Honda Civic cable clutch

[Félix]

Hi.
First of all, thanks Eric, I’ve always wanted to learn basics of car maintenance and with your videos, I finally had the confidence to put my hands in that engine.

I had a problem with the clutch, where it would grab way to high on the pedal, and cause me to give too much gas and sometimes slip. I adjusted the cable, like in the video but the other way. The clutch grabbed at the right spot, but sometimes I would have trouble engaging the first gear (not everytime), plus I feel like the clutch is slowly going back tograbbing where it did before. There is also a slight rubbing or whispering noise (that I won’t hear if the radio is on or if there is other cars nearby) when the clutch is depressed on neutral.

Does anyone have a clue if all of this is related? Keep in mind that it is an old car (Civic DX 1990).

Thanks

Topic

[george gonzalez]

If the clutch adjustment is drifting, that’s bad news. It might be only slightly bad news if it’s the clutch cable that’s down to just a few strands and stretching and about to break. Or somewhat more expensive bad news if its things inside the clutch warping.

I’d probably start by replacing the clutch cable. See if that helps. It often does. If the clutch is still hard to adjust and get right, you may have to dig in deeper.

[Félix]

Thanks for the answer.
Or could it be that I just didn’t adjust it well? What I did is I just turned the plastic nut thing counterclockwise until the clutch grabbed where I felt it should, and I had to manually seat the part that stops the nut under the nut again (sorry I don’t know the lingo). The whole thing didn’t feel so tight. And since the pedal grabs way too high, instead of too low, could it really be stretching?

[Author]

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