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WHY YOUR GR COROLLA CLUTCH WEARS OUT (AND HOW TO FIX IT)! · Performance Car Ownership with Gary

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Will kill that clutch faster than anything else.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: At Gira Corolla clutch job definitely isn't cheap.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: I mean owners are reporting$2,000,$4,000, even$6,000 at the dealership to have that clutch replaced.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now some of them are seeing that bill way below 30,000 miles.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now Toyota says most of it comes down to driver error, but if it actually is driver error, how do we fix it?
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Here's my experience.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: This is my 2023 GR Corolla Circuit Edition.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: I've owned it since new.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Same car a lot of these complaints are about.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I haven't had a single clutch concern ever with this, or to tell you the truth, any other car.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Now part of that is 50 plus years of driving manuals, including the first car I ever learned on, which I still own today.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm also a PCA national track instructor, teaching Porsche owners how to drive their Porsches at speed on racetracks like Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Some of you know it as Mosport.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: But you know part of it is something else.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: So few people know how to drive a manual anymore that even the salesperson who sells you one usually can't show you how to drive it properly.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: If this is your first stick shift car, there's often nobody to teach you.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: So here's what I'm gonna do.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'll show you how the clutch actually works, how to drive it so you don't kill it, what not to do when you change gears, and how to rev match on every downshift, either by using heel and toe or the car's built-in rev match system.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: And be sure to watch for that bonus tip to fix what everybody gets wrong.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not just going to talk about it, I'm going to show you in this car in real time, explaining exactly what I'm doing and why as I do it.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: But I'll share a little later that one sure way to kill your clutch so you can avoid it.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now in this car the stakes are a little bit higher.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's got a GR4 all-wheel drive system, power to all four corners, and on groupie payment, get these habits wrong and you're compromising that clutch big time.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, everything in this video applies to any manual, not just the GR Corolla.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: So here's what's actually happening.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Every time you touch the clutch pedal, which you see at the top left in this explainer video, the pedal is now pushed down and you physically separate the disk from the flywheel.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: The engine can be fitting, but it's not connected to the wheel through the transmission.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: And when it gets into the friction point, you can see that the transmission RPM rises the engine RPM generating.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: And full power flows through the transmission and through the wheels.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: All four of them.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: And here's why that matters for your clutch.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: Every bit of slip, every bit of heat you create riding that pedal isn't just working one axle anymore.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's the one-ware component that every ounce of power to R4 wheels has to pass through first.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: Now keep in mind, that's exactly why these habits matter more than on your average manual.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Habit one is to find your friction point.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: So this is where the clutch actually starts to take up.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: And it might be an inch or two off the floor, but it's when you pull up your foot and the car just starts to move.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's the friction point.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: So you need to realize that you need to be out of that friction point or past that friction point, but not on that friction point, because that's where the majority of the wear is going to happen.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: Which leads us to habit two, and that is once you've released the clutch and you're on the move, get your foot off that clutch.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: You definitely don't want to rest your foot on the clutch, that's called riding the clutch, because even though you just uh rest your foot on there lightly, that contributes wear, and uh because it causes the clutch to slip ever so slightly, and that's what's gonna burn out your clutch super fast.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: Habit three is don't ride the clutch on hills.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, make sure you're adding some throttle when you're getting ready to take off uh when you're on a hill.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: Don't just pull out the clutch and leave it at that friction point because that will give you extreme wear on that clutch.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: So habit number four is rev matching your downshifts.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: So you can do that by heel and toe.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: So basically, what you're doing is you're braking, you're flipping the throttle to raise the RPM so that when you drop it into that lower gear, in this case it was second, you're matching the revs between the engine and the transmission to minimize the wear of the clutch when those two come together.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: So the GR Corolla has its own rev matching system built in.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's called an IMT uh intelligent manual transmission.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: So you can use that and it'll it'll do the throttle blip for you and uh rev match for you.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: So again, it minimizes the wear on that manual transmission.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: And again, it minimizes the wear on that clutch.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: Number five is launching with some RPM.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: So you need to give it a bit of RPM, we're usually around 2,000 RPM, and then that makes for a nice clean launch.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: And then when you get into second gear, again, get off that uh clutch pedal as soon as you can.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's five, and there's a sixth, and that's the one that most owners miss entirely.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: Respect the clutch break-in period.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: So a brand new clutch needs the first thousand miles to properly seat, which means no track days, no aggressive launches, no burnouts to impress uh your friends right off the lot.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: Owners who skip these steps are far more likely the ones reporting early clutch failures.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if that sixth one caught you off guard, that's exactly the kind of thing I dig into on every honest uh owner review on this channel.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: Hit subscribe because I'm working on more new content weekly.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: This car has a couple of features that change the conversation a bit.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: We've got the IMT Intelligent Manual Transmission.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: The car is automatically rev matching for you.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: That doesn't mean you get to ignore technique, but it does take some of the abuse off the clutch, specifically on the downshift side.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: If you can't heal and tow or just can't be bothered to heal and tow, make sure you use that auto rev match.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: And keep in mind your drive mode changes that GR4 torque split we just covered.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: Track mode biases more rearward, which changes how the car puts power down coming out of a corner and changes how forgiving or unforgiving sloppy clutch work is going to be.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: The more power to the rear in this car, the more wear on your clutch.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, so let's talk about the mistakes that drivers are making that actually kills these clutches.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: So let's make this practical.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: So, based on what I'm seeing from owners from my own time in this car, here's the short list.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: Resting a foot on the clutch pedal anytime you're not changing gear or starting off, launching on clutch slip instead of RPM, especially trying to look quick off the line, holding the car on a hill with the clutch instead of the brake, treating the first few hundred miles like it's already broken in, and track days.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: With all of the grip this car has to offer, running it on track will kill that clutch faster than anything else.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: There's other challenges with this car's transfer case and rear differential when used for track days.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I definitely suggest you don't track this car.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, so who actually needs to walk away from this video and change something that they're doing?
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: Well, if you're resting your foot on that clutch pedal or you've never actually found your friction point on purpose, that's you.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: And who's already fine?
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: Well, if you've learned on a manual decades ago and these six habits are just muscle memory, at this point, well, you're probably already ahead of most of the clutch failures we're seeing reported.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, and that bonus tip, wear the right kinds of shoes.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, those soft, pillowy running shoes with the big, thick soles are the worst shoes to wear.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: You need thin sole shoes so you can feel the clutch engagement through those soles.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: Try it, you'll notice a huge difference.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: So, you want to learn more about my GR Corolla ownership experience?
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's exactly what I'm covering soon.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: The real ownership numbers on this GR Corolla three years in.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because you know what?
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: Clutch wear and the associated costs definitely isn't the only cost when running one of these.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: So, yep, you definitely need to learn more about what it's like to own one of these cars.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: So, click over here for my two year honest owner review video of my GR Corolla, and I'll see you there.