Clutch and Power: Confessions of My Car

For the past few months, I've noticed a slippage in my car's performance. In some instances when I floored the gas pedal, the power was not transmitted. Instead, I just felt the increasing RPM in much the same way when you rev up while in neutral gear.

I suspected it was a clutch problem. It turned out it was. It was an almost P7,000-problem at that. I had my pressure plate, clutch disc, release bearing and flywheel replaced. Oh well. At least I had a good after-service experience.

My clutch feels great now.

Throughout this whole episode, I just had a vague understanding of the concept of power and clutches. Characteristically, I did a little reading. There's this informative site called howstuffworks.com which is some sort of Internet heaven for curious minds.

Apparently, the clutch transmits power from the engine to the wheels. With friction, the clutch and the flywheel are locked together causing them to spin in sync. Now, once the friction material wears out, the two discs fail to spin in sync resulting in a loss of transmitted power. In reflection, my car's friction situation must have slipped so badly that my car had difficulty rolling over a hump.

If you're the type of driver who rides the clutch or drives a car with your foot constantly on the clutch pedal, you will likely experience clutch slippage sooner than later.

Sidelights

I can't seem to figure if the phrase "come through in the clutch" is in any way related to the automobile definition. Hmmm...

A while back, I had a few posts relating to the supposed sale of my car. It obviously didn't push through owing to an overwhelming dose of sentimentality that swept over me.

Things to research: clutch, manual transmission, stick shift, straight drive, clutch pedal, clutch plate, pressure plate, clutch disk, clutch disc, bell housing, clutch housing, throw-out bearing, flywheel, compressor clutch, viscous clutch