Exedy Heavy Duty Clutch Review

[Victa]

As some of you may have seen, I recenty had some throwout bearing trouble in my 6 MPS and purchased this to replace the dying bits;

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Installed by my local mechanic last week, picked the car up Friday arvo...

The old clutch really was shagged...
Flywheel surface looked OK, but the 2 halves had about 10-15 degree movement between them by hand! Clutch disk was worn out, the first rivet was starting to rub the flywheel... Pressure plate spring had cracked in several places, resulting in fingers sticking up at odd angles... Throwout bearing had come colmpletely apart! The parts that were not trapped on the gearbox input shaft were rolling around the bottom of the bellhousing!

However, the new cluch is bloody marvelous!

The Exedy "Sport Tuff" heavy duty clutch is a Single Mass Flywheel conversion kit, comes with new flywheel, clutch disk, pressure plate, throwout bearing, and bearing adpater. The same kit is used for the 6 and 3 MPS.

Cost of the kit was $1595 from Autobarn in Melton (ask for Pat, he knows his sh!t)

Installation set me back $600... quotes ranged from that (My local guy and HP-F) to $1100 (Werribee Mazda).

As for driving, this is the clutch that should have been in the car from factory! The new clutch has much more "bite" than the old one ever had, but at the same time is more slippable and much easier to manage at slow speed and reversing etc.

The result is a car that is easier to launch, but still hooks up and gets power down better than ever before... I have had the traction control ligh on more in the last 3 days than in the last 6 months

Downsides (there always has to be some)... Somewhat heavier pedal feel, but not excessive, and some extra vibes when engine revs are below ~2000.

Load it up (even just a little) in 3rd or higher at below 2000RPM and a harmonic vibration runs through the car that makes the parcel shelf vibrate... This vibration can also be felt slightly when cruising in 6th at below 80KMH (which is ~2000RPM)... changing down to 5th makes this dissapear though.

Altogether a highly worthwhile upgrade, much better than the OEM clutch, and significantly cheaper than what is on offer from Mazda ($1600 flywheel, $800 clutch kit, $1100 labour).

Chris.

[mazda6mps]

How many Km's has your MPS6 done?

thanks for the review - is this aftermarket unit dual mass like the stocker?

[Jeev]

I've always hated that heap of crap Mazda call a dual mass flywheel. Not to jinx it, but I can't wait to get rid of the stock setup for something like this.

[AD07]

Do you have an Exedy part number for the clutch kit ?

[kmh001]

Top stuff. I'm on my third OEM clutch but I'll go this way if I need to change it again. Although I wonder how the vibes would go with upgraded engine and diff mounts.
Thanks for the review.

[Victa]

How many Km's has your MPS6 done?

thanks for the review - is this aftermarket unit dual mass like the stocker?

My MPS6 has done 136,000 K's... as far as we can tell this is the first clutch replacement...

No, this unit is a single mass flywheel... this is the cause of the extra vibes below 2K RPM... So the <expletive> dual <expletive> mass <expletive> flywheel DOES actually do something...

Do you have an Exedy part number for the clutch kit ?

The part number for the kit I have installed is; MZK-7961SMFHD.

You can get the same kit in an "OEM spec" ie non-heavy duty; MZK-7961SMF for ~$100 cheaper.

OR you can get the same kit in a "cushioned button"; MZK-7961SMFHDCB for ~$100 more.

Cheers,

Chris.

[Grajy]

Glad you like the feel.
Used to use Exedy in my mates cars when I replaced the clutches for them, but have been burnt twice since. Clutches failed within 3 months of replacement.
Interested in longitivity of these units...