Unfortunately it could totally fail at any time.

Scott

 

Depending on how the previous owner broke the clutch in, and how you drive with it, the clutch may last anywhere from 100 to 100k miles.

$1000 - $1500 is about the exact range that you should be in for a full replacement. Keep driving her gingerly, but if you feel it slipping you'll want to get it checked as soon as possible.

The throw-out bearing in my 2004 6s went while I was in the middle of commuting 64 miles into Boston to work - fun day for me.

 

Wow thats a lot of miles on the car. You may have to get a new flywheel too. Maybe this is not the first clutch in the car , you dont say how long you have owned it and miles when you bought it. The longer you wait , the more it will cost to fix.Unfortunately.

 

A clutch can easily last the life of the car, if driven properly and barring any unforeseen mechanical failure (throw-out bearing, for example).

I've seen a few older Toyotas with 300,000+ miles on the original clutch.

 

Agree with White Shadow, much depends on the driver. I've had MT cars all my life and have never had to replace a clutch. Then again, the most miles i've ever put on a car is only about 150k.

 

Agree with White Shadow, much depends on the driver. I've had MT cars all my life and have never had to replace a clutch. Then again, the most miles i've ever put on a car is only about 150k.

Yup. I put 130K on my old MX-6 when the clutch started slipping. Turns out that the clutch still had plenty of meat left on it and the reason it was slipping was because the pressure relief valve in the gearbox got stuck closed. So when pressure built up with the stuck relief valve, it was forcing gear oil thru the seals and ended up getting on the friction surface of the clutch. I had no choice but to install a new clutch at that point.

When I installed the new clutch, I compared the clutch lining with the old, oil-contaminated clutch and I probably would have gotten close to 300K miles on the original clutch, based upon the amount of friction material left on it. I guess it was just bad luck when the pressure relief valve failed.

 

The only cars I've had to replace clutches on were both Toyota Camrys, with about 100K miles. I've had several Mazdas too, but never had a clutch go out on a Mazda, even with 180K miles. I'd bet your car has the original clutch...finally wore out.

 

Not much info given on the car. But I think most of agree the clutch needs to be replaced.

 

Just checked my records and it was 7,500 miles between the time that I first had it start to slip (hard acceleration at on-ramp but couldn't get it to repeat) to when it was slipping relatively easily at highway speeds. I should note that the only other clutch replacements we've had to do have been mechanical failures (pilot bearing in 97 Miata but clutch was still fine and throwout bearing on 96 Ford Contour). My last car was an 87 626GT which still had a good clutch at 350,000 miles when I replaced it with my 6s (still running but paint and interior was falling apart).

Glad to see another high mileage 6s here, I just hit 291,000 myself but you are going to out pace me since my daily commute is only 100 miles per day.

Scott

 

The originator of this post still has not given us any more information. There are so many variables that its impossible to answer this question without more info. Im amazed here that some members have older cars with--250k ,350k miles and maybe more. Ive had Mazdas going back to mid 1980's , treated them well and replaced clutches before 100k. All of these I bought new so I know no one replaced the clutch before. Been driving a manual sense I was 12 years old --- so I kind of know how to do it. So I will say again" jlApuente" -- fix it now or its going to cost you more later--- maybe more than the car is actually worth---Im out of this. Thanks OLDVET