What Causes Porsche Clutch Burnout?

Your Porsche clutch is designed to last a very long time. However its lifespan is heavily dependent on your driving habits as well as the general condition of the components in your car. The clutch may be subjected to premature wearing out and failure by poor driving habits and you may be forced to replace it every six months. Here are some of the things that you can avoid so as to make your clutch last longer.

Riding The Clutch

This is a common error that occurs due to ignorance of the driver most of the time. Each time you apply pressure no matter how small to the clutch when resting your foot on the pedal, you are wearing it out. It is recommended that you use the least possible time to engage and disengage your clutch in order to prevent burnout. This helps in prolonging the lifespan of your clutch. However, you might want to engage the pedal smoothly so as not to scare the passengers.

Incorrect Shifting

When you fail to shift your gears completely before disengaging the clutch, you contribute towards the occurrence of clutch burnout. This is because the clutch causes the disc to catch, bringing the damper springs to their limit. This leads to faster wearing out as well as damages to the disc caused by heat and as a result premature clutch failure. Also, if you shift your gears before the clutch is fully engaged, or without engaging the clutch at all, you will destroy your clutch. The resultant damage is very costly and you should try to prevent it by all means. That being said, it is important to shift your gears correctly. 

Using Your Clutch To Hold Your Porsche On A Hill

When on a hill you may use your clutch to prevent your Porsche from rolling back. This enables you to hold your car on the hill without hitting the brakes. This is so cool right! However, when you do this you are killing your clutch by burning it quickly and the wiser choice would be to use the emergency brake instead. The emergency brake may not stop the car completely but it generates enough friction to prevent it from rolling back. Therefore you should never use your clutch to hold your Porsche on a hill.

Performance Upgrades

You may choose to upgrade your Porsche’s performance by increasing its power or enhancing the fuel economy. However your clutch may burn out as a side effect of upgrading the performance of your car. If you increase the output of your engine, you may need to upgrade your clutch as well so as to accommodate the increased output. Failure to do so will mean that your clutch will wear out faster than expected. Other performance upgrades such as larger tires, increase in the weight of the car as well as changes in the gear ratio may also cause your clutch to burn out.

Clutch Contamination

 Your clutch my burn out as a result of contamination. The clutch disc may come into contact with fluids such as oil, grease or even the hydraulic fluid in the clutch cylinders. This causes contamination and greatly reduces the lifespan of the clutch. You should regularly inspect the seals so as to prevent leakages that would otherwise cause clutch contamination.