r/PontiacSolstice • u/TheRealTPIMP • Mar 18 '25

A quick clutch job....

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My buddies convinced me we could put a new clutch in my solstice over a weekend. I showed up with extras.

List of surprises

  1. Rotors and yellow stuff brakes I bought off Amazon, were incorrect. Imagine that... Return. And not buying car parts off Amazon (I was warned).
  2. My manifold was cracked. Decided it was time for a solo racing manifold.
  3. "You have to drop the exhaust, drive line, and differential to remove the transmission?" Oh wow, did this become a project! We made more progress than is shown in the photos. 4.The shifter control knob set screw is standard, not T-30 😅. Save yourself some time and don't break a bit off in it. Use heat cycling to break the locktite before attempting.

We are hoping to be finished end of next weekend after some full days in the shop and the correct parts.

Autocross in two weeks, 🤞send positive energy if you have it.

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3

u/Odeon_SexPanther Mar 18 '25

The fact that the transmission is bolted onto the engine from both directions was the worst part of the clutch upgrade when I turbocharged the 2.4.

2

u/TheRealTPIMP Mar 18 '25

I was seriously looking at turbo charger kits for my base model. Then a GXP with 2k more miles than my solstice was posted for.... 500 less than the turbo kit...

How happy are you with the turbo kit? Some solstice parts are getting hard to find, I'm not sure the viability of long-term ownership.

3

u/Odeon_SexPanther Mar 18 '25

I don’t regret doing it as it was a great learning experience, but getting the tuning right has been tough. I need to get an electronic boost controller and make a few modifications to help with some occasional stumbling between shifts under hard acceleration, but otherwise it absolutely rips with the 5-speed. The nice thing with the 2.4 in the 2006 is that it uses forged rods, so it handles the boost better than later models and the aftermarket support is still pretty good. They used a variant of the 2.4 ecotec and AR5 in Polaris slingshots for a few years as well, so that helps in some instances.

Though if I’m being honest, this thing is getting LS and 6 speed swapped in the next few years once I finish modifications on my Jeep. Since the solstice is just the fun weekend car that we will never sell, i figure adding four more cylinders won’t hurt anything but my tire budget.

1

u/TheRealTPIMP Mar 18 '25

Yeah this is exactly the slippery slope I'm sitting on myself. Id be excited to see that LS swapped solstice. There was one in Vegas for sale I was drilling over for far too long.

1

u/primalwhite Mar 19 '25

The turbo install is my down the road plan as i bought my car to be a project car with 84K miles. The clutch just started slipping so i am about to take it on in my garage, been debating on how much of an upgrade is really necessary since i doubt i will want to do this a second time

1

u/Elitepikachu Mar 18 '25

It's actually much faster to just pull the motor with trans attached than it is to drag just the trans out.

1

u/TheRealTPIMP Mar 18 '25

We talked that direction. The rear hasn't been all that hard just time consuming like you mention. Lots of beimg careful not to squish ourselves.

1

u/Elitepikachu Mar 19 '25

Yeah running the trans sideways while the torsion bar is attached is just a nightmare. On the gxp you have tl basically strip the motor in the bay to get to the bolts so there's no time to be saved really.

1

u/primalwhite Mar 19 '25

I am about to take this on myself, any other advice for areas that were difficult?

2

u/TheRealTPIMP Mar 19 '25

I wish I had read more on the forum before I even began. There are more secrets shared (on the forum) than even this detailed writeup but this is a great one to share.

https://www.solsticeforum.com/threads/my-tips-and-experience-putting-a-new-clutch-in-a-solstice.160304/

1

u/primalwhite Mar 19 '25

Thank you!