2

I'm about at the point where I need my clutch replaced. From what I've seen, a performance clutch has a more aggressive, synthetic friction material which can handle the higher temperatures of high performance driving.

I understand a performance clutch will be more difficult to use, and I'm not afraid of the learning curve involved in doing so, that's a disadvantage I'm willing to live with.

Will I realistically be able to get a longer life out of a clutch if I go with a performance (six-puck/four puck) over a standard OEM part?

Vehicle is a toyota matrix (base) with 150km on it. I would like this to be the last clutch (I think I'm replacing the original) and I'd like to push the car to ~300km

Improve this question

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
1

So, the standard clutch did 150k with your driving style and you want to fit a (probably) more expensive competition clutch which is less controllable in traffic ie stop/start situations so it can do 150k...

Personally I would fit a standard one again, but your money your choice.

Improve this answer
6
  • I bought the vehicle used and have personally only put about 12000km on it. I was learning standard at the time and wasn't experienced in spotting a clutch that was going. That's why I specify that I'm not certain if it's the original clutch
    – Brydon Gibson
    Jan 3, 2019 at 17:27
  • We can't tell what your driving style is, but so far I've only had one clutch fail in the past 50 years, and that one was a release bearing that gave several months warning it was on its way out before I replaced it - not the plates wearing out.
    – alephzero
    Jan 3, 2019 at 18:16
  • @BrydonGibson BTW, if you say you learned to drive standard with this car and you only drove it for 12,000km's, I probably wouldn't recommend a six-puck, let alone a four-puck. I'm not saying it's impossible to drive them, but not everyone enjoys them, and if you happen to not like it, this can completely ruin the way you feel about driving your car. Imo the clutch is one of the biggest factors that affects how a car drives as a daily (another one being the exhaust). You have to deal with it every time you move from a stop, and if it's jerky, or it stalls easily, it gets annoying really fast
    – Kitsunemimi
    Jan 3, 2019 at 19:22
  • The disclaimer is that I only have a little experience with performance clutches. However, I mention this specifically because if you don't want to replace your clutch again, having this problem would either force you to replace it again, or ruin the way your car drives.
    – Kitsunemimi
    Jan 3, 2019 at 19:29
  • @Kitsunemimi That's a valid point. I certainly don't want to risk ruining it, I think my best bet is to go with OEM and/or a very slight performance gain instead of going with high performance. Thank you for the input
    – Brydon Gibson
    Jan 3, 2019 at 20:52
1

No, a six-puck or four-puck will not give you longer life, in fact it may last even less than a standard clutch replacement. Puck-design clutches have less material than full-face clutches (and have higher performance by having higher pressure per unit of surface area), so by nature they have less to work with.

Also, the general rule with any type of friction material is that the higher the friction coefficient, the worse the wear life of that material is (think high performance summer tires or brake pads). You can think about this conceptually - if the friction material can grab surfaces harder, that same grabbing friction will rub off the material harder.

Improve this answer
1
  • You may need to consider that 4 puck clutches are also designed to keep the rotating mass lower so that the clutch accelerates or deccelerates quicker along with lighter flywheels...
    – Solar Mike
    Jan 3, 2019 at 19:40

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .