- Slipping clutch. If you give the car gas and the RPMs increase without an increase in speed, your clutch lacks enough friction material to successfully mate the engine and transmission together. As a result, your clutch is failing to successfully engage. Given enough miles driving like this, you will eventually burn through all your clutch material and be left stranded.
- Burning smell. If you smell this while accelerating from a stop or while attempting to gain speed, it is probably in correlation with #1 (slipping clutch) and should be addressed immediately.
- Difficulty shifting or grinding sounds when shifting. This can result if your clutch plate has broken apart. There will be sharts of clutch material inside the clutch assembly making noise, grinding into smaller pieces, and in all causing further damage to your transmission. Have your vehicle towed and remedy this immediately.
