SPEC clutch unanimous then?

I drove to my sister's house that has a lot of steep hills. I have Stage II mods with a FMIC and never launched my 22k mile car. Its my DD but took it to the dyno for a run (265hp/305tq). I heard a "Ping" while doing a U-Turn at an uneven intersection and bogged uphill passing a car on its way down a narrow road. When I got to my sister's driveway, my clutch said "foget abought it" and I neutral parallel parked it.

 

I drove home 8 freeway miles, when up 2 inclines including my 30 degree driveway with no problems, but I figure I get a clutch before I go with a turbo and maybe new 18" rims/tires for the future and longevity.

 

Is the Stage II+ SPEC Clutch and Flywheel all I need to order to do a replacement as I read it comes with the TO/Pilot bearing. And where is the cheapest place to order as JCSpeed is what I read...

thanks!

Kevin

Just a story of drama about my Spec clutch...no saying the product is bad..so far am happy with how it works. Customer service on the other hand...well read for yourself:

 

Posted by guys from my shop:

 

 

We opened an account with Spec as a customer with a Subaru Legacy had requested a clutch through them.

That cost US Thousands of Dollars in labor for THEIR Manufacturer Defects, and more importantly, cost our customer his vehicle for 2 weeks. We were told the reason a clutch we installed was not working properly was because we most likely did not install it correctly because "we were sent the correct parts". We explained to the guys at spec we have done clutches in some of the craziest vehicles ever, and we had installed and removed this one 5 times and it would not engage properly. He told us, that did not mean too much to them as they had seen mechanics with the highest accreditations could not perform a simple job. (He said it nicely though)

It took a week and a half for Spec to agree to LET US PAY to send this clutch back. They even asked us to measure it before it left, and we said ok:

__________________________________________________________________

Jeremy

The Pressure Plate to Ring Gear

Stock 23.23

Spec 21.96

 

Thickness of Flywheel

Stock: 44.86

Spec: 40.86

 

Pressure Plate Friction Surface:

Stock: 13.3

Spec: 11

I believe these are the measurements you need.

Please let me know.

Thanks.

Geoffery

(Remember this part of the convo as it comes in to play later)

_______________________________________________________________

Turned out we were sent the correct parts, but they were defective.

After OVERNIGHTING it for $100 we were told 2 days AFTER it was recieved that "One of the rivets was contacting the plate which caused it not to release. That being said, it is fine and thus ready to roll". We requested it to be sent overnight AGAIN to have our customer taken care of as fast as possible.

then

Spec shipped it Ground...and we were ONLY Notified after we realized we STILL hadnt recieved it and called them to find out what was up.

They cancelled that one and shipped another one overnight.

After appologizing they emailed:

"I will send another kit to you today, via UPS NDA. This will get the parts to you tomorrow for installation as planned."

THEN...looking at our Credit Card Statement...SPEC CHARGED US TO SHIP IT BACK OVERNIGHT and DID NOT TELL US!!!!!!!!!!

They then credited us back after leaving me on hold for 30 minutes and after i flipped out on them

We recieved it 2 days later and "whoops" it comes with the incorrect Bearing.

We explained this in an email to Spec and said, you sent the wrong bearing... we were told by our salesman "I didn’t personally send it…it goes through production."

Good answer right?

So we already ordered a new bearing at that time as we realized we could not count on them for anything.

Our customer called spec to complain to them about their service as i had shown him all the emails and called him every day to update him. Spec then basically lied to him, and said it was something we had done, and he told our customer we said "the measurments on the clutches were not the same" and thats what we were focusing on and complaining about the whole time, thats why they didnt authorize an immediate return on the clutch, Which of course was a load.

They then asked him what he wanted to "Make up" for the issue. He then said, how about you credit me back some money towards my flywheel. They told him he would not be getting ANYTHING for free and that if he wanted a spec product in the future they would give him some form of the discount.

We did not bill our customer for ANYTHING more than a simple clutch install. When we relayed that to Spec they said "wow i am suprised, most places would charge him at LEAST Storage fees"

Guess your outlook on customer service varies form company to company.

To be fair: We also put a Spec clutch (Which had already been ordered before this all took place) in a RSX and it was fine.

 

We have been around for many years, and by far have crowned Spec as one of the WORST companies we have ever dealt with. I have 18 Pages of emails from us to them documenting this situation and their responses as does our customer.

Lastly, this story is not about how good or bad a product is. It is about the customer support you get AFTER the sale. Many times you will find this is JUST as important as the quality of the product you are purchasing. We pride our selves on offering the best customer service to our customers and in a case like this, it cost us a couple thousand dollars to make our customer happy, And we learned a valuable lesson of what NOT to sell.

This is our experience with this company and is not intended to bash or to harm a company, it is simple as our experience put out there for others to make their own decisions.

If you have any other questions or you are curious what we might have for your application please be sure to let us know.

Thanks

Geoffery Modified by Geoff@SwiftMotorsports at 7:51 AM 12-12-2007

I'm in the process of writing/posting my Spec Stage2 Clutch Kit and Spec Flywheel review right now. I had mine installed at the dealership here in Omaha with no real issues other than a clutch pedal travel adjustment and a spring. I ordered mine from Tim at JSCSPEED back in August. It was installed in September. It was a little noisy and grabby for the first 1000 miles, but now at about 2500 miles, it feels pretty much like the stock unit except it actually holds when you gt on it.

I will say that the customer service from SPEC was a little harsh at best too. I had a whining TOB noise when the clutch was out and they pretty much of dismissed it; so I ended up installing an STI style return spring to hold the clutch fork off the TOB when released. Since then all has been good. I will get the review and breaking period info posted as soon as possible. Great clutch setup; not so great cust service from SPEC.

 

BTW My Power Mods: AEM CAI, GT SPEC HEADER/UP, AUTOSPEED DP, SPT CBE, PERRIN TMIC, TDC Stage 2+TMIC+Header+AEM/93 map

^^ Did your review get posted elsewhere?

I would not put a Spec Clutch on my lawnmower.

I would not put a Spec Clutch on my lawnmower.

 

But how many people have LS1-powered lawmowers?

Even if I had a Spec B powered lawnmower I wouldn't put a Spec clutch in it.

Wow - now that's a strong repudiation!

Even if I had a Spec B powered lawnmower I wouldn't put a Spec clutch in it.

 

 

Care to elaborate?

Sure - If my lawnmower had a Spec B engine in it i would not use a Spec clutch

 

I would convert my car to an automatic transmission if the only available clutch was made by Spec.

I would convert my car to an automatic transmission if the only available clutch was made by Spec.

 

 

A little more?

Well I would take the manual transmission out of my car and put in an automatic transmission if the only option was a Spec clutch - what more is there ?

 

I have had a bad experience with their product and I wouldn't use one again.

Was it customer service related, like the others, or just a pure crap product?

It was a crap product.

This is why I love Rao and his 12.6k posts on this forum. It took 5 posts to get him to say "It was a crap product"

 

 

Reading this forum a fair bit, I've seen generally mixed reviews on the quality of the Spec clutches/flywheels. Some owners have been extremely pleased; others have had problems with product, service, or both.

 

The ACT HD clutch seems to be much more favorably reviewed overall. Some owners become unhappy with additional noise they perceive afterwards on deceleration. But AFAIK there are almost no problems with the product working correctly.

 

To the OP: "When I got to my sister's driveway, my clutch said "foget abought it" and I neutral parallel parked it.

 

I drove home 8 freeway miles, when up 2 inclines including my 30 degree driveway with no problems, but I figure I get a clutch before I go with a turbo and maybe new 18" rims/tires for the future and longevity. "

 

This story doesn't make much sense. Your clutch wouldn't go up your sister's driveway period (i.e. it was slipping like crazy) and I'm guessing you were in a low gear, but then you could drive home just fine?

 

If this is true, in combination with your 22k daily driven miles with no launches, I'm guessing you have a tendency to slip your clutch alot and by the time you got to your sisters it was pretty overheated. This is just a guess on my part.

Spec makes crap. No getting around it. Some people make their crap last. Others are less fortunate. Oh, and their customer service sucks ass too.

 

Not gonna go fully into it, but on my last car, I had to cut a square hole in my bellhousing to release the clutch bolts from my pull-type clutch. This was due to the fact that the spec pressure plate had fused itself to the TOB in 9k miles, which coincidentally was the entire life of this clutch on a car that made 205 ft-lbs of torque.

Can you give a little more detail?

wow. Ive used Spec clutches for a couple years now and have had great experience with them. they've sponsored our racecar and its been great for us. Now with that said, its been for our hondas, not my subaru so it could be that they just arent very good with subaru products.

Can you give a little more detail?

 

 

I can! His Spec clutch sucked donkey/toad genitals.

 

His opinion of Spec clutches are lower than whale poo.

 

A Spec clutch is about as worthless as a submarine with a screen door.

I'm going to buy one, the suspense is killing me.

Can you give a little more detail?

 

This was in 2005. Had a 2000 Eclipse GT V6 with bolt-ons. Installed a Spec Stage 3 with a Fidanza Flywheel at 40k when the OEM clutch burned out. Did proper break in, daily drove it for just under a year, launched it on a drag strip maybe twice. Clutch started to slip unexpectedly, so I went to tear it down and crack open the transmission. I pryed on the TOB with a screwdriver and had an assistant operate the fork for over 6 hours trying to get the TOB to separate from the pressure plate (Only way to do it on a FWD pull-type clutch). I ended up sawing a hole in the bottom of the bell housing and used a wrench to unbolt the pressure plate itself from the flywheel by rotating the flywheel and unbolting each bolt. When I finally was able to separate the transmission from the engine, the pressure plate was still stuck on the clutch fork via the TOB. I had to destroy the pressure plate with an angle grinder just to release the TOB from the fork. The clutch mating surface was down to the rivets. I had this clutch for under a year, and called Spec about their warranty. They told me their clutches have a 4 month limited warranty, and that 9000 miles isnt unusual life for their clutches. Ended up buying an ACT after that. It lasted 45K before starting to slip, if that gives you any idea about the difference in quality. Also, drove on them the same, which shows it wasnt due to driving habits that caused the low life.

wow. Ive used Spec clutches for a couple years now and have had great experience with them. they've sponsored our racecar and its been great for us. Now with that said, its been for our hondas, not my subaru so it could be that they just arent very good with subaru products.

 

That's interesting, usually when someone is talking about a product from one of their sponsors they have all kinds of bad things to say about it

I had a SPEC clutch and switched back to ACT and then put another ACT in when I put in my 6Speed. No problems at all with the ACT.

 

The owner of Spec was my roommate in college and that is all I am going to say about spec.

Wow, if I had saw this before I bought mine I doubt I would have paid for it. Been really happy with it for more that a year. Luck:confused: