Hey all... I did a search on this and didn't find any definitive answers, so here's a question:
About four months ago (or maybe a little more) I had to have the clutch in my car (97 Accent SOHC) replaced. Apparently the pressure plate and throw out lever/arm were both cracked. My mechanic (independent shop, not a Hyundai garage) said it was probably because I (and the guy who owned the car before me) did too many clutch-drop launches. Ooops. The symptoms were hard shifting that got progressively worse until it got so bad that pressing the clutch down did nothing and I couldn't even start the car if it was in gear.
Anyways, they installed a new clutch for me. The new clutch works great... The shifting has been nice and smooth since it was installed and it doesn't slip.
However, it chatters like crazy unless I can get the perfect combination of gas and clutch when I pull away from a stop. It seems like the harder I launch the car, the less it chatters. Sometimes when I pull away gently, it chatters so bad as I engage the clutch that the whole car vibrates. Most of the time it's just an annoying minor vibration. The old clutch (when it worked right) didn't do this at all. It was very smooth. I haven't gone back to the shop to complain/inquire because it works fine, it's really just more of an annoyance.
Does anyone have any ideas?
(Sorry for the length of this post... I like to be detailed.)

[ August 09, 2002, 12:33 PM: Message edited by: stickshift ]

 

Give it a little time. You need to break in the new disk, and get used to driving a new clutch again. Same thing would happen after I replaced the clutch on my Cav. I would actually stall the thing tryng to take off from a light or a stop. After a few days I was used to it. Not long after that the noise and chatter went away.

Might want to check with the mechanic to see if he resurfaced your flywheel.

 

I've replaced many clutch and they are not suppose to chatter/vibrate after a new clutch has been installed.

Ask if they resurfaced your flywheel?

What kind of clutch did they install? OEM? Aftermarket? or perfromance clutch?

Clutch chatter can be cause by the spring dampners (torsional springs) to be broken or missing causing it to not have a smooth engagment. If the clutch liningn was installed backward the sping would work in the opposite direction.

 

Clutch chatter can also be caused by bad fork anle (if the flywheel has been refaced too much) wrong style of pressure plate
but most of the time, it's caused by a flywheel that wasn't refaced

Denis

 

Was it an OEM or AfterMarket clutch? did you get a new pressure plate?

I think some grippy or puck style clutches make the car chatter.

 

The pressure plate is new. I don't know if the flywheel was resurfaced or not... I'll have to ask next time I go in to the shop.

I should add this: if I warm the clutch up, for example, by holding the car on a hill by slipping the clutch, it will engage very smoothly afterwards. It chatters most when it's "cold", after the car's been sitting for a few hours/overnight. Like I said, though, if I slip it for five or ten seconds to get it warmed up, it always engages real nice after that. Does that help mean anything to anyone?

What exactly does resurfacing/refacing the flywheel involve?
If it wasn't refaced, are there any long-term things that could go wrong?

I wondered about the break-in thing, but the new clutch has been on the car for a few months now, and I've driven the car close to 10,000 kilometres (6,000 miles) since it was replaced, so I would assume it's broken in by now. I drove the car very gently after it was replaced, and have been gentler with it since then, in general.

As for OEM or aftermarket, I assume it was an OEM clutch, unless he's trying to save me having to replace the clutch prematurely again and put in a more performance-oriented one... but I didn't ask for one, and the price for the parts was only $230 Canadian, which seems pretty normal for a clutch.

Thanks for the replies so far, guys. Appreciate it.

[ August 10, 2002, 08:04 PM: Message edited by: stickshift ]

 

Resurfacing the flywheel is like machining your brake rotors, making a new surface for the clutch to wear into.