2006 Elantra owners

it was bent from day one.. manufacturering flaw... thats why they replaced it under warranty.. what ticked me off when it happened was the service writer that "used" to work there took it for a drive and said it felt fine.. couple months later still feeling like there was a problem with the clutch, I asked the senior tech to take it for a drive, he was back within 5 mins and said the clutch was damaged and needed to be replaced.. upon removal of the assembly he said the throughout bearing was bent...

Pete...

Our opinions differ here. 100,000 is lousy for a modern clutch. Sounds like your car was abused, either by the former owner or the latter owner. :-)

Matt

What were the symptoms? Noises? High pedal effort? Clutch slipping?

Matt

when you were letting yer foot up off the clutch, it felt like it was all the way out then it would grab and feel like it was releasing kinda like you were double clutching without actually doing it....

Pete...

I guess if you don't know how to use a clutch, then 100K miles IS pretty good. If you want to learn to get 200K+ on a clutch, less us know and we can give you some tips.

Matt

Oh please, please, please Matt, share your wisdom with us! Please do!

Clutch life varies from one brand and model of car to another and with the type of driving the car sees. While a vehicle that's driven predominantly on the highway may easily get 200K on a clutch, one that sees lots for urban "stall-and-crawl" commuting never will. To make the statement that 100K miles is poor clutch life without any other information is simply ridiculous.

OK, but only because you asked for it. :-)

Of course, clutch life varies for many reasons as does brake life. However, I believe that driver technique is the dominant factor in both cases. Here are some things I've seen over the years that contribute to clutch disk wear and throw-out bearing wear.

Throw-out bearing:

Sitting at a stop light for two minutes with the transmission in gear holding the clutch down. This adds dramatically to the wear of the t-bearing as compared to shifting into neutral and letting the clutch out. Some claim the latter is a safety hazard as you couldn't get out of the way of someone about to rear-end you, but I think this is a specious argument at best. Few folks could get away from a person who they knew was going to rear-end them even if they had the car in gear.

Clutch disk:

The main culprit I've seen is folks that use the clutch to hold the car in position on a hill at a stop light or sign rather than using the brakes. I'm still amazed at how often I see people doing this. A minute or two of this probably wears the clutch as much as 5,000 miles of normal driving and generates lots of heat that can cause warping of the presssure plate or even flywheel.

Making fast starts all of the time and using too much RPM at start-out. I'll be the first to admit that the Hyundai throttle and clutch makes smooth starts much more difficult than they should be. My Chevy truck idles at about 650 RPM. I can smoothly start out with that vehicle and never have the tach above 1,000 RPM prior to full clutch engagement, unless I'm on a steep hill. Obviously, the 4 cylinder in the Sonata takes a little more RPM, but even so I can usually start out without exceeding 1200 or so. I routinely ride with people who rev to 2,000+ rpm at every start.

Not matching engine and input shaft RPM when shifting. Once you get familiar with a car, it is fairly easy to time upshifts so that you release the clutch just as the engine RPM is falling to the figure required for the next higher gear. Again, the Hyundai electronic throttle makes this more difficult as the "dashpot" function programmed into it is way to aggressive and slows upshifts, but it can be done if you don't get in too big a hurry. Same thing with downshifting. A quick blip of the throttle before engaging the clutch on higher RPM downshifts helps a lot.

These are the biggest things I see routinely from folks who get poor clutch life. I'm sure I missed a few and maybe you can add another tip or two.

Matt

I have to disagree with this. How will this affect throwout bearing life? The biggest threat to throwout bearing life is people who leave their foot on the clutch pedal while driving, taking up the slop and laying on the throwout bearing - what we used to call riding the clutch. Think about it - what is coupling the tranny to the engine while the clutch is disengaged?

This sure would eat up a clutch fast, but our experiences differ Matt. I can't think of many times at all that I've seen this. What strikes me as more common is folks who aren't comfortable with releasing the clutch on a hill and won't come off the clutch quickly, at rpm's that are a bit high, in attempt to make the take off smooth. (slipping the clutch). They end up with a lot of unnecessary slippage.

Notwithstanding a pure dump of the clutch, a fast start isn't going to do any appreciable damage to a clutch. What will eat the clutch face is attempting to ease it too much and ending up with too much time with a partial clutch engagement. This will eat up a clutch even at low rpm's.

Matching rpm's has nothing really to do with clutch wear. The clutch is already disengaged by the time the driver attempts the shift. Today's synchro's (for the past 30 years or so...) have made a moot point of timing the engine to the tranny. If you do go to the extent of timing the two, the clutch becomes unnecessary - either up or down shifting. It becomes quite possible to upshift and downshift without the clutch, and very smoothly at that. But... this is a function of angle cut tranny teeth, and has nothing to do with the clutch. Any miniscule affect on the clutch face that *may* be in effect from blipping the engine probably wouldn't amount to a scant few hundred miles in the life of a clutch plate.

OTR truck trannys, multi-speed rear ends, etc. share little in common with a passenger car. The teeth are cut differently, and like a race car, the tranny is really intended to be shifted without the clutch once under way.

Agreed.

I don't see it that often, but often enough to realize that people aren't being taught properly.

True. Even with the stupid valve removed from the slave cylinder, it's not the best clutch I've used. For that matter, the clutch in my old Excel was better.

That'll tend to wear things a bit.

That's just a normal part of driving a manual tranny and it more or less just happens during typical driving. The only time it's even and issue is when driving aggressively.

Yes, the dashpot function really sucks. I used to disable the dashpots on my older cars, but that's not an option anymore.

I used to be a big fan of heel-and-toe downshifting back when I tended to drive my cars harder. These days, I only downshift when I need to and never use the transmission to slow the car. As a wise man once said: "Brake pads are much cheaper than a transmission rebuild."

Hondas may be great cars -- I've owned a two -- but, I would suggest if one is considering a new generation Civic, go over to the 2006+ Civic forum. Quite a number of owners are not happy with their new cars due to the notorious "Lug Bug" problem. It seems like a fair number of owners are experiencing this problem, as yet not fully explained by Honda.

I'm happy with our new 2006 Elantra. No complaints after three months of ownership.

What is the lug bug problem?

I've only owned one Honda, an 84 Accord purchased new, and it was a piece of crap. The top end of the engine self-destructed with 72,000 miles on it. It is the only car I've owned in 30+ years that didn't make 100K miles.

Matt

I always thought Honda made good stuff. I test drove a Civic before I bought my Elantra. I didn't like the Civic that much and the Elantra has a better warranty. I've also had very good luck with Hyundai, so I stuck with them.

My wife's Toyata Corolla put a rod though the side of the engine block at 98,000. That engine was badly abused because she didn't change the oil and stuff like she should have.

- Mooron

Apparently, the new Civic has a problem either with an engine/chassis resonance or an engine "lugging" problem. The users on Edmunds.com forums have been complaining quite a bit about this for some time. It appears to affect primarily the Civic with the AT transmission. Some theorize that in Honda's search for the holy grail in fuel economy, when the transmission is in 5th gear, the engine is turning too low of an RPM (especially in town), and causes the engine to lug, i.e. too high of a gear for engine RPMs. For some time now, the posters have been calling it the "Lug Bug" problem.

Others think it's due to an inherent engine/chassis resonance problem. It's not in their minds as it seems Honda has acknowleged the problem exists, but has yet to propose a fix.

One thing is for certain, if you think there are dissatisfied Hyundai owners, you will be surprised how many new 2006 Civic owners are complaining in a very vocal way. Frankly, it surprised me, and I drove a Civic for a number of years, and had excellent experience with it.

Similarly, I originally planned to buy a 2006 Corolla, but the driving position in them was terrible. And then when I found I could get a Sonata for virtually the same price, the decision was fairly easy.

Matt

Just shows you that every new design carries with it some risk of a problem or two, no matter who the manufacturer is.

Matt

I can tell you Elantra is one of the best in the market,I had put 25k miles on my 05 Elantra, no problem except the horn. all the miles was stop and go driving(pizza delivery), lot of trunk space with the hatch back one,but you should also look at the 06 Civic ,not sure what are the prices different,if not much I would prefer the Civic .

tried one, bought the Hyundai. The Civic gave me calustrophobia.

;-)