The Camaro clutch is the worst I've owned yet....seriously

[Good2go]

Hmm, this is my 10th stick car, no issues at all. I test-drove 2 other SS's before getting mine, no issues with them either. I disliked my son's TSX clutch though, no feel at all, completely numb! It took great concentration to not slip excessively, or engage too quickly and look like a "noob"!

[JoshBobGuptaMarley]

I really haven't noticed problems with the 2012 v6. OP you have an FI car correct? Did you consider doing aftermarket clutch system to strengthen it up? You guys should of driven my subaru legacy back in the day. It was 4 cylinders AWD m5 and I went through 3 clutches during my time with her. Though I was young and drove the crap out of her it was a very crappy clutch system, much worse than the camaro.

[CCbusa09]

Originally Posted by Good2go

Hmm, this is my 10th stick car, no issues at all. I test-drove 2 other SS's before getting mine, no issues with them either. I disliked my son's TSX clutch though, no feel at all, completely numb! It took great concentration to not slip excessively, or engage too quickly and look like a "noob"!

I guess ignorance is bliss in my case, but I test drove THREE manual Camaros before ordering and all three shifted flawlessly, IMO at least.
I've been driving manuals for 50 years and the Hurst short throw I now own is a delight to drive. Try rowing through the gears on a late model Mustang, then you'll more than likely find out what a crappy tranny/clutch assm feels like! Over 26,000 complaints and Ford still refuses to acknowledge the issue.

[cuspid]

I took a test drive in a new 2011 2SS, nice discount. Hate the clutch,I'll stay with my 04 z06. Salesmen is going to think I'm nuts.

[kcobean]

Originally Posted by CCbusa09

I guess ignorance is bliss in my case, but I test drove THREE manual Camaros before ordering and all three shifted flawlessly, IMO at least.
I've been driving manuals for 50 years and the Hurst short throw I now own is a delight to drive. Try rowing through the gears on a late model Mustang, then you'll more than likely find out what a crappy tranny/clutch assm feels like! Over 26,000 complaints and Ford still refuses to acknowledge the issue.

My complaint is not with the tranny or how the car shifts, it's with the non-linear pressure of the clutch pedal. I prefer a clutch that "pushes against my foot" with the same amount of force all the way from the floor to the top of the stroke. The Camaro is the only car I've ever driven where the clutch is very light close to the floor and then pushes harder as you let it out until it kind of pops out about 2/3 of the way up then is easy again. If you want to know exactly what I'm talking about, stop by your local sporting goods store and pick up a compound bow. Draw it back fully, this is the equivalent of putting your foot to the floor. Now let the tension out slowly and pay attention to the tension as the cam rolls...you'll feel the tension increase significantly and then get lighter as you get closer to the strings natural position.

The clutch in the Camaro is exactly the same way. I can deal with it, I just find that it makes the car much more difficult to drive smoothly because if I'm not always tensing my leg to counter that cam-over effect, the car jerks as the clutch lurches out. It really is annoying and it makes shifting take conscious effort.

[LT4Lover]

'Clutch feel' is definately top 3 of gripes I have about the gen 5's also... I sure hope they get it right in coming years. Curious to see what the feel will be like with the dual-disc setup on the ZL-1's.

[JoshBobGuptaMarley]

Hey op, you should go test drive a 2012 and see if they improved it at all...

[kiteman]

is there a clutch difference in 2012?

i really haven't yet figured out why you guys think the clutch sucks either way. is it the soft feel with a short threshold or is it actually how it holds up to power? i wouldn't know on the latter as i'm still in the break-in. i like the feel, and if it holds up to the power, who cares about the feel anyway?

my 2000 Z28 stock clutch was a piece. i replaced it with a SPEC II clutch and that thing was rough to drive. just heavy and a bit of chatter, but damn it was good for the power. the LS3 clutch is much more pleasing so far. makes driving a manual much less of a hassle in those times of serious traffic. i seriously have no trouble with it at all, but again, having an aftermarket clutch in the LS1 with chatter makes anything thereafter pleasant i'm sure...

[kcobean]

Originally Posted by kiteman

is there a clutch difference in 2012?

i really haven't yet figured out why you guys think the clutch sucks either way. is it the soft feel with a short threshold or is it actually how it holds up to power? i wouldn't know on the latter as i'm still in the break-in. i like the feel, and if it holds up to the power, who cares about the feel anyway?

my 2000 Z28 stock clutch was a piece. i replaced it with a SPEC II clutch and that thing was rough to drive. just heavy and a bit of chatter, but damn it was good for the power. the LS3 clutch is much more pleasing so far. makes driving a manual much less of a hassle in those times of serious traffic. i seriously have no trouble with it at all, but again, having an aftermarket clutch in the LS1 with chatter makes anything thereafter pleasant i'm sure...

See my post a couple up from yours for a description of why I dislike it. It's all about feel. I drive a manual car because I like the added control I have over the car. The springy clutch makes that control more difficult.

[kiteman]

Originally Posted by kcobean

See my post a couple up from yours for a description of why I dislike it. It's all about feel. I drive a manual car because I like the added control I have over the car. The springy clutch makes that control more difficult.

i saw that. i guess i don't get the big deal. used to complaints about clutches in high-performance cars were because they slipped under heavy load, not because of the way they felt.

[kcobean]

Originally Posted by kiteman

i saw that. i guess i don't get the big deal. used to complaints about clutches in high-performance cars were because they slipped under heavy load, not because of the way they felt.

Coming from a "high horsepower" car that had an almost perfectly linear clutch, the feel of this one just gets on my nerves because I have to change the pressure I apply as the back pressure of the pedal changes. I just find it irritating.

[Doc]

Couple of things. The Camaro is a muscle car so the clutch behavior "assists" quick shifting in a "performance" situation; i.e. drag racing, auto-cross, road course racing. Some of the feel can be changed by changing the stock brake fluid to a racing fluid such as Super Blue or an equivalent. If you have to "add" fluid then you might as well do a full flush. The moment you open the fluid reservoir and/or a can of brake fluid to the open air, you immediately have the problem of exposure. The biggest problem with brake fluid is it becoming contaminated by moisture which WILL compromise (weaken) hydraulic performance. Once you open a can of brake fluid, use it immediately and then throw the rest of the unused fluid away. The moment it was exposed to air the contamination process began. Putting the cap back on and setting it on a shelf and then using it months later is a bad idea; you're putting already-compromised fluid in your system.

The benefit of Super Blue and other racing grade fluids is they have higher boiling points so heat doesn't compromise the integrity of the fluid. Clutch dust is another issue. The clutch and brakes on these Camaros use the same hydraulic fluid and reservoir so clutch dust will slowly contaminate the fluid over time. How often you should replace the fluid depends on your driving style and type of driving. If you race in auto-cross or road course, flush and replace the fluid after each race. Changing the engine oil, trans and diff fluids after racing is a good idea too. Heat and high performance stresses fluids just like it does components.

If you just do regular street and daily driving, follow the recommended change intervals in the owner's manual, but you can always do a visual inspection of the brake/clutch fluid reservoir at any time. If the color of the brake/clutch fluid is getting dark, do a flush. Stock fluid should be clear; Super Blue is of course blue. You can get Super Blue in blue and an amber version which makes it extremely easy to tell when the fluid has flushed out. By alternating the color each time, you can just watch for the color change in the exiting fluid.

As far as the clutch feel, I've been driving clutches for 40 years so to me the Camaro doesn't feel any worse than anything else I've driven. I've got the Hurst short-throw shifter and the combo of the fast clutch and shifter make the car a pleasure to drive. But then I'm running Super Blue and have aluminum pedal covers too. The combo of all those things makes mine feel very precise to me. That's about to change though since either this week or next week I'm replacing the stock clutch with a lighter, performance twin clutch and flywheel from Mantic. Gonna be fun!

[kcobean]

Doc,
I agree that for very fast shifting during aggressive driving, the clutch in the Camaro is pretty decent. For daily/street driving, particularly with a passenger in the car whom you don't want to give whiplash, it's not as good.

[insomniac2k2]

Im not happy with the very late engagement of the clutch. I find that where it engages, it makes me ride the clutch a little more than I'd like. The alternative is to let it slam into gear (which i do sometimes as well).

Im getting used to it and adapting..

Im with the people that have driven a clutch most their life and new feel like a rookie.