Will heavy traffic daily driving affect clutch life span that much? (NYC)

suhhh

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I know it definitely lessens the lifespan but wondering if anyone that does heavy traffic driving daily could weigh in. I've never driven a car this much in traffic in my life and haven't kept around a manual car long enough to warrant a clutch replacement.

Reason I ask is because I've seen premature clutch wear on new Si's from quite a few posts and yet some people manage to bust out 30-60k some with FBO and still be ok. Even though I'm untuned now I always make sure to

I'm already approaching 16k miles after 8mo of ownership and 4-5 of those months included about 50 miles of day with a lot of that commute in bumper to bumper traffic. NYC traffic is a bit different from most parts of the country (besides cali maybe) as you gotta be fairly aggressive to avoid being cut off which I'm sure wears my clutch down a bit more.

Since I'm planning to tune very soon and also go catless again I'm wondering if there is a higher probability my clutch will start slipping earlier because of the nature of my driving, I want to try and get a decent amount of miles with stuck clutch/boltons before clutch replacement if possible (hopefully another 15-20k).
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wintercast

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im just going to toss this out there. If this car is your daily, and you have a long commute in crappy traffic - i would highly caution against modding it. It is not always good to mod your daily driver. As modding can limit the lifespan of the wear parts, and in some cases, listening to a car that has been made louder on a daily commute might get really old.. really fast.

I would doubt you want your modded car getting beaten in traffic, as well as possibly suffering some mechanical break down that leaves you on the side of the road.
 
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suhhh

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im just going to toss this out there. If this car is your daily, and you have a long commute in crappy traffic - i would highly caution against modding it. It is not always good to mod your daily driver. As modding can limit the lifespan of the wear parts, and in some cases, listening to a car that has been made louder on a daily commute might get really old.. really fast.

I would doubt you want your modded car getting beaten in traffic, as well as possibly suffering some mechanical break down that leaves you on the side of the road.
Fair point but I'm likely going to mod regardless. I'm not trying to go for high numbers/flex fuel, my end goal with this car since it's my daily is likely FBO+custom tune. I know my commutewill wear down my components, but it's proven many people DD this car while tuned/modified over long periods of time and don't suffer major problems unless it was driven improperly.

shit man i also love to beat the hell outta my car even in those short glimpses of open road during my commute, that's why I got a honda :spaz:
 

wintercast

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shit man i also love to beat the hell outta my car even in those short glimpses of open road during my commute, that's why I got a honda :spaz:
I totally understand this... i have to drive through Baltimore to get home (pre covid) and when the traffic finally opened up, i could not wait to zip away.

edit to add - see we both have a thing for white cars - and like the 3/4 ass shot.
 

BABY NSX

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I might be comparing apples to oranges but I used to have a 1990 Acura Integra and I worked in Boston doing a home visit nursing. I would see about seven patients a day in the Boston area and got caught in traffic a lot. I did not have to replace my clutch until the main bearing in my transmission went and the clutch was still fine at that point. Since the transmission was out I decided to change the clutch but otherwise it was not slipping or anything. It only had header back exhaust and cold air intake as far as engine mods. No tune. I redlined the engine A LOT on a daily basis. Lots of Jack rabbit starts too. I used to always pull hard off the line, liked to be out in front of the traffic. If you have good clutch engagement and don’t burn out the clutch with slow engagements that’ll burn it out you’ll be fine. Traffic will wear the clutch out faster but not by much if you drive it right.
 


burningoilagain

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I have been daily driving in heavy traffic for 11 Years here in nyc with all types of clutches. Have fun and mod the car. I have 32k miles on stock clutch and I have no slip. I have a catless downpipe, front pipe, cai, just missing the intercooler. I am also tuned on pherable.
 

BABY NSX

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I might be comparing apples to oranges but I used to have a 1990 Acura Integra and I worked in Boston doing a home visit nursing. I would see about seven patients a day in the Boston area and got caught in traffic a lot. I did not have to replace my clutch until the main bearing in my transmission went and the clutch was still fine at that point. Since the transmission was out I decided to change the clutch but otherwise it was not slipping or anything. It only had header back exhaust and cold air intake as far as engine mods. No tune. I redlined the engine A LOT on a daily basis. Lots of Jack rabbit starts too. I used to always pull hard off the line, liked to be out in front of the traffic. If you have good clutch engagement and don’t burn out the clutch with slow engagements that’ll burn it out you’ll be fine. Traffic will wear the clutch out faster but not by much if you drive it right.
Oops. Forgot to mention when I changed the bearing in the tranny it was at 109,000 miles. Yes, was the original clutch. Was not all highway miles. Mostly city driving.

Mod the car to your liking and be happy!
 

AdamSI

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thing is if your not slipping in gear your not wearing you clutch. it's all about driving habits and styles. i live in cali and learned to let the car in front of me stay a couple car lengths ahead so i never have to stop and slip the clutch to get going again. maybe that will help in traffic. ive ran all tunes on my SI and 0 slip
 

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Driving habits are huge. Some people like to blip the gas and slip the clutch just to take off on a flat road, this is unnecessary. Even with a twin-disk, I start letting out the clutch without feeding in any throttle. As long as the car moves and the engine hasn't stalled, the clutch has done its job.

Wear amount = slip rpm's x slip duration, roughly speaking. You could probably go 100k on the stock clutch if you were vigilant about this.
 


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Driving habits are huge. Some people like to blip the gas and slip the clutch just to take off on a flat road, this is unnecessary. Even with a twin-disk, I start letting out the clutch without feeding in any throttle. As long as the car moves and the engine hasn't stalled, the clutch has done its job.

Wear amount = slip rpm's x slip duration, roughly speaking. You could probably go 100k on the stock clutch if you were vigilant about this.
:agree:
 

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In 1997 coming from a lot of automatic transmissions in cars ( delivery trucks were manuals) I was forced to buy a 1986 ford escort with a 5 speed because it was the cheapest car I could afford at the time it needed a clutch tires and a timing belt and at the time i was only making seven bucks an hour I got the cheapest clutch I could afford and living on Long Island there’s a lot of hills and traffic and lights and icy and snowy roads I had the car for two years I put maybe a little over 30k on the clutch by the time I got rid of it and it was show quite a bit of wear. but driving habits have a lot to do with clutch wear ( also road rage comes into play too)
 
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suhhh

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I totally understand this... i have to drive through Baltimore to get home (pre covid) and when the traffic finally opened up, i could not wait to zip away.

edit to add - see we both have a thing for white cars - and like the 3/4 ass shot.
I got way too many 3/4 ass shots in my phone ?
 
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suhhh

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I have been daily driving in heavy traffic for 11 Years here in nyc with all types of clutches. Have fun and mod the car. I have 32k miles on stock clutch and I have no slip. I have a catless downpipe, front pipe, cai, just missing the intercooler. I am also tuned on pherable.
Thanks man just what I needed, planning to end up with your setup after this season. My girl lives in the city and I'm always making trips into chinatown and working in ny state so I think I was just buggin a lil after thinking about how much I sit in traffic lmao
 

burningoilagain

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Thanks man just what I needed, planning to end up with your setup after this season. My girl lives in the city and I'm always making trips into chinatown and working in ny state so I think I was just buggin a lil after thinking about how much I sit in traffic lmao
Yeah man I feel you! I have worked all around the city and you get use to it especially after some years. For someone new to driving stick shift they gonna need some time to adjust. City traffic on a friday is probably the worse day of the week. Every other day is a breeze. I gotta deal with Manhattan traffic then the Bronx lol. You will be fine!
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