Ok, You know the burnt rubber smell you get durring/after a big burnout, that's just the tires, right. But how about the simmilar, but slightly sharper smell you sometimes get while in traffic...say slipping the clutch slowly at around 2500 or 3000 rpm? Is that the smell of the organic friction material burning on the clutch? A sign that a new clutch should be on order? If you know what I'm talkin about, what is that aweful smell?

 

if youve ever smelled burnt brake pads (say from a car driving around w/ a frozen caliper) it smells very MUCH like that.

 

Yeah, I've smelled burnt brakes on my CRX (rear drums froze) and I've smelled a burnt clutch on that same CRX (pulling a truck out of a ditch) they are similar...but the smell I've got on my rex is closer to the burnt rubber smell, but deffinately not the burn-out smell. still not sure what it is?

 

Clutch smells a lot like brakes, but has its own distinct smell. I learned this when a really slipping clutch exploded on me at 7500 rpm with the hood off. Burning clutch embers all over the hood (had the side cover on the engine off as well). That thing was a damn new clutch disc too. Ahh, back when I was young and knew nothing... who knew you had to break in a clutch, lol. At the time I thought my motor had popped, or I had been hit by lightning... LOTS OF SPARKS... (get it?)
I keep the disc with me at my house, and tell the honda boys it was the stock one and went form too much power, lol.
But it does not smell like burnt rubber.
Sean