WOW you will never believe it

ZFRED10 · Oct 31, 2009, 11:50 PM

So let me start with telling you this. I recently had a clutch installed in my car (EDIT: OP FOUND THAT IT WAS NOT A SPEC CLUTCH BUT A COMP/NO-NAME CLUTCH). I would say around two and a half weeks ago. I babied the car for the first 1000 miles. 500 miles more then even said I was supposed to. Just letting you guys know this so it will can get an idea of what might have happened.

Anyways, here is the story. I was driving tonight, showing my friends my car. Started max boosting in second gear (around 16psi where it is set to)...and then...............BOOOOOOOM!!!! The front of my car exploded. My hood flew up and it was the loudest thing I have ever heard. After around 5 min. with my head down in shame on my steering wheel I decided to check it out. The whole right side of my engine bay was annihilated. Here is what I can say it looked like. The transmission at the clutch area was blown in half. The clutch was not there. It was back down the road where it happened. The flywheel was also in pieces on the road. Pieces of the transmission were everywhere as well. Pieces actually went through my carbon fiber hood as well as all around my engine bay. Radiator housing and hoses where blown out of the car along with a huge dent on the radiator core from something hitting it with an unbelievable force along with bending the frame into a "U" shape above the core. My intake to my turbo was left mangled in pieces. My right motor mount was completely out of the car. I found along the road with part of the frame still attached to it. The cross member bar is now dragging on the ground. As for the block and turbo, only time will tell. The left side of the engine bay looks good.

After researching to figure out what the f' happened I came across a few things that seemed similar to my situation. From reading and searching, my best educated guess would have to be the flywheel exploded. I'm a lot luckier than I think because I have read where if the parts were to fly in my direction instead of outward, that could have been my life.

I am still in shock of what happened and it is hours later. I need a general direction of where I should go with this. Any input would be great. Thanks in advance. I'll go out tom. and take some pics so you guys can really see what happened.

DSMorBUST · Oct 31, 2009, 11:54 PM

ouch. sounds like some scary ****. any pics of the damage?

Jarrett 03 · Oct 31, 2009, 11:54 PM

we need pics and lots of them

silver3g2000 · Oct 31, 2009, 11:56 PM

That SUCKS, I've seen pictures of the carnage an exploding clutch/flywheel causes. If you want a full 6 speed swap I got one for sale, I'll give you a great deal.

Joshs EVO · Nov 1, 2009, 12:04 AM

picsoritdidn'thappen

BossEvoVIII · Nov 1, 2009, 12:15 AM

This is not the first time I've heard of Spec clutches doing something like this, this also happened to a classmate of mine on his 2g dsm with a spec clutch. Spec would not compensate him eitherand I believe he wanted to take them to court.

I do not know what happened with the case as this was 3 years ago. Im sorry to hear this and hope everything works out for you. Best of luck

ZFRED10 · Nov 1, 2009, 12:21 AM

Thanks for your support. However. Could I put it on my mechanic? Sh** like this isn't just supposed to happen. Something had to be installed wrong or not correctly. I mean, I literally just got it out about two weeks ago. He was the last person to touch my transmission/clutch and flywheel.

Adept · Nov 1, 2009, 12:23 AM

dude glad you're ok.

LG_4g · Nov 1, 2009, 12:46 AM

Its going to be a long road ahead if you plan on pursuing any legal action.

Glad youre ok and lets see some pics!

EvoLutionized8 · Nov 1, 2009, 12:46 AM

I think that its a bit early to speculate, but as you said, make sure to take pics or folks on here cant give you a realistic direction to take.. Glad you're ok though..

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joshs EVO

picsoritdidn'thappen

Chereck04 · Nov 1, 2009, 12:47 AM

A similar situation happened to my friend's 3kgt vr4 after replacing the stock clutch with a spec one (I'm not sure what "stage" it was). Clutch was fine during the break in period and the following week, then the clutch disc flew apart under normal driving conditions and sent pieces of itself through the transmission housing & radiator. The clutch was installed properly (at a very reputable shop) and the flywheel was freshly resurfaced and properly stepped, the car had zero engine modifications, so the conclusion was equipment failure.

Unfortunately my friend still hasn't got anything besides a headache and some legal fees from filing a lawsuit against spec. Spec blames the shop that installed it and vice-versa. Its been over 2 years and it is still tied up in court. Its probably not what you want to hear, but I think you're better off just replacing what was broken and moving on. Though it is unlikely, you can call your insurance company and see if they can help you out at all.

Sorry to hear about this happening to you, but hey, at least it didn't come through the car at your face or something..

BossEvoVIII · Nov 1, 2009, 12:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZFRED10

Thanks for your support. However. Could I put it on my mechanic? Sh** like this isn't just supposed to happen. Something had to be installed wrong or not correctly. I mean, I literally just got it out about two weeks ago. He was the last person to touch my transmission/clutch and flywheel.

Well, i dont wanna tell you to run around blaming people that may not of caused this problem. My classmate and I went to a automotive school and I know he is more than capable of installing clutches, because he has done it plenty of clutch jobs before on his and other dsm's.

This is what leads me to believe it more of the clutch being defective, but I still would not rule out install error. I say take to a another mechanic and have the tech evaluate what happened and take your actions from there.

ch53avitech · Nov 1, 2009, 12:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by joshs evo

picsoritdidn'thappen

+1

Pictures are worth a thousand words.

Was the work done at a reputable shop? The shop might be help accountable I guess. I say it's the clutch though.

ZFRED10 · Nov 1, 2009, 12:59 AM

I'm not blaming anyone yet. I was just throwing it out there as a possibility. I'm not gonna be stuck without getting anything from this. And I wouldn't sue SPEC. If anything, it was more than likely the install. Pics will be up tom. however. They probably won't even do justice. That was insane.

Adept · Nov 1, 2009, 01:00 AM

I think you should gather a bunch of incidents like this and then file a lawsuit. Because obviously it happened in not just one area. The bottom line is their equipment is faulty and very dangerous.