John if they fit the revised part number ending 325, it has a revised pressure plate design and should be fine. It's not really a 'weak' pressure plate, more a design flaw in the self adjusting mechanism. Clutch problems are well documented on Civinfo and this forum.. The trick is in the installation. If the dealer loads it correctly and adjusts the cruise control pedal switch as they should, it should be fine. Mine held out 2+ years on a very aggressive remap, right up till the point I sold it a few weeks back.. As far as I know its still going strong (it was tuned harder than yours) and that was on a standard Honda clutch, not even the revised part.
Okay so this is a Honda Genuine Part is it, this part "ending 325" is it?
Here's a summary of my dilemma.
When I bought the car a couple of months ago (in a bit of a hurry) from the dealer (who are several hundred miles away, fwiw), I bought a 2 year "Mechanical Breakdown Warranty - Silver" from Autoprotect (for £415). Under the heading of "Clutch" the warranty includes: "Centre plate, pressure plate, release bearing, oil contamination (centre plate only) and master and slave cylinders". However it is a mechanical breakdown only which is defined as: "failure of an item included in the Parts Included causing a sudden stoppage of function for a reason other than wear and tear, deterioration or negligence.
And apparently the ONLY way to find out if the clutch has failed or is failing due to "wear & tear or the gradual reduction in the operating performance commensurated with the age and mileage covered by the car" (and my car has done over 90K miles) it to pay for someone to take the clutch out. So that's about 2.5 hours labour to take it out and another 2.5 hours labour to put it back in again... at which point they've got you - and you might as well pay for the new part at that point either way !
The other bad news is that if "mechanical breakdown" (rather than wear and tear) is found, even then Autoprotect will only pay for a cheap After Market part, and not a Genuine Part.
Worse, even if mechanical breakdown is found, Autoprotect will not pay any more than £50/hour to whover I chose to repair the clutch - and the Honda dealers normally charge about £70/hour.
The Nominated Repairs of Autoprotect are Nationwide now called Halfords - who (unlike most other garages) have some deal going with Autoprotect and they are happy to invoice directly to Autoprotect, labour included, in the even that mechanical breakdown is found.
It sounds like an After Market part would be a disaster in any case... (mind you I may be able to pay extra money to get the part of my choice??)
So basically it sounds like I am screwed.
***uming the worst case, (i.e. Mechanical Breakdown is found) the local Honda dealers are offering to fix it for a fixed £615 (£220 parts).
On the other hand Nationwide/Halfords would do it for £550 (fitted) and would guarantee the work for 2 years - something that they claim they cant get from Honda kit. I think it would be an OUK clutch.
The bad news about Halfords is that they dont offer any pickup and collect service NOR any form of courtesy car. And so I have no obvious way to get to work. If the clutch takes more than one day - as I gather it might, then I am further screwed. And being self employed I am in effect paying twice if I have to take time off work.
I guess I need to ring around for other quotes. And although it's good news that I can at least use any garage I choose as far as Autoprotect are concerned, it seems like I am pretty much screwed.
- Any thoughts?
J
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