Car runs very slow coming out of a stop - needs a clutch or worse?

[Edison Carasio]

I have a 89 LX with a 5 speed, and when I come out of a stop or from parked it moves VERY slowly. Runs fine once I get moving but from a stop it's awful. Like if I'm at a stop sign it can take like 10 seconds for me to get moving enough to make it through the intersection. This is the first 5 speed I've owned and I have not drove it much. Is it the clutch? The car come with the safety inspection from a Firestone in St. Louis and it and the previous owner said the clutch was bad. But I don't know much about manual transmissions so wasn't sure if that could cause this. Hoping just a clutch and not something worse.

[stephensimmons]

If when you release the clutch to go and the rpms(or the engine revs up) and the car isnt picking up speed or picking up speed slowly but the engine is still reving then your clutch is slipping. If you havent burnt the disc up yet you maybe could adjust it but if your luck is like mine then you will have to put a clutch in it.

[Edison Carasio]

I guess the clutch being bad is better than the first gear going out?

[stephensimmons]

Its cheaper to put a clutch in it instead of the transmission but ether way the transmissions has to come out to do it.

[Edison Carasio]

I need to replace the passenger side half shaft so I'll save up and do both things at once (since the axle needs to be removed to change the clutch any way).

[Dr_Snooz]

I need to replace the passenger side half shaft so I'll save up and do both things at once (since the axle needs to be removed to change the clutch any way).

Not really. You can remove the shaft from the trans without removing it from the hub if you disconnect the lower ball joint. If you need the car to get to work, fix the clutch pronto. Unless the shaft is really bad, you can drive for a long time on it yet.

[Edison Carasio]

Not really. You can remove the shaft from the trans without removing it from the hub if you disconnect the lower ball joint. If you need the car to get to work, fix the clutch pronto. Unless the shaft is really bad, you can drive for a long time on it yet.


Right now the Accord is just the fall back car for if I get fired from my job by surprise and my Fit gets repo'd. So I was gonna try and save up for a quality clutch instead of going the cheapo route.

[Dr_Snooz]

Sounds good. It just sounded like you were saving for axles, which didn't make a lot of sense.

Be careful though. If you get a good clutch, there's a good chance the Fit will get demoted to fall back car...

:D

[Edison Carasio]

I want the Fit to be the fall back car. I've got 4 more years worth of payments on it. I've put 56,000 miles in TWO years. By time it's paid off it will be pushing 200,000+ lol then it will be time to buy ANOTHER new car. Oi vey!