I have a 2000 Eclispe GT 5spd manual with 97K miles. I am not sure if the previous owner had the clutch serviced or not. Should I bleed the whole system? What are some indications that a clutch is about to go out or getting weak?

Thanks,

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The first sign of a clutch going is it will start to slip. Basically youll notice when you floor it the rpms will jump up but the car wont seem to be going anywhere. Another will be having trouble getting the car into gears.

 

In other words it will slip. You can usually tell how much life the clutch has in it by where it engages. If the car starts to move when the pedal is near the top, then you have little life left in it.

 

Not sure on Eclipses, but on many cars the engagement point is adjustable, as well as different with different clutch setups, I wouldn't use that as an indicator of wear, no offense to the previous poster.

I'd also chime in with the previous posters saying you'll know if it's toast when it starts slipping under power. More likely than not you'll notice itslip if it's going to in 3rd or 4th under heavy throttle and load, on a colder day. The rpms will sing up suddenly and the car not go anywhere and then it'll 'catch' ... If this happens and you're not ready for one reason or another to replace the clutch, avoid repeating the slip as much as possible..it takes very little of it to make the clutch go south fast once it starts slipping.

If you have trouble reaching the gears there may be something wrong with the shifter box, or there could possibly be the wrong manual trans fluid or its shot.. It never hurts to change out that fluid..cheap and easy.

 

i think i might need a new clutch if TheEngineer is right. I was hitting a little over 3k rpm today but acceleration felt like 2k (first gear). However it seemed to be alright after first/second gear. So I'm guessing these are signs that it's wearing out(?) How much am I looking to spend here? don't mean to take over the thread haha. I'm in the same situation as asim281. 00' GT 5-speed (just bought used) with 82k miles.

 

The clutch is the cheap part of it, the expensive part is the labour. Either way its more than likely going to be over 1k