Forester clutch life?

guzzla

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May 16, 2010
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Toowoomba, QLD
I wonder what's the longest anyone has been able to make the original clutch last on their turbo Forester (or any turbo Subaru for that matter)? Mine has just passed 276,000km but is being replaced next week.

In the last 20,000km I've noticed the throwout bearing occasionally made a slight noise but in the last week this has become all the time and noisier and a grinding noise / feel through the pedal with it. It sounds and feels bloody awful. No slippage though and no judder. I'm interested to see what it looks like when it's removed.

Got a quote from Advanced Service Centre here who have done other top services on it for $1600 for full clutch kit fitted.

The clutch on my former V6 Camry lasted almost the same amount of time (282,000km). I really have tried to be kind to the Forster's clutch and it has had a lot of easy highway km's.
 
276,000 is a seriously a very good effort guzzla. Mine did 223,000 before slipping under load and replaced with Competition Clutch stage 2.
Can highly recommend
 
I done mine at 145k km in the foz, then again at 205k km and just recently with my new custom gearbox at 230k km.
My Brumby I had to do a week after aquiring it qt 305k km. The old one was a genuine Subaru one, I imagine it was replaced in ita life before.
The new edition 1984 MY Wagon (one owner) has 274k km and the clutch feels ok but not great. I'm fairly aure it's original.

Wow $1600!!! I did mine in a day when I swapped my new custom gearbox in. Cost me $700 trade price for a top of the line one.. got the flywheel machined for $50. Gotta love having trade accounts.
 
that lifetime seems about right for it to be replaced now. Sounds like maybe the clutch itself is still okay even, just the thrust bearing or spigot bearing failed perhaps. Either way, may as well put a full clutch kit and bearings in. That price seems quite high though, you are probably being stung alot on labour. I'd shop around a bit more if I were you.

I paid $450 recently for a brand new heavy duty excedy clutch kit (clutch disc, pressure plate, and thrust bearing) and $8.50 for spigot bearing, and $55 for flywheel machining. Fitted it myself, but I wouldn't expect to pay for more than 3 or 4 hours labour at whatever rate at a workshop to have it done.

Taza were your replacement intervals because the clutch was needing replacement or just because it was a good opportunity to do it? If your clutch is worn out at ~60,000kms you are doing something wrong!
 
Abit of both Andrew. The 2nd was feeling tied, however with a flogged out 2.0l most of the time you had to ride it to get anywhere offroad. Then as the motor came out to fit the rebuilt ej25 I put a new disk in with the existing pressure plate and flywheel.
Lastly since I was doing a new gearbox I thought I should have a new clutch to match...
 
AndrewT said:
that lifetime seems about right for it to be replaced now. Sounds like maybe the clutch itself is still okay even, just the thrust bearing or spigot bearing failed perhaps. Either way, may as well put a full clutch kit and bearings in. That price seems quite high though, you are probably being stung alot on labour. I'd shop around a bit more if I were you.
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They quote $1200 for a non-turbo replacement (which is a ball park figure for the V6 Camry replacement we had) but the turbo gets a different clutch. Don't know the labour charge for that but I don't care to shop around as they service the car and I rate them highly there. Actually the cost doesn't worry me - I just want the best job done and the car feeling good again. And I can get the car back before Easter. Actually I wasn't confident of driving it any further either as I was worried I wouldn't get it across town without being stranded.
 
catchya said:
276,000 is a seriously a very good effort guzzla. Mine did 223,000 before slipping under load and replaced with Competition Clutch stage 2.
Can highly recommend
Click to expand...

I reckon I'm easy on the clutch and it has never been abused but it has had 40,000km of towing and about 60,000km with the reflashed tune. I really want it to stay user friendly so didn't consider a competition clutch although I just assume that it would be heavier and less smooth? It has never had any slipping problem even to the end or any shudder either but did become heavier with a sort of grainy feel. The Camry clutch started giving warnings of failure about 40,000km before with gradual slipping and finally throwout bearing noise and severe slipping. They said the lining had just worn away to nothing. The replacement in that was better and smoother than new. Machined the flywheel. So very interested to see what they find when the Forester's is taken out.
 
NachaLuva said:
My sister had her clutch done last year for $1200 in her Outback
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Well that seems to fit in with the $1200 quote given for the Forester's clutch till they realized it was a turbo.

I picked the car up on Sat morning and I'm thrilled with it. So smooth and light and progressive. It's so sweet to drive. I don't remember it ever being this good new. They reckon all Subaru clutches are made by Exedy - is that true? My throwout bearing was wrecked but the spigot bearing was good and they said there was a remarkable amount of clutch lining still left and no slippage. It cost $1573 - labour $495 (5 hrs @$99/hr), clutch kit DSC7683 $854, 3.5L gearbox oil $33, flywheel machining $48 and GST $143. Don't think my Foz has ever felt better with new clutch, new steering rack, new King springs and new KYB struts and just had its 275,000km service. I've also now moved to 5w-40 Castrol Edge full synthetic oil instead of the 5w-30.

Oh and my bank account isn't feeling near as well as the car though lol
 
Non-turbo MY05 Forester: 288,000. Not a turbo and I reckon I drive it pretty gently where I can, but the old girl has done heaps of bad roads, a fair bit of off-road (not extreme unless there is no other way to get there), and a lot of towing, mostly pretty heavy loads. Can't complain about close to three hundred thousand.

Went on me last week, no real surprise there, it was bound to happen. I was 300k from home out in the Mallee. One minute I'm driving normally (on the highway), next minute I stop for juice and anything more tha ultra-gentle in 1st or 2nd just spins. Called my mechanic, turned around and nursed it home no problems.

New one was $1150 fitted, including machining the flywheel. Ouch!
 
Not a turbo, but I got 250k out of my outback clutch, and only replaced it when I did a turbo engine conversion.

Still running a standard clutch to avoid gearbox damage (standard outback dual range 5MT).

The price of clutch replacement is all in the labour costs plus some usual spare parts markup. I found a new exedy clutch kit for $250 after a little looking.
 
duncanm said:
Not a turbo, but I got 250k out of my outback clutch, and only replaced it when I did a turbo engine conversion.

Still running a standard clutch to avoid gearbox damage (standard outback dual range 5MT).

The price of clutch replacement is all in the labour costs plus some usual spare parts markup. I found a new exedy clutch kit for $250 after a little looking.
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Where?!?!?!? I cant even get a uprated clutch kit to suit a gen 3 for less than 350 at trade price!
 
Tannin what do yoy call heavy loads? 2 tomne plus? How many km roughly? hpw many years? What do you called offroad?
I imagine if you did what we did here in WA you wouldn't get over 100km out of a clutch.....
 
taza said:
Where?!?!?!? I cant even get a uprated clutch kit to suit a gen 3 for less than 350 at trade price!
Click to expand...

ebay is your friend. I just did a search for exedy FJK-7115 and there's one pops up for $267 plus post.

I bought mine from these guys when they sold stuff on ebay (don't seem to any more)... they have same clutch kit for $285.

https://www.autotec.com.au/
 
taza said:
Arrrh. So not heavy duty.
Pretty good price though.
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The std clutch can handle plenty of power - does the heavy duty version tolerate more abuse or something?
 
Has uprated springs in the pressure plate which allow more clamping force and more meat on the disk.
With all the sand driving, heat and needs to work the clutch heaps in sand I found it works better and burns less with the hard work.
However now with my custom box riding the clutch isnt needed.
 
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