As the gymkhana trainings went, it became more and more obvious that Hagane's clutch was getting more and more worn out. The fact that when I bought the car it had a thick floor mat that did not allow full travel of the clutch pedal probably did not help in giving the clutch a long life. Aside from the acrid smell of the burning clutch plate that filled the cabin every time I gunned the throttle, the clutch was slipping more and more, and it was time to do something about it.
The clutch options for the '06 and earlier generations of Toyota Vios is not that wide, and since Hagane is in the first place my daily driver, I opted to stick to an OEM clutch. Furthermore, with Singapore's road conditions and long traffic jams during the peak hours, I thought I would be the wiser without a hard racing clutch or something the like.
Thus I procured myself an Exedy clutch and headed to LTM Performance for a helping hand in installing the new parts.
It's a rather straightforward affair, that only takes about 4 hours when you know what you're doing and you have the right set of tools. All there is to it is to unlpug the airbox (to reach the gearbox under it) and the starter, then lift the car, remove the driveshafts and bring the gearbox down. Once this is done, the clutch will be exposed and all after removing a few bolts, can be taken off to reveal the flywheel. Seeing the plain heavy stock flywheel was a poor sight, and I was very tempted to go source a stronger and lighter one, but this will be for another time. The clutch was the priority.
Above, left: The old clutch in place. Right: The gearbox separated from the engine.
Above, left: The stock, heavy flywheel. Right: the new clutch in place.
Once the gearbox is brought down, there is direct access to the clutch so all there is to it is to take it apart, have a good laugh at how worn out the old clutch is, put the new one in, reattach the gearbox, the driveshafts, starter and air box and voilà job done!
The old vs the new. note how faded and flat the old clutch is - no wonder it was slipping!
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