I was at Road Atlanta both Saturday and Sunday. No issues with the car Saturday. Later in the afternoon Sunday during a cool down lap, car throws a check engine and abs light. Check engine code if I recall read for a "communication" issue. Cleared code, car sat for roughly 10-15 minutes. Started it and went into reverse, heard a horrible sound and it won't move. After some tinkering it would sometimes go into gear, or if you put it in gear then started it would move but the noise persisted. Managed to get it back on the trailer and got it to my local dealership this morning. Interesting enough it was shifting into all gears just fine today, and the noise was not consistent. Wondering if the throw-out bearing died? I've tracked the car over the last 2 years without any issue. Biggest concern is them covering it under warranty. I know HPDE use is permitted within the warranty itself. Curious if anyone else has ran into issues with the manual as well? Will update thread as I get info back from Ford.
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S650 Dark Horse Clutch Failure - Dark Horse
- Thread starterRocky400
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Definitely interested to hear what the outcome is on this and what they say the issue is. About how many track events/track hours would you say you've spent with your car?
The warranty aspect is something I've been wondering how it would be handled if the time comes. I've been developing a relationship with the local dealer (buying my service parts from them, so I'm in there quite a bit) and keeping detailed records in case anything comes up, but that's a concern.
The warranty aspect is something I've been wondering how it would be handled if the time comes. I've been developing a relationship with the local dealer (buying my service parts from them, so I'm in there quite a bit) and keeping detailed records in case anything comes up, but that's a concern.
- Thread starter
- #4
I'm at 11 or 12 track days with it. Mostly at Sebring, 1 at the Firm, and now Road Atlanta. I'm afraid they'll deem it as wear and tear so nothing would be covered. I've got 15k miles on it since getting it in September of '23.
- Thread starter
- #5
Nothing from the dealership just yet, so I'll be calling them tomorrow. The org was TDX, really solid group I've been tracking with for the last 2 years now. https://trackdayxperience.com/
I'm at about 14 hours of track time on my car since buying it in January, and I think right around 10 track days, bit over 6k miles total on the car. So fewer miles than you overall, but probably pretty close on track time. If it does end up being a clutch issue, I'd have a hard time with wear and tear, that seems pretty low to me.
Of course, dealer will do dealer things, but if they do try to get out of a warranty repair it would be worth fighting in my opinion, unless you've got a clutch upgrade you want. Personally I'm curious about lightweight flywheel options (if there are any) for the car when I do need to get a clutch.
- Thread starter
- #7
@Junkyard Dog @TheTed Spoke to Ford, according to them it was a clutch + clutch plate failure. I asked about the throw-out bearing because I think that's the main culprit, however, the tech wasn't there to confirm. I had the same thing happen on my 06 GT which is why I continue to suspect it. They also noticed a leak on the rear diff seal. Interestingly enough prior, during and after the event there were no visible leaks in my garage, at the event or the trailer. I'm thinking it was more of a slow leak/seepage but glad they caught it. Warranty will be covering everything.
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