I've read that the LS1 clutches weren't very strong so I am wondering if the symptoms I am experiencing in my '03 C5 are just because of that attribute or maybe because my clutch is about to fail.
This has only happened to me twice in about 3 years. My C5 has just hit 40k miles and has never been raced or even lit the tires up. the first time I was cruising on the interstate at about 70 or 75 mph and I went to pull out to pass and decided to downshift to 5th and stand on it. I accidentally slid it into 3rd and popped the clutch and nailed the gas. I darn near locked the rear wheels up and the car jerked noticeably and I immediately smelled burning clutch material. My brother in law who was following me about 1/4 mile back saw that something had happened and called me on the cell to ask what did I do. He said he visibly saw what looked like powdered material coming out from under the car. The car has run well since then. But two days ago, it was a similar incident. But at a slower pace. At about 65 mph, I went to pass on a two lane road, went to slide it up to 5th and hit 3rd again. Let out the clutch and nailed it, I was immediately in the passing lane but I noticed I wasn't accelerating like I expected. Then I smelled the clutch again. I needed to stay on it because I was in a short passing lane and I needed to get around the other car, I slid it then to 4th an kept going. A little while later i wanted to test it, so at about 65 mph I slid it into 5th and accelerated to about 4500 rpms and shifted to 6th and it seemed to be alright. Is this because these clutches aren't very strong and I was putting alot of torque to it at those times, or is it because the clutch is about fail for good. Thanks for the help, Dave.

 

JMHO but first off it's operator error that got you in trouble in the first place. 6th to 5th is just move the shifter straight up. And going from 6th to 3rd at that speed is going to shake things up a bit.

Probably clutch disc dust that came out. Stock clutches aren't that weak, my car has 126,000 miles on it and I'm told it's the original. Will be changing mine in a couple weeks though. Maybe changing to a C6 shifter would also help. Good luck

 

Man,,,, I was thinking the EXACT SAME THING!! I will second the motion that C5 clutches are not all that weak. That being said,, there nothing to write home about. LOL!! I pulled TOO MANY TO COUNT 70 mph to THIRD GEAR on purpose and have NEVER had any issues. You first have to WANT TO. & You have to rev match MASH THE GAS to bring up the RPMs and let out that clutch. Be ready to grab fourth cause the red line will come up quick!

If you want to pass some one, thats the way to do it.

I have to ask,,,, How do you hold the shifter when you shift??

If you CLENCH it with your whole hand,,, there lies most of your problem. I shift with the palm of my hand and tips of my fingers.

Your transmission is designed to bring the shifter to the third/fourth/Neutral gate when its not in any gear. If you use your fingers and PULL the shifter out of first, when it hits the space between first and second, it will try to go to the N gate. Same for fifth.

Just use the palm of your hand and slide the shifter forward.. It should stay in the fifth/sixth gate.

Unless the clutch pedel is sticking to the floor or slipping, its most likely still good..

That being said,, I agree,, the C6 Shifter is a great up-grade to the C5 crap shifter.



BC

 

Thanks Zig, Yeh I would agree it was definitely operator error. But considering that a full launch from near red line at a drag strip that would hook up the tires would also be a considerable amount of torque on the clutch and it would have to hold it, I am wondering if the clutch is weak because it obviously didn't hold it. I'm also wondering how bad i hurt it.
Dave.

 

Yeh BC, I shift with just the palm of my hand too, but sometimes I think I get a little lazy and it comes over to center pretty easily. Also the opposite of that mentally happens and when I am in an aggressive mode and I want to down shift from 6th to 5th, if I keep pressure to the right with the palm of my hand I'm afraid I might hit reverse when I'm kind of aggressive you know. I did that once too. Not Good. Especially when your about to ram it home into 5th and you heard that sound. Grinding Gears. Just not something you want to do.
I don't drive this car that much. My daily driver in the summer is a C3 with TH400 so I'm not shifting that much. Then my other car with standard trans is an Austin Healey and Reverse is to the left and back. So the C5 throws me off alittle bit. twice in about 3 or 4 years. that's not too bad. Dave.

 

Is it even possible to pop in it reverse from 4th gear while in motion???
I never had that happen...as if reversed is locked out of the gate

 

IF,,,,,,,,,,,,, all is working correctly, there is a SOLENOID CONTROLLED GATE that blocks the reverse gate if the car is traveling more than a couple miles an hour. However, GM had to allow you to get into reverse IF that solenoid ever failed. The gate is able to be crashed if you apply some muscle. Some say its like 25 lbs of force.

That being said,, you have to lean pretty hard on that shifter to get into the reverse gate if the gate solenoid it is energized....

You can easily test that gate by,,, getting the car up to speed and moving to the shifter to the 5th/6th N gate and pressing the stick towards the passengers side. IT IS NOT RECOMMENDED that you shift it towards the reverse FORWARD position with the car moving forward. It will make LOTS of NOISES and NOT be happy!!

Your just testing the gate to see how much pressure it takes to block the shifter from moving into the reverse gate.

IF,, there is little or no resistance from shifting into that reverse gate when the car is moving,,, you need to examine that solenoid for proper mechanical & electrical operation.