alright so here's the dill, this is my first manual car. i have probably slipped the clutch and made the rpms go up to about 6-7k maybe twice. i have about 10k miles on the car. i've noticed when driving that my clutch pedal seems like it has alot of free play, and is much easier to operate (requires less exactness when finding the grip point). other than that i have not had many other misfortunes aside from maybe downshifting which i probably should not have done. anyways all in all i have not had a very bad experience learning to drive stick, and now i can heel-toe like a madman. but i am worried that my history of learning to drive on it has begun to take a toll on the clutch/transmission. aside from the excessive free play, does anyone have any advice on other things i should look out for? any estimates on the remaining life of this clutch?


on a sidenote, does anyone else find their reverse gear behaves like a bucking wild bull? everytime i back out im like -->

 

You could try this, shift to 1st and 2nd as your normally would. Then instead of shifting to 3rd, shift to 4th and floor it. If your clutch is slipping your RPM's would shoot up rapidly. If the rpms climb slowly, then your clutch is still ok for the time being

 

That is the best test to see if its slipping. You should be able to do that in 3rd gear too.

 

yeah i've done the slip test like a thousand times already and it's definitely not slipping i was just wondering if the whole clutch feeling different thing was normal. do you guys know if its normal for the clutch to feel different (after about 10k miles) than it did when you first got it?

 

The clutch will change feeling over time as the clutch wears and brakes in more. You did say that you learned to drive on this clutch right? That will take its toll on a clutch.

 

I've owned and driven manual transmissions before, but none as simple and loose as the one on my Fit. Granted I've only had it for a week now, but I know it's going to take a while to fully adjust to it. I personally like the ease of getting it into gear and the throws are super smooth. The lightness of the rebound is a great change of pace, but again, it's going to take some serious getting used to.

I definitely have to agree with Edmunds when they said "the Honda Fit clutch is very forgiving. It's the perfect car to teach someone how to drive a five speed." (Edmunds Long Term Test Blog).

 

Free play is normally a very small amount. The amount of take up the clutch has is not related to free play.
Free play just ensures complete engagement of the disc. I set the freeplay on my FJ40 every year. Its about 5mm.