15 replies to this topic

[TheSneak]

should i get the exedy kit from ebay, or the centerforce with 30% more holding capacity from nopi? they're about the same price. the clutch is for a daily driver.

[DragStRacer]

i'd go with the centerforce if they're about the same price. i had a centerforce in my Celi and never had problems until the slave cylinders and hydrualic lines went bad (yes, at the same time, all of it )

[cbstdscott]

I have a ACT clutch in my '87 Si and it is great!!!

[nivek2002]

ACT is the best, but I would think an Exedy would be fine for just driving around town.

[Grant Bailey]

A month or so after I installed my ACT, I noticed my car made a little clatter in neutral with the clutch out. I ignored it, old cars make noise. Well, it got louder and louder, but intermittently. Sometimes it would clatter, sometimes not. After a while I started having problems getting the car in gear sometimes. One night it was SUPER bad and I found that it was nearly impossible to get her in gear and it made shrieking sounds when I tried. I limped the car home, ordered a new clutch disc and garaged the car. When I cracked her open, I found that the clutch disc center had actually broken apart (yes, the steel broke) and allowed one of the springs to fall out and wear on the flywheel and flywheel bolts. I should mention that this is not a high horsepower motor, not much more than stock if any, I am definitely not taking advantage of their "70% higher holding torque". I called ACT and sent it back to them. They basically told me that they had no idea why it did it but their customers that race usually only make it through one season on a clutch. I drive it hard, but I don't race. The technician offered to send me a new clutch disc as a good will gesture, which I accepted. He never did. I called back 3 times and talked to him again, each time he said he was sending it, but he never did. I have had the replacement disc in there for 8000 miles now. Friday I went drag racing. Saturday I noticed a faint sound when I was at a stoplight. clatterclatterclatter. I knew it could be my bumper or something so I pushed in the clutch and naturally it went silent. F**K.

I think there may be something to the ACT pressure plate, that is really what does the work of allowing you to handle higher torque, but I'm not going to put another of those piece of crap discs back in after this one self destructs, I'm going back to factory Honda. I took out the factory clutch at 216,000 miles. I don't care how much harder I engage it than the previous owner did, there is no excuse for one clutch to last a quarter of a million miles and me to rip two "performance" clutch discs apart in as many years.

For what it's worth, it does have a nice, crisp engagement. Shame it can't hold itself together IN A STOCK MOTOR!!! I've heard the good press. I wanted to be the biggest ACT fan in the world but I hate taking that dang transaxle out.

Grant

[tcdx87]

WOW- I've installed 20 or 30 ACT products and have NEVER had problems like that! And ACT has been great to deal with in the few instances I've needed to call.
Two possibilites:
-a bad run of clutch discs- it's happened. Bad heat treating or bad riveting usually affects whole runs of products.
-did you have the flywheel resurfaced before installing the first bad clutch? If so, was the "step" on the flywheel face kept the same height? If not, the alignment between the disc, pres plate, and friction surface could be all outta whack. Usually this results in slippage and roaching the disc in short order.

Stay away from centerforce- most are repainted stock pressure plates, the little counterweight thingies only come on a few applications, and the discs are less durable than stock- the last one I put into a Focus lasted 5500 miles, had crappy pedal feel and the disc disintegrated with NO warning, never abused and not worn, it just FELL APART. Centerforce refused to even deal with it and got all edgy with me on the phone. Never again.

I've had real good luck w/ SPEC clutches too- they actually rate their products w/ real tq capacity #s and are robustly built. Very comparable to ACT and usually a few $$$ cheaper. Not sure if they have an application for 1G/3G cars tho.

3 puck solid hub ACT and Xtreme PP= indestructable, just wear a neck brace!
Good Luck!
Tom C.- Installer of FAR too many clutches for one lifetime!

[balladeSports]

From my experience go with a factory disk !!!!!!!!
CF's don't last
I've seen Factory Clutches with over 250,000 work better.

[TheSneak]

yeah i think i'll just get one from o'reillys. is it that hard to install it?

[Omega Mugen]

The stock Honda CRX clutches are Exedy.

I bought my Exedy kit through Aimco clutch on Ebay. It shifts very nice, and I have had no problems with it. For the price, I can't complain.

[Grant Bailey]

OK, here's my latest.

I got on the phone today and fought the good fight with ACT. Dude was saying now that he never said he'd give me a disc, that he would "try". Well, aparrently that didn't get him or me anywhere. I threatened them with telling every motorist I know that they don't stand behind their product. Dave was the guy I was talking to, he handles returns. He said that they only replace the disc in the event of factory defect, and that it was my hard driving that killed it, even though the last time I talked to them, Dean (another tech) said that they didn't have any idea why it failed! In all fairness, he asked me if I drove it hard, and I said sure I do. Everyone that buys a performance clutch drives their car hard, so it was a total cop-out to say that was the reason. I told him he didn't know jack about my driving and that I didn't appreciate being dicked around about the disc when they told me three times I was getting one for free. He said that he'd be happy to take a look at the one that was in my car now. Obviously my response was not information. I asked about the quality of their discs, were they really up to OEM spec, and he said yes, that THEY BUY THEM FROM EXEDY and just mark them up and repackage it. He offered me dealer pricing on a new one, thanks a lot man.

Finally I remembered that OPM motorsports, www.opmmotorsports.com has some kind of clutch for our cars on their site, so I gave them a call. Turns out that they have 5 grades of clutches for our cars, they just don't advertise very well. I forget the lady's name that I spoke with, but she recommended their stage 2 clutch for my app, which is a spring hub full face kevlar disc. She said that it would offer more holding torque than an organic disc and was built, like all their clutches, by Star Racing and that it was a proper race part intended for race use, not a repackaged oem. She didn't have the pricing and technical information handy, so I will be ordering one on Monday. I'll let you know how that goes and what I find out, it's a lot more encouraging than the runaround I was getting at ACT.

Grant

[zakats]

Centerforce just ask around they get soo much negative feedback....
--zak--

[Doodson]

Well I have never seen a CenterForce Clutch Work at the track , and I have always used HONDA Discs and now I have a ACT pressure Plate on the racecar.
Hope it works?

Doodson

[smokin rubber]

the clutch is slipping in my car, bought an exedy oem replacement from clutch city online for $94. Thats for the disc, plate, throwout bearing, and alignment tool. Ill let you know how it goes.

[paul barela]

i have a exedy clutch for my d16a and it works great. the petal is a little stiffer, but totally streetable.But i dont think it will hold when i put a turbo on. Does anyone have experience with segmented kevlar clutches or a streetable clutch that will hold 160-170ftlbs tq? Grant can you post how the opm clutch works out.

[Grant Bailey]

I will definitely post how it works out. Unfortunately, the lady from OPM has not called me back like she said she would (Jeezus, how is anybody unemployed with customer service this rotten every-fricking-where!) and I don't have the cash for it right now.

Thinking back, one of the things that the ACT guys said on the phone is that they take a stocky Exedy disc and take off the organic friction material and stick on kevlar for a slightly higher torque holding capacity in some applications (other than ours, of course). I wonder if that's what OPM / Spec is doing with their clutches.

My clutch is still making that damn noise, but it's working, engagement is crisp and all that, so I think I'm just going to stick it out until it self destructs again. I don't see any particular savings in taking out the ACT disc until it is in pieces, and I'm sure as hell not anxious for the 12 hour hell a clutch change has been every time I've done it. Don't ask me why it takes so fricking long, but there's always a reason.

Grant