171 miles on my brand new shelby. did a 3/4 throttle pull in second gear to 75mph getting on the freeway then SLIP. the revs go up, clutch effort goes up 200% and the car limps off the freeway at the next exit. i smelled clutch at the time of the incident, but then didn't smell it while i limped into a parking lot. let the car cool down, and the problem didn't go away. to make matters worse i had my 3 young children with me. frustrated, does not begin to describe the feeling. i'm assuming its the clutch.
quickest i've ever broke a car
- Thread starter kirks5oh
- Start date
That sucks. I am beginning to really worry about the clutches in these things. Seems like there are too many stories like yours.
starting to wonder if some of these clutches were a bad batch.....very sorry to hear, this should not happen. Let us know what happens with Ford
i hope so. car is stock. sure, i've driven it hard a couple times, but its already cold up here and the car has zero traction (less stress on the clutch). frustrated. my 600rwhp cobra saw countless launches for 10k miles with the whipple, and drag radials on the STOCK clutch with zero issues. didn't slip once
bummer man. hopefully its a minor fix..
I know this doesn't apply to your situation, but I thought it may be of interest.
Clutch Protection
Your vehicle is equipped with an electronic powertrain feature to reduce clutch damage. When excessive clutch slip is detected at a high power level, the powertrain control module will limit torque to reduce damage to the clutch. Full power is restored as soon as the clutch is fully engaged. This feature is calibrated in a way that does not interfere with normal driving and does not impede maximum acceleration capability.
Clutch Protection
Your vehicle is equipped with an electronic powertrain feature to reduce clutch damage. When excessive clutch slip is detected at a high power level, the powertrain control module will limit torque to reduce damage to the clutch. Full power is restored as soon as the clutch is fully engaged. This feature is calibrated in a way that does not interfere with normal driving and does not impede maximum acceleration capability.
don't see how it could be anything less than a clutch. awesome, to have the dealer tear into a car with less than 200 miles on it for major work
But a Terminator clutch sucks balls for a DD, and many don't last that long,(mine went 25K on a pulleyed Terminator before it quit) and with a GT500 you are lugging a 3,850+ lb car with 662 BHP around with some crazy tall(or is it short? I always get this mixed up) gearing.
Sometimes shit happens. Many burnt up Terminator pistons at close to factory HP/PSI levels, but many didn't. Charge it to the game. Hopefully Ford will fix this without giving you a hard time. If they do I would quickly drop the 3.31's for some 3.73's. You're still only turning 1,800 rpm's at 80 mph with 3.73's in a 2013 GT500 in it's final overdrive. For comparison a Terminator is turning almost 2,400 RPM's at 80 in 6th gear with its stock gearing and tire size. Plus the car will likely be quicker, and funner to drive while putting a noticeably smaller load on it's drivetrain, and it will likely not be a big hit on it's MPG.
Don't get me wrong Ford needs to address this issue on next years GT500 as their clutches shouldn't be burning at this rate, but all things considered it could be a lot worse, and with the kind of power these cars makes you now sometimes things are going to break when you start to beat on them. It may also be a good idea to break a new GT5000 in before you beat on it. 171 miles is not breaking a new clutch in properly on a heavy, very powerful, and torquey car.
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can't possibly imagine why they would give me a hard time about fixing it?? the car has not been launched once. haven't tried launch control, haven't done any burnouts, and i've had the car to triple digit speeds once. i've never broken in a clutch on any of my cars. my vette has 580rwhp and the clutch on it is actually lighter pressure than the stocker, and i've never had an issue. that car has tall gears as well, and huge DR's on the back.
Yeah but the Vette weighs 700 lbs less and you're talking about a aftermarket clutch. I believe the McLeod RXT is suppose to be a friendlier street clutch than the OEM GT500 clutch, but at the same time being better able to support it's power. IDK I've always broken in my clutches for 500 or so miles B/F I really feed them much power. Some people like to break things in and some don't.
Again I agree that it seems the new GT500 has a issue with their OEM clutch, but I guess it's unsurprising that if the new GT500 is going to have a issue with something that it's a clutch related one, and in reality it's not such a bad reliablity issue to have compared to burning up pistons like were common in Terminators, or have the rods vent the block for you like was common in modded L's, etc.
I'm kind of curious as to how good the OEM clutch is with some shorter gears.
Ford shouldn't give you beef about fixing the clutch, but some dealerships are pricks. G/L to you, and I feel and hope that this will be easily resolved for you. :beer:
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i hope it will be easily resolved. i guess i'll have to hold off on any mods for a while to make sure everything is fine. i hope i don't regret buying the car and not going for a GTR
There's gotta be a bad batch of these things.
Many people have alot of hard driving (myself at 6500+ miles) with no issues. While others (a smaller sampling) have less than 1000miles with clutch issues.
Many people have alot of hard driving (myself at 6500+ miles) with no issues. While others (a smaller sampling) have less than 1000miles with clutch issues.
Where are these clutch assembles made?
I really think the people blaming Ford for the clutch issues should hold back until we really know. There are more people here who have the cars and don't have clutch issues than those with clutch issues.
I now have 2,200 miles or so on mine, and I've had no problems with the clutch.
I'm not dogging on anyone, so I hope no one takes offense, but so far, I believe every person who has had a clutch go, they have gone with relatively low miles, and it went either during a pull they were doing, or stop and go traffic, both stressful on the clutch.
Almost sounds like these clutches really need to have a break in period. I never got on mine at all in the 1st 500 miles. Then maybe 1/2 if that at 500 miles. I didn't actually start doing full WOT pulls until I was at the 1000 mile mark. And as I stated earlier, I've had no issues with the clutch other than the slight smell twice in the 1st 5-600 miles.
I think the other people who haven't had issues, also broke in their clutch longer period of times before doing pulls. I could be wrong.
I've already driven my car at least a dozen times in 30-40 minute near stand still traffic through Philly, and again, no issues. So something is definitely odd that certain peoples clutches are letting go like this.
I now have 2,200 miles or so on mine, and I've had no problems with the clutch.
I'm not dogging on anyone, so I hope no one takes offense, but so far, I believe every person who has had a clutch go, they have gone with relatively low miles, and it went either during a pull they were doing, or stop and go traffic, both stressful on the clutch.
Almost sounds like these clutches really need to have a break in period. I never got on mine at all in the 1st 500 miles. Then maybe 1/2 if that at 500 miles. I didn't actually start doing full WOT pulls until I was at the 1000 mile mark. And as I stated earlier, I've had no issues with the clutch other than the slight smell twice in the 1st 5-600 miles.
I think the other people who haven't had issues, also broke in their clutch longer period of times before doing pulls. I could be wrong.
I've already driven my car at least a dozen times in 30-40 minute near stand still traffic through Philly, and again, no issues. So something is definitely odd that certain peoples clutches are letting go like this.
OP please keep us updated. I'd like to know what the dealer says about the cause of the failure. Hopefully a bad batch and not a design problem al la 07-09. Too many of these stories for my comfort.
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