I obviously got a freak one for how quickly it failed on me. My first and last SPEC clutch. My somewhat 'scientific' constant was that I installed this clutch in the same way i've installed 3 others that were not SPEC brand all on 240s'.

Sorry to be so negative, but keep in mind that this is mostly just my opinion for what its worth.

[ddgsxr504]

ACT CLUTCHES FTMFW

[FSUDrifter]

I've heard some bad things about ACT actually, that was a few years ago, though. Maybe they are better now.

Should I get ACT over Exedy? I'm thinking Exedy over ACT...

[ddgsxr504]

I personally have never heard anything bad about ACT but I do know that they are a tad more $$$ than Exedy.

[boost_creep]

Ohhh someone's gettin a little defensive. All I said was here is my clutch, I won't buy another one.

I AM NOT TELLING ANYONE TO NOT SUPPORT SPEC.

I'm sure they wouldn't be a very successful company if most of their clutches turned out like this.

I'm just stating facts. It's up to you to form your own opinions and make your own decisions.

And no, I don't consider my shattered spec clutch a real clutch, that thing is rated for 380lbs torque, the damage was done with a blown stock turbo (maybe 150lbs torque max), sorry just doesn't cut it for me. Stop crying.

dude,you can easily see that this clutch was used way passed when it was supposed to be replaced.look at the rivets.theres one for each hole.wheres the other half of the rivets then huh?..there is no other half,the damn flywheel wore the disc down so far it started shearing the rivets.the guys who sold you your car lied to you,and put a lot more miles on it then he siad he did.any clutch would look like this after that abuse.just cause you bought a half *** car,dont blame it on spec.and the reason im pissed,is your title states..look at the quallity of spec,which obviously ppl wanna look at.ur post should be..look at how bad i got jerked.

[tad_07]

i for every 2 good stories you hear theres 3 horror stories

"problems" happen with all brands, esp when you get them from someone else. I have spec in my 3000gt vr4 and lanch from 5500 to 6000rpm with no slipage or problems with the clucth(i have however snap a transfer case) seen this "problem" with exedy, rpm, spec, & etc a lot of it has to do with the drivers