[BilgeMonkeyRacing]

so, less than 400 miles into owning the iM, my fiance and i have decided the clutch is simply horrible.

The pedal engagement is WAY too high, and that weird spring loaded first 1" of travel makes for weird upshifts/downshifts.


Tools needed:
14mm combo wrench
12mm combo wrench
needle nose pliers
10mm combo wrench
10mm ratchet/socket (preferably 1/4" drive, more compact)
Phillips screwdriver
Flashlight

The first thing to address: Clutch engagement height.


I don't have many pix of this process, as i was upside down under the dash, but if you lay with your head in the footwell and look up, you'll see a plastic coupler, and metal linkage with jam nut. I ended up almost bottoming the linkage out (shortened) in order to get the clutch to start engaging about 1" from the floor.

once you get the engagement where you like it, you'll notice the springy slop at the "top" of the clutch pedal engagement. This can be fixed by adjusting the start position bolt.

1. pull the door seal down, allowing you to remove the side panel. the side panel comes off with gentle prying.

2. Remove air vent/ and the trim next to the gauge cluster

3. Remove the panel below the air vent. There's a screw under the third switch blank

4. You'll need to move the fuse panel out of the way to reach the adjustment bolt.

here's how the dash should look

5. once the fuse panel is pulled out of the way, you can access the adjustment bolt.

the pedal height will only decrease slightly, but the overall feel is greatly improved. gone is that weird springy overcenter feeling, and clutch engagement is where it should be, near the floor.

NOTE! take it for a drive, and make sure cruise control still works. the clutch switch at the top of the stroke must still be held. this switch is adjustable, but shouldn't have to be messed with if the proper amount of slack is taken up. If you do adjust the clutch further down, you' may have to adjust the upper clutch switch to still be engaged when the clutch is not pressed.

Thanks for reading, hope this helps!

Cheers,

Joel

 

[imports4life951]

thanks man. I'm gonna do this tomorrow. i cant stand the way the clutch and gas pedal are in this car... have you noticed a delay in the gas pedal too? i wish there was a way to recalibrate the potentiometer in the gas pedal too but this is a good start.

 

[imports4life951]

now that you've done it do you think there is a way to adjust it to take the slop out without having to take the dash apart?

 

[S-Factor]

Thanks for the guide and pictures! You're not the only one who's tired of the clutch. Seems like a common enough gripe that some may have.

 

[nics]

thanks man. I'm gonna do this tomorrow. i cant stand the way the clutch and gas pedal are in this car... have you noticed a delay in the gas pedal too? i wish there was a way to recalibrate the potentiometer in the gas pedal too but this is a good start.

The delay of the gas pedal compensates for the long clutch travel. What worked for me is that pressing the clutch all the way to the floor and releasing it slowly while simultaneously pressing the gas pedal. By the time that the clutch is at the catch point, the gas pedal's delay is over and has enough power to move the car forward.

I find to like it this way for dd and stop and go traffic, very easy to drive compared to my Celica that has short clutch travel and low catch point. Since owning the iM, I struggle driving the Celica with a short clutch.

I always preferred Toyota clutches vs Honda because of the low catch point but I guess it Toyota changed the design and I really like how it is.

 

[BilgeMonkeyRacing]

now that you've done it do you think there is a way to adjust it to take the slop out without having to take the dash apart?

you'd have to make a special crazy set of wrenches to get to the top adjustment bolt. the dash came apart really easily, honestly. not a big deal at all.

 

[imports4life951]

I've put 900 miles on my car now since i did this and i absolutely love it. its so much better. theres no way to do it without taking the dash apart. i figured that out real quick lol but it still only took me like 30 min to get it done if that. i wouldn't go back to the stock clutch configuration if you paid me too lol!

 

[purcelkc]

I just completed this mod and thought I’d add some helpful hints on some of the steps. It took me 2 hours to do this, including 3 test drives plus adjustments. Nothing was very difficult, you just have to follow the steps Joel wrote. (Thanks for a great write-up by the way!)

I found it helpful to create as flat of a work area as possible when adjusting the clutch. I stacked 2 bags of dog food and put down a bunch of towels to make it more comfortable. See attached picture.

Clutch mod
You have to first loosen the jam nut. The 14 mm wrench goes on the nut that the jam nut rests against and the 12 mm wrench goes on the jam nut itslef. My jam nut wasn’t very tight and broke loose with only a little pressure. It’s a little hard doing this since there isn’t much space up under there. I ended up putting the 12mm wrench on the jam nut first so that the other end of the wrench was high enough so the wrench wouldn’t fall off the nut due to gravity. Next I carefully squeezed the 14mm wrench onto the other nut such that the two wrenches made a “V” shape so that I could kind of pull them together.

Once you free the jam nut, back it off a little and then get your needle nose pliers on the clutch linkage rod. Squeeze the pliers and rotate the rod counter-clockwise (up). It will take a bunch of little, incremental turns to get the rod in the right position, just be patient and you’ll get in a rhythm. I set mine just like you can see in Joel’s pic. I drove around the block to see if I liked the feel and backed it off a tiny bit.

Steps 1 - 3
I followed these exactly as written/depicted in the pictures. All of the panels just pulled right off without needing any tools for prying. I laid out each removed piece on the floor in the order I took it off to make it easier for reassembly. Just work backwards.

Step 4
First picture: Squeeze the 10 mm wrench from underneath the dash to get to the screw shown.

Second picture: Use the 10 mm socket to remove these two screws. After you remove the screws, you will have to pull a little harder to release these white plastic brackets since there are two plastic tabs that kind of guide them into place in the round metal tube.

Last picture: I didn’t need to pull the fuse panel all the way out as is shown in this picture.

Step 5
To gain access to the clutch height bolt, I just used one hand to pull the top of the white fuse bracket (from step 4) down while the other loosened the jam nut. The bolt itself can be turned by hand. By pushing the clutch with your hand and even looking at the green pad touch the end of the bolt, you’ll be able to feel/see when the play is gone. Use this as a starting point. Put the door seal gasket back and take your car for a spin to see if you like both the clutch grab point and the pedal play. It’s OK to drive it with all of the pieces removed in the previous steps. Don’t forget to tighten the jam nuts when you got it where you like it.

I noticed after making this mod that the car no longer holds the rpms high when shifting gears. I like it since it now acts like a normal car, but am not sure if this is a good or bad sign. Comments?

 

[runnermedic]

Fixed mine today after a week of driving it,this must be fixed at dealer ship its stupid that a clutch grabs so high!
in my case i only made the adjustment to the slave bolt and to fix the pedal play i placed a circular rubber shim glued to the green plugs,one for the adjuster bolt and one for the cruise switch,the one for the cruise swicth is a bit taller than the adjuster one.
no need to take apart half dash to make it !
asked my wife to press the clutch while i placed the spacers,first one was the cruise switch then 5 minutes later the adjuster side just make sure the 3m emblem adhesive sets.they wont come off when that glue sets.
the rubber shims i used came from a faucet flat washer kit. $1
3 sizes in box my set up is taller one in the cruise switch and short one in the adjuster bolt,it depends on how low you adjust yours!!
in my case i leave a near 2mm play just in case

 

[SuperchargedMR2]

I wonder if a dealer would do this under warranty? I'll plan to do it to my new iM. I was wondering if there was a way to adjust the clutch. This looks straight forward and simple.

 

[george__]

I wonder if a dealer would do this under warranty? I'll plan to do it to my new iM. I was wondering if there was a way to adjust the clutch. This looks straight forward and simple.

I asked a few dealerships but they refused saying this is considered a mod.

PS - I'm from Canada.

 

[SuperchargedMR2]

I asked a few dealerships but they refused saying this is considered a mod.

PS - I'm from Canada.

How is a clutch adjustment a mod??? that make zero common sense. :serious:

 

[nics]

If you decide to adjust, make sure you do it properly.

For me, I'd rather adapt to the clutch rather than adjust. Here's some good read about clutch problems, troubleshooting and service.

https://www.g-w.com/pdf/sampchap/9781605252131_ch07.pdf

 

[SuperchargedMR2]

If you decide to adjust, make sure you do it properly.

For me, I'd rather adapt to the clutch rather than adjust. Here's some good read about clutch problems, troubleshooting and service.

https://www.g-w.com/pdf/sampchap/9781605252131_ch07.pdf

Interesting that you said this. I took my iM in for it's 6 month check last week and asked about getting the clutch adjusted. They did say that I could have it adjusted once under warranty within 10k miles. I'm getting a lot of different answers depending on the tech that has been asked about it. I was all for getting it adjusted but I have gotten used to it now and wonder if it could do more harm then good in the long term. Some mechanics have said that as I've been looking into it so I'm not sure now about doing this adjustment.

 

[polyian]

I just picked up a 2018 IM and I have been trying to follow this clutch adjust thread
I can’t see the original pics that were posted in the how to.
Is it possible that one of you could repost the pics or PM me please
Thanks

 

[polyian]

I worked it out. The instructions above were clear enough and I did some searching and found the various pictures on the web. It was fairly easy to adjust the push rod to the slave cylinder which effectively lowered the clutch bite point. This introduced a heck of a lot of slop at the top of the clutch pedal which I removed by getting access behind the fuse block. Removing the panels and the vent cover was easy, the left dash side panel comes off without having to pull the door weatherstrip. After removing the 3 bolts from the fuse block I was able to pull it towards me, just enough to get one hand and a 14mm wrench in to loosen the jam nut, awkward but doable with my large hands. The slop can be taken out of the clutch by hand, leaving a couple of mm of free play at the clutch pedal top position. Then tighten the jam nut.



It's a different car to drive now, the clutch feels more like my Z4 clutch and the pedal position is just slightly higher than the brake. This is how the factory should have done it.



Thank You to those who posted the how to, even thought the photos were gone it proved very helpful. I now have the photos and write up in a document that I put together.


Total job time 30-45 minutes with testing time.

 

[Ricky1980]

Just using a 12mm wrench. Loose this nut, turn the rod a few, like show in the picture. Then re-tight the nut. Now run the car. You can do this in just minutes. You can adjust until you like it. It tooks me 1 minute.

 

[Ricky1980]

There is nothing more to do or dissassembly.

 

[SuperchargedMR2]

Just using a 12mm wrench. Loose this nut, turn the rod a few, like show in the picture. Then re-tight the nut. Now run the car. You can do this in just minutes. You can adjust until you like it. It tooks me 1 minute.

How has this been going for you? Has it held up since you did it. What exactly is that rod that you are adjusting?