I wanted to post back an update on my clutch situation so that all WRX/STi owners on this forum can be warned: stay away from Clutchmasters.

Last weekend the clutch started to slip so bad that the car was getting hard to drive. I bit the bullet, and yanked the transaxel and clutch out of the car. The disc was down to the rivets.

All of this happened in roughly 3,000 miles. I used a proper break-in of 500 miles. Once the break-in was complete I did run the car hard on the street a few times, and I did hit Cecil County once (where I made all of two 1/4 mile passes). When I spoke with Clutchmasters when it started slipping they basically tried to worm their way out of it and make it out like either it wasn't adjusted right or the way it was driven killed it. I even adjusted the clutch master pushrod, as they suggested, but it had no effect. Before I spoke to them I checked several WRX forums and everyone said the same thing; that this adjustment will alter where the pedal engages, but has no effect on the actual clutch in terms of adjustment like an old mechanical linkage does. I also checked the factory service manual, which I have access to through Alldata, and there is no procedure for clutch adjustment.

As for the the driving issue, I got 50,000 from the first clutch in the car (which had 11,000 miles of unknown use/abuse before I bought the car), and 55,000 from the second stock clutch. Both of those clutches had an easy twenty 1/4 mile passes on them and tons of hard street miles. I did make all of the upgrades to the car when I installed the new clutch, but Clutchmasters' own website lists the FX100 as the perfect clutch for a car with all the basic bolt ons, even up to a 50 shot of NOS. My car fits this description exactly (and I don't even run NOS). They also claim longer life than stock. I firmly believe that an OEM Subaru clutch would have lasted considerably longer. Either Clutchmasters' claims are hogwash, or this particular clutch was defective, but either way there is no way I would ever use one of their clutches again; in anything.

Oh, and to make matters worse there were heat cracks in my ACT flywheel, which only had about 5,000 miles on it. So the clutch took out my flywheel too. I went back to the supplier (I actually drove there with the spent Clutchmasters clutch, ruined ACT flywheel, and a spent stock clutch and flywheel which had 55,000 miles on them). They were actually very cool (I won't post their name because they are a competitor of Mach V), and gave me $100 off the new clutch and flywheel I bought, and about $300 off some other stuff I grabbed while the deep discount was working for me (car was going to need rotors/pads soon anyway, and I picked up a couple of other goodies too). They are sending the clutch back to Clutchamsters, so we'll see what they do. This time I picked up an ACT street clutch kit and a new Streetlite flywheel.

I got the car back together Monday night and took it for a drive. I love the ACT clutch! It's got better feel than stock, and it actually took a lot of the numbness out of the factory hydraulic setup, which I didn't even think was possible. The engagement is better than stock too, no chatter, no jerkiness (I think because I can actually tell where it engages now). Now I'll finish up the break-in and see how she takes max throttle, but I expect it do do just fine. I'll post back to let you know how long it lasts, but I expect good things.