[CrazyOne]

This was a weird one on me today. Any thoughts if you got 'em.

2000 Integra LS stock 5spd, single owner, 201k miles. Standard driving, commuting, moderately aggressive but no track, etc. STOCK LS, remember.

NEW CLUTCH (bearing, etc.) at 165K, 2 years ago.

Was stopping for or stopped at traffic light this afternoon. Light turns green, I let out the clutch to go, there's a pretty loud clunk of some kind, and then I couldn't go. First I thought maybe the car behind me tapped me. But I couldn't move, I tried 2nd gear, etc, and couldn't go. A bit of clacking was coming my way so I shut the car off. A couple passers by helped me push it out of the main traffic onto a side driveway/parking lot while I waited for tow.

Have it towed home, will deal with tomorrow (I don't work on my own car that much, just minor things). Went back over what it's doing. Starts and runs fine. If I give it a few revs with the clutch pushed in, all is well and sounds fine. But now even in neutral if I let out the clutch I get a clack clack clack from the front, tempo increases with engine speed. When I push the clutch back in it stops. Also was faster/more insistent if I started to let clutch out in 5th gear, say. (Yeah, I know, but I was trying to figure out what's up and if it moved in any gear; it doesn't move, not even in reverse. Just makes noise.)

So did I get a cheesy clutch that lasted me a whole 36k? Or could something else about the connection between trans and engine have broken? I'm not sure which sounds worse. Any chance it could just be in the clutch hydraulics? Or horrors, it's in the transmission?!? Does that really happen? And why?

No clutch symptoms were evident beforehand, and I wouldn't have expected them given how new the clutch is.

W. T. F. Sigh. This car is supposed to keep going....

 

[C25A1guy]

What kind of clutch was put in?

 

[CrazyOne]

What kind of clutch was put in?

LuK

I still haven't even had the thing towed out of my driveway because I've been busy. Ugh.

 

[C25A1guy]

Hmmm. Interesting. Luk clutches are typically pretty stout. It's going to be hard to tell what went wrong without pulling the transmission off, but since you can put her in gear without grinding, but it just won't engage and rev freely with clunking noise, I want to suspect that the springs in the hub on the clutch disk may have come out. That will be your best case scenario.

 

[CrazyOne]

Sounds lovely. Appreciate the input though.

I did find myself wondering if I had skimped by letting them use the LuK, but my reading suggests those are generally fine.

 

[C25A1guy]

I've primarily used Exedy/Diken or FCC clutches for OE replacement in these Integras. Can't go wrong with made in Japan on these cars, but I have used Luk in many other clutch jobs before as well without issue.

 

[CrazyOne]

Well a bit more digging and diagnosis today, this is in the axle, driver's side. The passenger's side is solid. The clunk clunk when I let out the clutch is the broken axle/CV joint/whatever spinning and clunking against something. I can't see very well because it's facing downhill in my driveway and don't want to jack it up, but it's clear this is what it is.

Whew. Shouldn't be too bad then, and exonerates the clutch as an issue.

 

[SystemF]

Well a bit more digging and diagnosis today, this is in the axle, driver's side. The passenger's side is solid. The clunk clunk when I let out the clutch is the broken axle/CV joint/whatever spinning and clunking against something. I can't see very well because it's facing downhill in my driveway and don't want to jack it up, but it's clear this is what it is.

Whew. Shouldn't be too bad then, and exonerates the clutch as an issue.

Yea at least its something easy. At first it sounded like a spring came off the disk.

 

[S2K2K4]

Good deal, I'd much rather replace an axle than a clutch/transmission. Open diff strikes again!

 

[C25A1guy]

Good deal, I'd much rather replace an axle than a clutch/transmission. Open diff strikes again!

I agree. Having axles break like this isn't all that common either. I've only had one other experience of an axle breaking like this and it was a NAPA gold axle in a 95 Accord. It broke where the CV joint turns into the splines that go into the hub. Least to say, that car had to get towed back to the shop before I saw what was going on.

 

[S2K2K4]

Yeah thats one of those things that you get it up on a lift and get under it and all of a sudden it allllll makes sense.

And then you can relax because you don't have to rebuild a transmission.