Track day clutch issues

**SRT84X4** · #1 (**permalink**) 08-16-2007, 04:18 PM

Well, I have found the simple answer to the clutch on the floor problem. I sent the following message to a fellow member after my track day at Putnam last week.

I decided to try something new. The problem is simply that the cats get so hot that when you park the car the heat rises and is trapped by the insulation above the engine (where the slave cylinder is located) and it boils the fluid (no matter what kind, I have Castrol srf). I decided that after each session, I would simply drive out of the track and take a 10 mile cool down run at 50 mph in 6th gear. Air temp at the track that day approached 100, and I had no more clutch issues. Obviously, the same result would come from a similar cool down on the track, but I didn't want to be in the way of the other drivers.

Rod Smith · #2 (**permalink**) 08-16-2007, 04:21 PM

Thanks for the info. Maybe that explains why I have been unable to reproduce the problem for my dealer's service dept.

**SRT84X4** · #3 (**permalink**) 08-20-2007, 05:28 PM

Yes, you can't get it hot enough without a few laps at the track, and then parking it.

**Gator Bite** · #4 (**permalink**) 08-21-2007, 08:58 PM

Hmmmm...... The day my clutch failed it was over 95 degrees. No tracking, but plenty hot. I wonder if this is related to heat.

***DaveN007*** · #5 (**permalink**) 08-22-2007, 02:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gator Bite

Hmmmm...... The day my clutch failed it was over 95 degrees. No tracking, but plenty hot. I wonder if this is related to heat.

Mine failed when it was less than 80 degrees. Both times while driving in the cool evening air at a mellow pace. My Cayman (different car) has never had an issue at over 100 degrees after back to back 30 minute track sessions. If an hour on a track in 100 degree heat doesn't do it, what will?

Some of these clutches are bad, and some are not. Whatever the cause...slave cylinder...whatever...it is a defect. It isn't a "you let your car get too hot" issue.

**Gator Bite** · #6 (**permalink**) 08-22-2007, 01:39 PM

I'm not buying it, the heat thing I mean. My new found tourist delivery friend Jim picked up his Boxster S at the same time I picked up my Cayman S. We both headed into Europe at the same time. Mine failed about an hour into our trip. So did Jim's. But he pulled his pedal back up. I didn't.

He continued on his trip and was revisited by clutch failure, over, and over, and over again in the following days. The weather in Europe was hot on that first day (in the 90's) but the temps fell like a stone (70's) on the 2nd day and stayed much lower for the remainder of our two weeks. He had many failures even in the lower temps.

No, I think if this was a temperature related issue we would have connected those dots by now.

By the way, Jim, if you're reading this, what are you waiting for man? Join the Cayman club already and tell your story. I assure you there are many here that would love to hear all about your Porsche, good, bad or indiferent. We need more Boxster members too. Come on in. The water's fine.....