Pressure Plate Finger Grooves, caused by the throwout bearing Options

[McMark]

Hey guys, check my logic here. I see this type of grooving all the time, on nearly every pressure plate I see - regardless of engine type, horsepower, etc. I hadn't given it too much thought other than, "I don't like it, but it happens every time." But I was just talking with someone and it occurred to me that this might be wear caused by a bad throwout bearing. If the grease is sticky, or if dirt has infiltrated the bearing, it may not be able to rotate/spin correctly and would slip causing wear.

The point of the throwout bearing should be to stop exactly this type of wear, right?
Doest this mean bad throwout bearings are super common?
Or is this a symptom of a loose clutch cable, not holding the throwout bearing tight to the fingers and that lets them slip?

[Elliot Cannon]

This is one reason I have been taught in the past (I'm talkin' long ago) that the only time you should dis-engage the clutch is when sifting gears. When I come to a stop light etc. I shift the trans into neutral rather than sitting with the engine idling with the clutch dis-engaged. I used to have a 1960 VW bug (I'm talkin' long ago) and instead of a throw out bearing it used a block of graphite that rubbed against the PP to dis-engage the clutch. When the graphite wore down, the metal cup it was housed in would grind a groove in the pressure plate. The less time you held the clutch pedal down, the longer the graphite block would last.

[r_towle]

This is one reason I have been taught in the past (I'm talkin' long ago) that the only time you should dis-engage the clutch is when sifting gears. When I come to a stop light etc. I shift the trans into neutral rather than sitting with the engine idling with the clutch dis-engaged. I used to have a 1960 VW bug (I'm talkin' long ago) and instead of a throw out bearing it used a block of graphite that rubbed against the PP to dis-engage the clutch. When the graphite wore down, the metal cup it was housed in would grind a groove in the pressure plate. The less time you held the clutch pedal down, the longer the graphite block would last.

I have been reading quite a bit about this lately because the Mini needs all of this replaced and the PP looks worse than the first one you posted.

It's interesting, but it seems to be a more modern car issues because I never had any issues with big old american iron.

The resurgence of the blame being shifted to the driver is a poor excuse for building an inferior product, the throw out bearing or release bearing.

The crappy manufacturing has taken out a pressure plate, throw out bearing and left the clutch with less than 30 k miles on it....

This is just cheap parts in cheap cars nowadays.

Rich