What kills clutches

I have heard a lot about Ferrari clutches being weak - my Testarossa is on its third after 19k miles {not in my hands}. What causes the problems - slipping it too much, low speed manouvering or what?

TIA Andy

Hi.........

As far as I know, clutches fail because of excess heat and friction, which produces the heat. The heat can weaken springs and diaphragms and the friction erodes the surface of the clutch disc.

Excessive slippage is very bad for a clutch. Don't use the clutch to hold a car steady on a incline. Don't "ride" the pedal; engage and disengage the clutch with full pedal travel to avoid excessive slippage.

The clutch is designed to slip for a short time during engagement to prevent sudden tire "chirps" and "unpleasant" drivetrain vibrations. Make sure that the flywheel is flat and smooth before installing a new clutch; perhaps you are consuming clutches because of a "geometry problem" within the bell housing. Make sure that the throw-out bearing is functioning normally and the linkage system or hydraulics provide(s) the required "travel" and clearances.

Try clutch discs with new materials, such as Kevlar and/or carbon fiber; the original Ferrari materials may have been "weak" for the applications.

Low speeds should not be a problem for the clutch, but might be a bore for the driver !!

Frank..........23005
www.masiarz.net/bb_resource

In addition to what Frank said, when pulling away from a stop, I always let the clutch out until I feel it engage before adding gas.

and downshifting to slow the car down is a no no for me. As one who has had several clutches in my F cars replaced, I am told it is quite a bit cheaper to replace brake pads. So I slow the car down by applying brakes rather than downshifting. This reduces slippage and hence hopefully I wont need new clutches as often.

In other words, Ferrari clutches are not the very best in the world compared to say Corvette clutches, because they are small, and a lot of torque is applied...so it is a driver error problem...plain and simple, for the most part.

Here is another discussion on the same subject;

http://www.ferrari-talk.com/discus/m...tml?1083012028

Clutches die because people <yes> put power through the clutch while it is in the Friction zone. This includes: trying to get more performance out of the car while accelerating; trying to downshift without rev-matching with the throttle and/or not double-declutching. Finally, clutches die <slave> because people do not flush the clutch fluid when the get their brakes bled.

By applying power through the clutch when it is in the Friction Zone one can improve the 0-60 times of these cars <at>. These cars were not designed to 0-60, and have a clutch designed for race track use not drag strip use. It is not a clutch design problem, nor is it a materials problem, it is a problem on how people use a car <outside>

On the downshift side of things, the synchros in the modern Ferraris are good enough the rev-matching and double-declutching is not necessary, however, learning how to do these things correctly can save big bucks down the road by taking stress off these components.

On a side note, I have 20,000 miles on a clutch and over 1500 of these miles took place on race tracks. The clutch is less than 1/2 worn, I rev match both going up and going down.

As I got older I got easier on clutches. I used to redo clutches on my Corvettes every year and these were street cars. The killer on clutches is heat. Try not to slip them , rev match on upshifts and don't load them when driving in 5th. Only downshift to pass . I can run it up to 7500 without putting to much pressure on the clutch system. I have 48k on my 308 with the orig. clutch. It's stilll strong.

Arent there a place that sells generic clutches that we can use on a Testarossa?