Manual Transmission - Issues shifting into 1st & Reverse (Compilation thread)

[mcdonoab]

So has anyone actually had issues with their stock clutch post recall and/or on a 2024+ Jeep? (besides the JScan/bigger tire size issue which has a resolution)

Reading this thread seems like a lot of people jumped down the echo chamber of preemptively upgrading their clutch and are suffering the consequences.

No issues at all with my 2024 JLR—clutch has been perfect. Pedal feels just right, and it grabs nice and smooth right in the middle. No slipping, chatter, or anything weird. Just feels solid every time I drive it.

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[SadRobot]

And was this all the time ? Car running or not? Sounds like it is indeed different than mine. (I feel like we’ve both been over this before in this thread) lol … but I don’t remember and also don’t want go to back through and find it. I need to make a notebook of all this stuff so I can easily find / remember it all. (I’m not much of a technology guy.

Never when the Jeep was off. It would start when it warmed up.

 

[BHank0688]

Never when the Jeep was off. It would start when it warmed up.

Once warmed up mine will make the noise several hours after I shut it off, while off , until it’s cold again then it’ll be quite while running or not.

 

[Steve104]

Speaking only for myself, that wasn’t the case. I’ve probably got 50 posts from years ago stating how a-ok I was with stock. I also wasn’t particularly afraid of blowing up and thought (still do, if I’m honest) that there was some driver culpability with the failed pressure plates.

The real turning point for me was driving my son’s car and realizing how much I was compromising with the Jeep’s setup.

I took the plunge as an early ACT adopter, and boy was I happy with the results (after some installation headaches that Dirk helped my shop resolve). And I had no issues for almost two years.

Even now, my Jeep is perfectly drivable. There are just days where it decides to give me trouble with 1st at stoplights and it annoys the crap out of me. Light turns green and then, “Goddamn it! I know, I know! I’m trying to go!” (The “trick” seems to be to gently apply constant pressure and it will slide right in after thinking about it for a full second. That second feels like an eternity, and more often than not I panic and start trying to jam it to 4th and then 1st which sometimes works and sometimes makes it worse. I refuse to sit at a light in gear with the clutch pedal to the floor. Too many decades driving stick to change my preference.)

What does your son drive? My son drives a Honda Civic, and my previous ride was a Toyota Tundra. My stock un-recalled clutch feels somewhere in between the two. And that seems about right to me.

 

[OldGuyNewJeep]

What does your son drive? My son drives a Honda Civic, and my previous ride was a Toyota Tundra. My stock un-recalled clutch feels somewhere in between the two. And that seems about right to me.

A Mazda 3.

Newer JLs might feel different than mine did. I got one of the very first two door JLs produced. The clutch pedal had no resistance at all. I got used to it quickly, but going back and forth between the Jeep and the Mazda was frustrating and eye opening.

 

[BHank0688]

A Mazda 3.

Newer JLs might feel different than mine did. I got one of the very first two door JLs produced. The clutch pedal had no resistance at all. I got used to it quickly, but going back and forth between the Jeep and the Mazda was frustrating and eye opening.

Have you drove a newer manual jl? I have not . Being that mine is an 18 as well I have wondered if newer ones felt better or not.

 

[OldGuyNewJeep]

Have you drove a newer manual jl? I have not . Being that mine is an 18 as well I have wondered if newer ones felt better or not.

I haven’t, but I have read accounts of OG owners getting 19a done and reporting better pedal feel. (That said, way more accounts of how dealer screwed something up.)

 

[Steve104]

A Mazda 3.

Newer JLs might feel different than mine did. I got one of the very first two door JLs produced. The clutch pedal had no resistance at all. I got used to it quickly, but going back and forth between the Jeep and the Mazda was frustrating and eye opening.

Does your son's Mazda have a mechanical clutch? I see that in 2010 they switched to hydraulic. I'm an old guy too, and I think the biggest loss of feel is due to the switch from mechanical with cables, levers, and springs to hydraulic.

 

[OldGuyNewJeep]

Does your son's Mazda have a mechanical clutch? I see that in 2010 they switched to hydraulic. I'm an old guy too, and I think the biggest loss of feel is due to the switch from mechanical with cables, levers, and springs to hydraulic.

From ChatGPT based on VIN lookup:

For VIN xxxx, your 2015 Mazda 3 is the 2.0 L Skyactiv‑MT manual‑transmission sedan. Here’s the confirmed clutch setup:

Clutch Assembly Details

• Type: Single‑plate dry diaphragm‑spring clutch (hydraulically actuated)
• Spline count: 23‑tooth
• Input‑shaft diameter: 1″ ≈ 25.4 mm
• Clutch (disc) diameter: approximately 241 mm (9.5″)

OEM Components by VIN

• Bellhousing (clutch housing): Mazda OEM part C601‑17‑150A — matches your 2.0 L manual sedan
• Clutch disc & pressure plate (cover): OEM part PE01‑16‑460, covers your vin‑matched hatch/sedan

Summary

You have a standard single‑plate dry diaphragm clutch with a 23‑tooth spline, 1″ input shaft, and ~9.5″ disc—common across 2015 Mazda 3 Skyactiv‑MT 2.0 L models.

 

[andrei]

@OldGuyNewJeep @BHank0688
Mine is 23, and it had clutch recall done before i picked it up. Or at least that is what dealer claimed, but given how quickly they sourced it and had it done leaves some questions.

While pedal feel is very light, it does provide enough feedback to understand what is going on. Engagement point where it should be and there is nothing vague about it. Yes i have stalled it countless times before getting use to it, but eventually it became normal to drive. Over time i became very fond of light pedal feel, the ability to work clutch effortlessly and precisely after hours of exhausting and complex offroad trails was very appreciated.

So overall i dont share same opinion on it with most others, maybe the recall does address most concerns associated with earlier models.

However, overall drawbacks of the design are there, and this recall will not fix it.

1. Mine was very clunky, every shift was followed by double clunk sound: shift > clunk clunk> engage, shift > clunk clunk > engage... like wtf is going on there? After taking it out and seeing the design, it kinda started to make sense.
2. Going over speed bumps at lower speeds would results in bucking back and fourth, with similar clunking sound previously mentioned. My theory is that pressure plate does not have enough clamping force, and allows momentary disengagement of one/both of the clutches.
3. Last and most important, that stupid low mass fly wheel. There is simply not enough inertia/moment to allow engine to power through resistance. I was not able to back up any incline without having to burn the clutch, even a simple backing up into a parking spot that is slightly elevated would easily stall the vehicle. Being in muddy or snowy situations, in 4wd and high range is very difficult, even in 1st gear engine is severely lugging.

In my opinion, to keep OEM clutch configuration requires reduction of resistance, through either lowering axle ratio to 4.56 for 33's and 5.12 for 35's, or having a different gear ratio in transmission because current feels like it is missing half a gear for forward speeds and reverse gear is too tall.

 

[OldGuyNewJeep]

@OldGuyNewJeep @BHank0688
Mine is 23, and it had clutch recall done before i picked it up. Or at least that is what dealer claimed, but given how quickly they sourced it and had it done leaves some questions.

While pedal feel is very light, it does provide enough feedback to understand what is going on. Engagement point where it should be and there is nothing vague about it. Yes i have stalled it countless times before getting use to it, but eventually it became normal to drive. Over time i became very fond of light pedal feel, the ability to work clutch effortlessly and precisely after hours of exhausting and complex offroad trails was very appreciated.

So overall i dont share same opinion on it with most others, maybe the recall does address most concerns associated with earlier models.

However, overall drawbacks of the design are there, and this recall will not fix it.

1. Mine was very clunky, every shift was followed by double clunk sound: shift > clunk clunk> engage, shift > clunk clunk > engage... like wtf is going on there? After taking it out and seeing the design, it kinda started to make sense.
2. Going over speed bumps at lower speeds would results in bucking back and fourth, with similar clunking sound previously mentioned. My theory is that pressure plate does not have enough clamping force, and allows momentary disengagement of one/both of the clutches.
3. Last and most important, that stupid low mass fly wheel. There is simply not enough inertia/moment to allow engine to power through resistance. I was not able to back up any incline without having to burn the clutch, even a simple backing up into a parking spot that is slightly elevated would easily stall the vehicle. Being in muddy or snowy situations, in 4wd and high range is very difficult, even in 1st gear engine is severely lugging.

In my opinion, to keep OEM clutch configuration requires reduction of resistance, through either lowering axle ratio to 4.56 for 33's and 5.12 for 35's, or having a different gear ratio in transmission because current feels like it is missing half a gear for forward speeds and reverse gear is too tall.

Ah, memories… I’d forgotten about the low speed bucking and difficulty reversing up inclines! I don’t miss either of those things.

With the heavy flywheel ACT I can (and have) literally just engaged clutch in 1st with no throttle and crawled like a goat. Great in bumper to bumper traffic. I do the same backing up my trailer - no throttle needed for slow, deliberate maneuvers. It’s almost impossible to stall the thing.

 

[BHank0688]

Ah, memories… I’d forgot about the low speed bucking and difficulty reversing up inclines! I don’t miss either of those things.

With the heavy flywheel ACT I can (and have) literally just engaged clutch in 1st with no throttle and crawled like a goat. Great in bumper to bumper traffic. I do the same backing up my trailer - no throttle needed for slow, deliberate maneuvers. It’s almost impossible to stall the thing.

I don’t miss that at all either. My wife learned to drive manual on our JL with the stock clutch. I think it messed her up and she wants to throttle it up before moving the clutch pedal at all, which was needed before, but not anymore with the act heavy flywheel. I’d even stall it out about 20% of the time backing it into the garage with the stock clutch since there was zero consistency to it. The jeep is a lot easier to drive now and she loves the fact it’s nearly impossible to stall it.

 

[JeepinPete]

This is my biggest complaint with the stock clutch (going strong at 74k). I'm certain the fault lies with the dual mass flywheel. The springs are either too light or simply wear out too quickly and creates a lot of lash in the system. Fortunately I do not end up in the bumper to bumper traffic situation very often so I deal with it. Would love to see someone come out with a solid replacement flywheel for the stock clutch.

 

[_olllllllo_]

Any source for the rubber plug that’s required to do this? I have Harbor Freight down the road where I can grab a vac, but don’t know where to get something to use as a plug. Leaving for a long road trip on Monday and would love to bleed overnight before I go.

The first shop who did the initial install of the CF threw it away. When the new shop was doing the hydraulic throw out I specifically asked them to keep it for me. Here are some images of the old shift fork and OEM throw out bearing all gunked up with red n' tacky, the bleeding instructions from CF, and the two rubber bleeding devices. One is a flat piece of rubber (1.875" dia x .125" thick) with a small hole in it and the other is a conical device (1.125" dia) to hook onto a vacuum pump.

 

[beachbumm78]

Yeah and my system has not been open since the last time I bled it a few months ago and the slave stayed bolted in when I swapped out the engine. Yet still air got in because when I bled it months ago I had gotten all the air out.

So I encourage everyone to take a look again and their hydraulics just to make sure that isn't the cause of your troubles. Just because it was bled 10k miles ago doesn't mean air hasn't gotten in since it seems.

It’s on my to-do list. Now to convince my mechanic to do it since it’s been so hot out here

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