CAN IT BE?
 

My '06 GTO, totally stock, never raced, and treated like a baby with 10,800K miles was giving me trouble shifting. On my way to the dealer, the clutch "died" and I needed a tow. The dealer now states the clutch is shot and it's not covered either. Could the clutch be shot?(I never burnt rubber or even power shifted once!) Or could the problem be something else?? Thanks, Peter

True , clutch is not covered. But with that few of miles, GM should look at it and maybe give some assistance. Call 800-762-2737 for Customer Assistance. Let the dealer know nicely..... that you did that. Ask them to call GM to open a case file....

What could cause a modern day clutch to burn out? I've driven a standard for 40 yrs. and the dealer states that the clutch is gone. Could something have failed causing the cluch to burn out. I find it hard to believe. The car is all stock, never modified, never raced and I've never popped it or pwer shifted it EVEN ONCE. I'm speechless.

I would ask them how the friction material and the flywheel look, are they both worn out? are there any groves in the flywheel? They may think that anything wrong with the system is grounds for replacing every part. Personally, I don't like that, you don't replace every single part because of one defect, unless the other parts are truly not servicable, but many shops take that approach. A bad throwout bearing may cause a clutch to not engage properly, but I'm willing to bet if you never abused it and it never slipped, that some of the friction parts are still good. Good luck with the repair.

PS, do your kids drive the car occasionally?

The parts are replaced as one, in fact, about $700.00 in parts. They may go half with me. I'm flabbergasted and have to think that something failed or was defective.

I would personally go look at the clutch disc and flywheel. Its most likely that it had a hydraulic failure possible clutch master or slave cylinder failure. I would highly doubt that the clutch is worn out as the car is not abused and has low miles. Most can get 100k miles out of a clutch disc driving as you do.

When you say the clutch died, what do you mean?
It is somewhat common for these cars to experience slave cylinder failure. Mileage does not seem to be a determining factor on this particular part. The problem with slave failure is that you must pull the trans to get to it. If it is the slave I would think it would be covered under warranty. The disc and pressure plate may not be as they are wear items.
The dealer gave you a blanket statement by saying the clutch is shot. Hence the question of what behavior did the car exhibit. Lots of info about this problem on some other sites.

For about 4 miles of city stop and go driving, I was not able to shift easily. It was difficult shifting gears and would not go into reverse. On the way to the dealer, I "lost" the pedal and WAS NOT able to shift at all, hence, I needed a tow. The pedal was mushy and limp. Other than this brief episode, all was fine with the car.

BTW, no one ever drives the car but me.

If the car was able to accelerate without slippage but you could not change gears it sounds like slave or master cyl. Most likely the slave.
Did you check to see if the clutch master still had fluid, and what the condition of the fluid was? It seems to be necessary to flush the fluid to keep the system working properly. A lot of people just suck the clutch master close to dry and refill on a regular basis. So far that has worked for mine.
If the car has not been worked on yet and you can get a look at it I would check the clutch master for quantity and condition of fluid. If the fluid is black you can try having it flushed. If it is empty you can have it filled and look for the leak.
Should it turn out to be the slave you might be able to get some goodwill coverage from the dealership or GM customer service.

I got your message. Very surprising to hear that the pp broke in pieces. I learn something everyday. Good luck with the fix and selling it.