ok so i had an oem exedy clutch. not the best but not the worst clutch ever. when i decided to go turbo (no longer am) i decided to upgrade the clutch to something a little more beefy. i opt'd for the spec stage 2 clutch. seemed like a great clutch for the price and met my power goal nicely. i eventually put the clutch in at around 60,000 miles. couldn't be happier. great pedal feel (nice and stiff), smooth engagement, and no clutch chatter what so ever. also at the same time i got my poly mounts put in. everything was great. now im at 75,000 miles and was driving home when i start to feel the pedal start vibrating when i pressed it all the way down, alarmed me but everything was working alright. then at a light BAM clutch wouldn't disengage. i managed to jam it into gear to pull onto a side road to check what was wrong and called for a tow. hydraulics were working all great, pedal/pushrod attached fine. i thought since the pedal was pushed and it was making noises "ahh must be the throw out bearing these things are notorious for failing early" so i took it to my local transmission shop, luckily i had a spare throw out bearing from my oem clutch so i would just have to pay the labor to switch it out. not such a terrible thing. today i get a call from the shop. he told me "all of the clutch springs came out, the throw out bearings fine" so my first reaction was you gotta be f___ing kidding me.....it's only been 15,000 miles. and before everyone says "i cant drive" "dont launch your car" i didnt. now every now and again i would launch it but nothing crazy. so now ok i have a blown clutch at 15,000 miles, ill just call spec and get a replacement......how wrong i was. i talked to a rep who told me it was after the 120 day warrenty. really? 120 days?!? and that there was nothing he could do for me beside lend me advice. great customer service right? so now im replacing the clutch with an oem exedy. i just wanted to make this post to inform people before they buy spec clutches that their customer service is AWEFUL i will never ever ever ever buy a clutch from them again and will continue to talk bad about them to anyone who asks about them. just know that a STOCK tc blew this clutch in 15,000 miles probably 12,000 of those being highway miles. im just awe struck at how a reputable name clutch company won't even help out a customer who obviously had a bad experience with their product. feel free to input! just kinda ranting....also pics will be up in the next day or two of the carnage.

 

Wow i was just about to buy a spec stage 2 :OO

 

who knows maybe i had a defective one. personally if i could go back i would have gotten an act clutch

 

I stick with exedy, never had any problems.

 

agree 100% my first clutch was the exedy oem replacement and it was a great clutch that lasted 30k with NO problems only reason i switched to the spec was because of me wanting to turbo the car. i hated the pedal feel on the stock/oem exedy clutch though it's a joke lol

 

I replaced the clutch line (and the little assembly on the transmission that connects to the slave cyl) with a stainless line, it feels MUCH better.

 

yea i have stainless as well its just wayyyyy to soft for me i just loved the pedal feel of my stage 2 clutch! lol

 

called again to see if their customer service could help me. nothing. they just tried blaming the springs popping out on my car. saying my input shaft bearing is shot and causing it to move around and destroy their clutch....yea right. this transmission has less than 50k on it. the clutch had 10k on it. he tried telling me that the lack of a pilot bearing is part of the reason. and that toyota's to blame for the ____ty design not their STAGE 2 CLUTCH thats suppose to handle DOUBLE the stock horsepower and abuse...not once did he suggest maybe i got a faulty clutch. just told me my car/transmission were to blame.

 

This is why I have gone with ACT in the past. I used to be heavy into tuning GM cars and the only clutches that lasted under more than stock power were ACT clutches. On a side note I just crossed 80k miles on the stock tC clutch and its still holding fine. I'm going to rebuild my motor soon, either for turbo or N/A (haven't decided now that Allen Phillips Racing discontinued their piggyback unit), the car will get a decent ACT clutch at the same time.