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What *was* that burning smell...?

Hey all..

Recently did a trip with my 02 WRX Wagon (Manual), and had a kind of an odd circumstance.

Here's the setup:

4-hour trip, lots of windy roads through the mountains - lots of ups and downs. (Headed to Long Beach on Vancouver Island, fwiw).

My 'strategy' for dealing with tight-ish corners on downslopes is to not go particularly fast, but fast enough to be in 3rd when entering the curve. I'll apply brakes gently, put the car in Neutral, spin up the revs to about 3500, and put it into 2nd with the revs matched, or close to it. I'll release the clutch gently, and use the brakes combined with the motor to slow the car through the apex of the corner. I generally don't double-clutch in this scenario.

Then, after coming out of the corner, I'll accelerate away in second.

Seems like a pretty conservative technique - the hope is to use the rev-matching to avoid wear on the synchros, and on the clutch.

Anyway. On two occasions, I swear I smelled something bad - something overheating somewhere. And it was *right* after spinning up the tranny to 3500 or so when I was putting it into second. I'd just be entering the corner at this point. And a couple of seconds later, the smell would be gone.

What could this be? Am I abusing the transmission by putting more load on it than I should (for slowing the vehicle down)? Or is this a sensible technique?

I'm taking the car in for a 60,000 km servicing next week - anything I should ask them to look at particularly closely?

Thanks!

Reply to
BD
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Perhaps the clutch is not disengaging completely. It may be slightly out of adjustment or, maybe, you're not getting completely to the floor. Soob clutch materal is VERY smelly and it doesn't take much slippage to get the stink.

I dunno

Carl

Reply to
Carl 1 Lucky Texan

Yeah, it's tough to get a clear idea when it only happened for a couple of seconds, on only two occasions.

Oh well. I won't bother asking for the dealers' opinion - they've given me very little indication of being even *interested* in solving a problem whose cause isn't blatantly obvious.

Thanks for the thought - I'll mention the clutch to the dealer, see if they can check into it.

Reply to
BD

Hmm. 60,000 km seems a little early for that - but I guess everything's worth checking. Thanks!

Reply to
BD

''Release the clutch gently'' sounds a lot like you're slipping the clutch. Brake pads are cheap and easy, the clutch-not so much.

Reply to
David

Not really - I push the clutch in just as quickly as any other circumstance, blip to rev-match, and then lift off the clutch pedal, pausing briefly about halfway to make sure I'm at the proper revs.

Thing is, the odor I detected was *definitely* when my foot was all the way in. I've been driving this car for 5 years, so I know how touchy (read: weak) the clutch in this car is. The chronology was something like: 3rd gear, slowing with brake; clutch in, go to neutral (clutch stays in, not double-clutching here); blip to 3500, with heel- toe braking, to match revs for second ((**odor detected**)); pop into second, gently release clutch ((**odor dissipates**)); continue to slow around the corner, then apply throttle in second.

Had I been slipping the clutch, I expect I'd have smelled something later.

Besides. It didn't really smell like clutch. I learned *that* smell all too well, trying to back up an upwards incline some years ago to get out of a driveway and into traffic. **YUCK.** When I go visiting those particular folks now, I back into their driveway, so I can just pull out in first. ;)

Reply to
BD

If it smells like rotten fish it's likely to be the clutch. Is your car one that suffered from the well-known

2002 clutch judder problem? I had that problem (Wife...'How much did you pay for this car?') A new clutch and heavier flywheel fitted under warranty cured the judder and the occasional horrible pong. I saw my old assembly...the flywheel was cracked and blue due to excessive heating under normal use...no boy racer stuff. I have to say that double de-clutching on a modern gearbox is totally unnecessary...the syncro works just fine...and you are using the clutch twice as much as you need...which may be part of the problem. As already pointed out, brake pads are way cheaper than clutches. Just my 2 English pence worth.
Reply to
Clive - Selectron

Couple of points:

-I am now on my FOURTH clutch on this car. First one had the shudder problem, its replacement (I got it swapped out for a heavier one, likely under the same service notification that you did) suffered a failed bearing and gave out completely (after a week of normal commuter use)... the next one exhibited a very strange resonance which baffled the mechanics for a week, and the 4th one seems to be lasting fine. Only weird symptom is a very slight roughness when depressing the pedal - which appears to vary depending on rpms of the motor at the time. Probably some imperfection in the bearings, but this symptom is very minor, and was there from the instant this clutch was installed

-I am not double-clutching on this maneuver, as I mentioned earlier. I

*do* double-clutch, but only when I am slowing to below 20km/h, and need to get into first gear to accelerate. The only viable options for me to get into first gear from second at low speeds are to a) double- clutch, b) push the shifter in to 'force' the synchros to spin up - which does work, but it just takes too much time and cannot be healthy on the hardware, and c) come to a FULL STOP. The first gear synchros in this transmission are an embarassment. This has been pretty well documented in the driver community.

Seems the first-gear synchro issue has been remedied by implementing 'dual-cone' synchros in more recent transmissions. Some users have also seen benefit in the behavior of 1st gear, from using a specific brand of synthetic tranny fluid.

In fact - the whole synchro issue is so rampant that one guy on the NASIOC forums made a really excellent FAQ about it - including specific techniques for heel-toeing and double-clutching into first. It's a good read.

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Granted, I'm only addressing the second-gear synchros in my particular rambling, and they appear to work fine. But your claim that the synchro works fine shouldn't be taken universally, and should really be balanced off with a specific discussion about this particular tranny.

Cheers,

BD

Reply to
BD

Reply to
Clive

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