Another Clutch Fire

[NachoRuby]

Bronco 2dr 7 speed manual is a better deal than JL

My wife wants a jeep though. She wants what she wants. I tried to get her to even look at a bronco. But she's already had 2 wranglers before, and I guess she has some loyalty now (even though she was a Ford girl when we met, with an f150).

Added bonus for me though is that she's getting the half doors. Which I will borrow from time to time.

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[SteveInOrlando]

My wife has a manual 2018 JLR. I have known about the clutch issues and have considered a Centerforce or Luck as a replacement. The dealership made an adjustment when they performed the last recall and it is better, but it still worries me since it was not replaced.
I have told her about the issues but she did not fully understand it until this weekend when I showed her a picture of one that exploded. Now she may be on board for a new clutch.
And she has always driven a manual and has done very well with them, her CRV had 220k miles on the original clutch. The WRX only made it to 80k, but that was probably more my fault than hers.

I love my Centerforce clutch. Feels like a clutch is supposed to and never slipped or smells burnt coming off the highway.

 

[Bbannongmu]

Center force and South Bend make upgrades. But I think the clutch wasn't bled correctly/well. We haven't seen a clutch fire in a few years on this forum, since the recall first happened, and for the owner to have just had the recall done, and then have it burn up is very coincidental. I know, correlation doesn't equal causation, but the timing seems odd.

Yikes. Glad everyone is ok. I agree that the timing is suspicious. I have the Centerforce Dual Friction clutch and flywheel kit and I just got new hydraulics from Centerforce but haven’t even opened the box yet. The factory clutch is only covered by a 12,000 mile, 12 month warranty. Love my Centerforce clutch it’s so much better than stock !

 

[Bbannongmu]

My wife wants a jeep though. She wants what she wants. I tried to get her to even look at a bronco. But she's already had 2 wranglers before, and I guess she has some loyalty now (even though she was a Ford girl when we met, with an f150).

Added bonus for me though is that she's getting the half doors. Which I will borrow from time to time.

Score! Halftime doors.
My wife has a Bronco. Pavement princess outer banks but I gotta admit, I don’t hate it.

 

[SteveInOrlando]

I have the centerforce II which is rated to 434 lb/ft of torque. I push those limits at points, but it holds it just fine.

Additionally, it is butter smooth with about the same clutch pedal resistance as a stock clutch. It truly is the clutch this Jeep should have had from the factory.

 

[Wageslave]

I’ve been following this clutch issue for a couple years, there’s been at least 2 Recalls to address a clutch that’s not strong enough to hold the torque generated. FCAs answer in both recalls has been an ecu reflash (reducing torque generated to equal clutch capacity?) instead of replacing the clutch with one with a proper torque rating.

I’ve been a heavy haul lowboy truck driver (200,000+lb loads)
for over 30 years. Around 1997 the company I was working for at the time built a new truck from a W900 Kenworth glider kit. We used the then new 550 hp Cat engine that developed 1850 ft torque but put the same clutch used behind the 425 Cat that developed 1450 ft torque. As you can imagine it didn’t turn out well. I could walk through that clutch with an empty trailer let alone with a load. Our answer to that problem was not to detune torque output to to equal clutch capacity. We replaced the clutch with one rated to handle the torque, never had a problem after.

I understand FCAs reluctance to replacing all those affected 2018-2020 JL & JT clutches but isn’t reducing torque output really just a bandaid trick to cover over the real problem to avoid the expense of a true fix? If it weren’t for the sharp eyed driver who alerted her to the emergency developing under her feet this could have turned out very differently and they could have a problem much larger than replacing a few thousand clutches.

I always thought the reason the went the torque-limiting route, was because they were right near the torque limit of the manual transmission. The clutch had a designed torque limit that was the same as or a little less than the transmissions torque limit. The clutch is working as a safety to save the rest of the driveline.

If FCA upgrades the clutch, you could put enough force through the transmission to break it an it will be a warranty claim. If you upgrade the clutch and then break the transmission, it is your problem as you modified the driveline.

The real problem is likely the transmission is marginal for the application but I doubt that they are going to directly admit that,

 

[Bbannongmu]

I have the centerforce II which is rated to 434 lb/ft of torque. I push those limits at points, but it holds it just fine.

Additionally, it is butter smooth with about the same clutch pedal resistance as a stock clutch. It truly is the clutch this Jeep should have had from the factory.

434 lb/ft!!!! That’s pretty awesome. I doubt us peasant stockers ever see 260 lb/ft. If a supercharged one blew up I’d understand. That fact that it doesn’t tells me the factory Honda Civic clutch is to blame

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