Clutch replacement pulled over and could smell a faint burning smell?

AIMDESIGN

MEMBER
2008 TOYOTA COROLLA
4 CYL
2WD
MANUAL
28,600 MILES

Assuming I never ride the clutch. If the clutch in my car 'burns out' at 28,000 km, what else could cause that? I never ride the clutch and have had no problems with my car until yesterday I came to a stop at a stop sign, and when I went to continue I had next to no power. I immediately pulled over and could smell a faint burning smell. The car was towed to my nearest Toyota dealer and they are saying I must ride my clutch to cause it to be burned out like it is. I don't, ever. There is a little foot rest by the clutch I use when I am driving to keep my foot. So it looks like I need to change the clutch out.

1 Reply

DANNY L

MECHANIC
5,648 POSTS

Hello, I'm Danny.

It's possible there could be an issue with the clutch being misadjusted or the clutch pressure plate overtightened therefore causing excessive pressure on the clutch disk to therefore cause premature wear to the clutch disk or a "riding the clutch" type symptom. If a new clutch assembly is properly installed you should be able to get way more than 28 km. Here are a few tutorials showing how a clutch works, symptoms, and how to replace a clutch:

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/inner-workings-of-a-car-clutch

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/clutch-symptoms

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/how-to-replace-a-clutch

You will have to remove the manual transmission from the vehicle to gain access to the clutch assembly. Here is a tutorial showing how to remove and replace a manual transmission:

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/transmission-replacement-removal-manual

I've attached picture steps below on how to replace the clutch assembly and how to remove and replace the transmission on your car. Hope this helps and thanks for using 2CarPros.

Images (Click to make bigger)