A hipo clutch will only ALLOW YOU to 'break' a weak tranny.

Slipping (wasted energy) buffers the tranny, keeping it less stressed.

Alfonso, did you get a hold of Jimmy? Have you check into the Phantom Grip LSD device? You can be our guinea pig!

 

I'm definately not risking it and sticking to OEM.

 

Actually it happens in the mornings when the car is cold. That's pretty damn ghetto tho to have it make rattling sounds and it's considered "normal" ...

but yeah, my car recently started doing that, it didn't do that before. *******it my exedy clutch is taking forever to come in, i wanna fix this damn thing all together now.

 

i have spoken to a few people on the subject before, when i was going to do a tranny swap, and found that like many people are saying..... if you are not boosted or running nitrous then there is no need for a clutch with the holding power of ACT. i would advise anyone not boosted to just run with the stock clutch, unless your car is like neals or something. theres just really no need for it, and it very well may be hurting your tranny because the clutch is looking to make use of that extra torque, but if its not there your tranny is actually getting abused.

craigmack: GM trannies are built with better gearing (especially 1st gear, but they are no more reliable than ours. my buddy with a 2k SS just blew his 2nd trans, because he has an obsession with down shifting to 2nd and then flooring it. (hes auto) and shifts manually all the time.

also, do anyone ever think about the fact that when your driving and you want some extra power, you downshift into 3RD and with the act clutch grabbing it so hard its probly real hard on the tranny. not positive but something to think about

 

Dave-
I could have sworn you were running a act clutch? Wow reading this thread really is going to make me rethink my driving styles. After I got my ACT,I was getting third gear rubber all the time. This was while I was NA. Now that Im boosted I can get 4th gear rubber, and spin the tires at 70 I think im going to try to go little easier in the future!

 

i think everyone is going a little overboard about the act and especially the comments about "don't get an act if you're not boosted". I got m act after my stock clutch went a 90k. as far as i'm concerned the act is the best mod i made to my car. i'm not boosted... just the usual bolt on's and let me tell you, my car became a completely new vehicle once the act was dropped in.
now... why did my tranny fail? multiple reasons. i'm not saying the act didn't HELP it, but the tranny was weak to begin with (like chunger said). I got the car at 36k miles and although i doubt it was "abused" by the previous owner, who knows how they drove it. add to that the fact that i learned stick on this car - so god knows what kind of punishment i doled out to the car when first driving it. and 3rd... i run my car hard. all this added up says that it isn't just the act's fault. and let me ask this... if it was the clutch why on god's earth arent' every boosted maxima with act blowing their tranny? i mean, if a na car with the clutch can blow it, surely 100hp (and the driving that comes with it) should only speed things up no?

 

Why? Because the number of SC Maximas with ACTs compared to NA Maximas with ACT is very small in comparison. Anyways, most of the SC guys with ACTs know better than to slam the gears hard because they know what can happen. I'm not saying you can't blow a tranny with the stock clutch (I'm talking about blowing up 3/4 gears), but it's very rare in comparison to how many trannys were lost when running ACTs.


Dave

 

I have to agree with you on this comment with the boosted crowd with ACTs' and not slamming on the gas etc.. He is very correct we can t do that we will sit there and spin for life or crack a tranny case.


But it all points back towards the drivers Naturally Aspirated guys, how they drive will determine how long their trannies last. They punch it like they stole the car they break the tranny. They happen to have a clutch that clamps hard they break the car. Just cause the car has 190HP stock does not mean it does not have sufficient torque to break the tranny.

 

I think everybody knows what I'm gonna say about this thread....

 

"i love the 4th gen tranny"

 

the ACT has such a heavy pedal feel to it. something i don't like considering i double clutch/matchrev every downshift. does anyone here know if a 240sx clutch is identical to the maxima clutch? i got a SPEC stage 3 clutch for my 240sx. it's basically a 4 puck clutch with springs. much more liveable than an ACT in theory. however, the clutch is still not installed so we'll have to wait to see how it feels in day to day driving. maybe SPEC has an application for maximas. i heard they're very liveable clutches.

 

So in summary...

If you're nice to your transmission, it will last a long time.

If you pound on your transmission, you will blow gears. If you have an aftermarket clutch and pound the trans, you will blow gears quickly.

 

Revv Matching is also 10 times better on the transmission then just dropping it into gear and popping the clutch. You won't get the initial "pow" if you revv match, but it also takes away all that stress you get when you don't revv match. I used to just drop the clutch into gear without revving up, but the initial "pow" isn't worth a broken gear.

 

i heard STS kills syncro's if you adjust it all the way...i dont know jack, just thought i point out that info i heard and see if it helps in determining the reason for the failure of your tranny. I would hope its not the ACt clutch because i plan to get another one one day and my friend has it and doesnt have any problems....

 

can anybody shed some light on this idea?