I was installing new belts today, and had the front of the car on jackstands. After I installed the belt (PITA, btw), I started the car to see how well I had adjusted the tension on the belts.

The belts were fine, but to my surprise the rotors were spinning on both sides (I didn't have the wheels on). My Max is a 5MT and it was in neutral.

To me this can only mean that the clutch isn't fully disengaging for some reason. I've noticed some judder when I launch from 1st which probably means my clutch is not wearing evenly/I have flywheel hotspots. That being said, what do you think is the problem? Throw out bearing? The clutch is messed up? Needs bleeding? Something?

Any helps are appreciated, thanks!

 

if your car was in neutral, how come the roters spining? the gear box was not disconnected completely?

 

It's nothing to worry about. It's perfectly normal.

This really has nothing to do with the clutch. If you're outside the car looking at the rotors the clutch is fully engaged no matter what gear the car is in.

Here's what's happening and it's normal.
Even in neutral the imput shaft (motor to tranny) is still spinning and gears are moving very close to each other. The fluid in the tranny will transfer a small amount of that energy between the gears. Sort of like a torque converter in an auto. It's no where near enough to move the car if it were on the ground but with no resistance it will spin the axels. You could easily grab one of the rotors and stop it.

If you did want to check the clutch disengagement it's easy.
*Park the car somewhere flat
*Put it in first gear
*Put the clutch pedal all the way to the floor
*Let it up slowly and feel when it starts to engage (car moves or revs drop)
*If there's any play between fully pressed to the floor and where it starts to engage you're fine.

As far as the shaking on launch, that could be a few things. What clutch are you using and how long has it been in?

 

Thanks man, that's a great post, very helpful! Glad to know it's considered normal. I will do that test you mentioned next time I'm out but don't anticipate having any problems.

As for shaking on launch, I don't know the answers to your questions unfortunately. It could be the original clutch or something aftermarket. The car is new to me and I know most of its history but not all of it. I can just kind of feel that the clutch isn't worn evenly and it gets worse as the car gets heated up (especially stop/go traffic). Flywheel hotspots have been mentioned.