The Honda Accord ranked number five out of a list of 21 affordable mid-sized cars by U.S. News Rankings & Reviews for 2010. It is known as an economical, reliable automobile, with Honda providing a 36,000 mile bumper-to-bumper warranty. But every car will eventually have problems from normal wear and tear that need to be addressed. If you think the clutch on your Accord is bad, there are a few things you can do to diagnose it.
When you're driving, if the car slips out of gear often, it's a sign that the clutch is wearing out. You will feel the engine revving too high, and you'll have to jam it back into gear. This indicates that the gear teeth of the clutch aren't grasping and are worn, causing it to slip from the correct gear in your transmission.
There is a particular smell when your clutch is going out. If it smells like plastic or rubber mixed with metal burning, and the smell is coming from the left side of the Accord, it's a sure sign of a bad clutch. Sometimes there will even be smoke you can see rising up from the left side of the engine compartment. It is a different smell than that of a bad engine, which smells like burning motor oil.
If you find yourself having to press the clutch all the way to the floor, and it feels much softer than when the car was new, this means the clutch is wearing down. You may even have to press it in and jam the shifter into gear to get the car going. A working clutch will have a significant amount of resistance when pressing it to the floor, and it will shift into gear without any pressure.
