chrisdbassplayer

Hey my mustang has about 70k miles on it. It was a daily driver for about 4 years and now sits in the garage and is taken only on long vacation trips, 8 to 16 hour drives, and the occasional sunday drives. With that said I have been starting to get concerned more about longterm maintenance. Anyone have an idea of when I should start preparing mileage wise for replacing the clutch? Anyone know about the average cost to replace it?

Also being that the car isnt used regularly is there any other things I should start looking at other than the obvious brakes, tires, fluids when preparing for our long vacation trips?

IvanRad

id buy all the fluids and filters before hand to save you some money
* Tranny Flush plus filter replacement
* Rear Diff (For sure this will need a flush)
* Sparks
* Valve Cover Gaskets ( if they are worn )
* Coolant Flush ( Throw some Hyperlube in there, keeps the coolant cooler for longer distance trips )
* Buy a catch-can for those long Trips ( Not required but will help )
* The worst of the worst Thermostat Housing ( Join my thread to buy the aluminum thermostat housing not the plastic crap )
* Not sure about head gaskets on these cars.



Good Luck

chrisdbassplayer

Thanks for the info anyone know aprox miles on clutch replacement?

NTO_GUY

Depending on your driving over the 4 years and the vacay trips. Usually clutches are good for around 100k maybe longer. If abused more or lots of mileage put on during the daily driving years, then it could be less. If you are not having any issues shifting. If everything feels firm, shifts smooth, and no issues, then I'd say worry about it closer to 100k. I have driven two cars with 200k and original clutch.

Nuke

If your clutch isn't slipping or giving you problems, why are you worried about replacing it? Clutches can last the life of the car or 10k miles, depending on how you treat them.

Just keep up with the maintenance schedule in your OM (which, BTW, is very, very conservative).

chrisdbassplayer

I was concerned of a breakdown issue on a 1000+ mile trip that we take at least 2 times or more a year. My last car "pontiac" the clutch lasted 175000 miles. I didnt know how much to expect from my mustang since this is my first ford with manual tranny.

Nuke

Clutches, like brakes, don't need to be replaced on a time-based frequency. It's all use related. Some people are hard on their clutches and, like brakes, will wear much sooner in city driving than highway driving. Even with those first 4 years as your DD, if you weren't punishing it, I still say leave it be as long as there are no issues with it and just enjoy the drives. You'll know when it's getting close to a replacement.

This reminds me of the time I had 150k miles on a set of front brakes on a Toyota Celica. It was only my 2nd Toyota at the time and ALL of my previous 10 or so domestic vehicles rarely, if ever, got beyond 60k miles on front brakes. I took the car in for some preventive maintenance and I TOLD them to replace the front brakes because I couldn't fathom a set of brakes lasting anywhere NEAR that long. When I picked up the car, I noticed they hadn't replaced the brakes nor charged me. I went nose-to-nose with the service manager for NOT replacing those front brakes. He said "Sir, I will NOT perform unnecessary work and have you pay for something that you don't need, period." I was speechless. Who can argue with that?

Rudolph Hucker

had 4 vans in my life
one went 400 000 miles untill the cambelt snapped..still original clutch
i have driven maybe 1.5 million miles in my life in vans and never needed a new clutch in any of them..
forget about it dude..these stangs have an hydraulic clutch though so maybe that can be a problem in time

chrisdbassplayer

Thanks for the info it definetly puts my mind more at ease