Thutch01

I was at COTA this past weekend for a track day and had the clutch fail on the 2nd session. Took to the dealer Monday and diagnosis is that I need to replace the entire clutch system.

The master cylinder is covered under my extended warranty, but the rest - slave cylinder, Disk, pressure plate, fly wheel, etc are on my dime.

A couple questions for anyone willing to help.

1. They are telling me the slave cylinder is a normal "wear" part, so its not covered. Is this correct? Given you have to pull the tranny to replace the slave, but not the master -- I'm curious if this has to do with labor cost more so than wear. The other parts, I get are designed to wear out and would not be covered under warranty. But I don't really view the slave cylinder as a normal wear and tear part like a clutch, brake pad, etc.

2. Any recommendations to do during this process? I've seen lots of posts to upgrade the master cylinder to the Tick, but since its covered under warranty, I don't think that will be an option. Would it be a good idea to have them install a quick bleed for clutch fluid? Do any of the other parts need to be upgraded that I'm paying for?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

wolf8218

Remote clutch bleeder is a life saver. Make sure you show them how to install it! I've had a dealer mess up mine. (Yes, it's scary how bad GM techs are)

Racingswh

What exactly happened when you say the clutch failed?

Thutch01

While driving, pushed in clutch and stuck to the floor. Pulled out with foot, as I am aware of the pedal not coming all the way out issues, however, the pedal was dead. Jammed into 3rd and limped off track -- at this point I have no clutch, so there's no changing gears or coming to a stop.

When I got to the pits, saw that I was leaking clutch flood. Put in more fluid and it all came out near the oil pan. so checked and the slave cylinder was blown out.

I've read a lot about clutch issues and I've generally cycle my fluid, though I could be better at it. When people write about the clutch sticking, I assume they are referring to the situation where the clutch does not come all the way back out, but still works. Mine - no worky.

Racingswh

Common desciption of the issue. That condition will happen with overheated fluid. Then without any hydraulic pressure of course it will not work. Replace the slave and fluid. So many other questions I would have, miles on the car, # of track days, age of the car, is it stock? When you talk about warranty though the car must be reasonably new? Was the clutch slipping before you had the issue? It's easy to tell. Shifts are soft and you can hear the revs slowly come down as the clutch grabs up. Most noticeable during fast shifts when your accelerator foot is going toward the floor and you haven't let the clutch out yet. If it wasn't slipping then just coming out and saying the clutch is bad is a suspect diagnosis to me. Others can chime in with their thoughts but this has been my experience.

Lastly before every event you ever do make sure the clutch fluid is clear and fresh with Motul 600, Castrol SRF or something similar.

erikszr1

most of the time all you need is a clutch master. simple. but if your leaking fluid from the bell housing then youll need slave. that sucks. but yea replace it all while its apart. definitely get the tick setup and remote bleeder.

Thutch01

Thanks for all of the feedback - still trying to decide what to do. The car is a 2006 but has the GM extended warranty - I need to get details but I think it covers until 2015 or 50,000 miles / car only has 30,000 miles on it. I've done about 25, 2 day track events - everything is stock for the most part.

I did not notice any problems until the failure -- -short of occasionally, the pedal not coming all the way back.

One additional question - the dealer is recommending Dot 5 fluid for clutch. I've read good and bad to this. Any thoughts?

I'm going to see if they will upgrade to the Tick system (http://www.tickperformance.com/tick-...-corvette-z06/) but need to make sure that will not void warranty. Or better said - how it may affect warranty - at this point, the extended warranty has not been much help for the clutch.

wolf8218

Don't change to DOT5. If you were in Houston I'd help you out, I've been pretty much through the same thing on two different corvettes.

The tick cylinder is OK, not essential unless you've got an aftermarket clutch.

Thutch01

I am in Houston - Let's talk

wolf8218

Cool pm me your info

briancb1

Burned through OE slaves till I installed an RPS upgraded slave with a SKF throwout bearing.

RichieRichZ06

I have never heard of a good extended warranty that does not cover all of the clutch hydraulics, including the slave. The pressure plate, disk and other "hard" parts are typically not covered, but the slave or "actuator" should be.

wolf8218

My feeling is somewhat in line with this, but I'm thinking that something like the pilot bearing should definitely be covered, therefore helping him out on the labor costs.

Thutch01

Thanks for the feedback - I found my info on the warranty, its the GM Protection Plan and the most comprehensive of the options - Called Major Guard. It very clearly states that almost everything is covered - it does list items not covered, but only lists "manual clutch disc". It also says anything that is recommended to replaced in the service manual and service schedule -- I have yet to locate anything stating the slave cylinder is on the maintenance schedule.

wolf8218

See if you can call up the plan administrators and tell them to point out what section of the contract excludes those items which the inspector declined the repairs on.

tim414

Maybe he has it backwards.

The hydraulic design of the factory C6Z clutch lacks much to be desired. I was reading somewhere the engineers had this in mind while working on C7Z. We'll see.

Mark2009

Other than a simple bleeding setup, such as?