Your car, truck, or utility vehicle will give you signs when your clutch needs to be adjusted or replaced. It’s important to have any issues addressed as soon as possible to avoid damaging the clutch further. In some cases, McCurley’s Shell can resolve your clutch problems by adjusting or rebuilding the clutch. If you continue to drive with a bad clutch, you run the risk of needing clutch replacement and also damaging your manual transmission. Here are signs that your clutch is going out.
Acceleration and Engine Performance Lag
One of the things that the clutch does is take the power being generated by the engine and transfers it to the transmission. This is what makes your driveshaft turn the wheels. Unfortunately, if your clutch is unable to transfer the power, you may notice that your vehicle lags when you try to accelerate. You may also experience engine performance lag as you shift through the gear cycle.
Burning Odors Coming From the Clutch
You should never smell hot or burning odors coming from the clutch. If you do, this is a sign that the clutch is unable to stay engaged. We call this slipping. When your clutch slips, the power transfer does not stay in place and the power goes back to the engine. A slipping clutch also overheats, which is why you smell the burning odors coming from the clutch when you use it.
Changes in Feel of the Clutch Pedal
Another sign that your clutch needs to be adjusted or replaced is if the clutch feel changes. What we mean by this is the resistance that it gives you underneath your foot. The resistance can either go soft or get too hard. Either way, the clutch needs to be looked at and adjusted or replaced. Another change that can happen is your bite point will get much higher.
Grinding Noises When You Shift Gears
Grinding noises when you shift gears indicate that the power has not been transferred from the engine. Unfortunately, if you keep driving your manual transmission when the gears are grinding, you will damage it. You may grind gears every once in a while, but this should not be a regular occurrence. If it is, bring your vehicle to our shop right away.
Slipping or Unresponsive Gears
Finally, if your vehicle slips out of gear or if it does not respond when you try to put it into gear, you may need to replace your clutch. As you know, you cannot put your vehicle into gear without depressing the clutch. If it still refuses to go into gear, you’ve got a serious problem.
McCurley’s Shell in Atlanta, GA, is here to help, so call us today to set up an appointment for a clutch inspection.
