Mk9 Honda Civic 2013 1.8 i-VTEC - Mk9 Civic Clutch Biting Point Very Small, Replace?

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Fri 22 Aug 2025 13:05
Mk9 Honda Civic 2013 1.8 i-VTEC - Mk9 Civic Clutch Biting Point Very Small, Replace? - Mr.Paws

Bought my 1.8 petrol Civic about a year ago. Its a great car, only had 37,000 miles when I got it, just over 50K now. Bought it from a Honda dealer with a view to running it into the ground as it has no rust and I've rust proofed it. It wasn't cheap for what it was but have zero interest in newer cars as think that the vast majority of them are more complex and not as reliable as a 12 year old Civic (that's just in my humble opinion though).

It has a couple of minor issues. The first being the clutch. It just has a very small biting point and is very off and on. It can be a pain for really steep hill starts, but other than that I can deal with it. I've searched on the internet but can find next to nothing about this. I have a feeling that it needs a clutch. Don't know if keeping driving the car until it gets worse will cause any damage. Have no problem replacing this as I'm in it for the long haul. But wouldn't be great if it was still the same when replaced as it's quite a big job. The subframe having to be dropped or partially. Not sure if the car has been owned by somebody that would ride the clutch etc, you just don't know with a used car. It only averaged around 2K miles per year for the firsy 8 years of its life.

The other issue that has started with it is that it has a slight knock from the front passenger side. This only happens if you accelerate or de-accelerate fairly fast in 2nd gear, sometimes it will do it in 3rd. It's like it needs a bit of torque to move something to knock, which these engines don't really have. It's going to have to go to a garage for this as I work on cars a bit, but find it very hard to diagnose suspension/engine or gearbox mounts lying on a drive. I replaced the drop links as they're cheap, knew it wouldn't be them, but with other cars knocking was usually caused by these, but different scenario to this one.

Thanks for any advice regarding the clutch or this other issue.

I've no issue spending money on this car, better to pay a well north of £500 for major wear and tear repairs, than pay a grand for a headlight or something daft on a newer car.

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Fri 22 Aug 2025 15:54
Mk9 Honda Civic 2013 1.8 i-VTEC - Mk9 Civic Clutch Biting Point Very Small, Replace? - Andrew-T

Shouldn't need a clutch at 50K miles unless the previous owner(s) rode them ? My father-in-law used to wear out clutches by resting his foot on the pedal. None of my cars have needed clutch work in 60 years plus, but I suppose if one lived in a hilly area needing lots of hill starts that might happen

Does the knocking vary with cornering ?

Edited by Andrew-T on 22/08/2025 at 15:57

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Fri 22 Aug 2025 19:35
Mk9 Honda Civic 2013 1.8 i-VTEC - Mk9 Civic Clutch Biting Point Very Small, Replace? - Mr.Paws

Thanks, no it doesn't knock when cornering. You just don't really know who owned it. My dad had a Peugeot 107 manual as his last car, before he had to pack it in. He should've had an automatic. He used to ride it all the time and do terrible gear changes, the clutch had about had it at 18K miles. I agree a clutch should last a lot longer, it's just a risk you take with used cars.

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Fri 22 Aug 2025 20:20
Mk9 Honda Civic 2013 1.8 i-VTEC - Mk9 Civic Clutch Biting Point Very Small, Replace? - Adampr

A very small biting point would suggest clutch problems. It won't do any harm (except to the clutch) to leave it if you can cope with it. There seems to be a lot of talk about clutch delay valve problems across Google. That might be worth looking into a bit.

As for the knocking, the only Honda I owned had an appetite for driveshafts. Worth checking there's no play in them to eliminate that. Probably one for a decent garage to investigate.

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Fri 22 Aug 2025 21:47
Mk9 Honda Civic 2013 1.8 i-VTEC - Mk9 Civic Clutch Biting Point Very Small, Replace? - Mr.Paws

That's good about the clutch will leave it for a while. Will take a look at the delay valve you mentioned. I'll take it to a garage to check the knock, the passenger driveshaft does have quite a bit of play going inwards and outwards, but I haven't a clue if that is normal or not, or what amount is normal. Don't want to go replacing an item like that without somebody that really knows what they are doing having a look. Thanks again.

Edited by Mr.Paws on 22/08/2025 at 21:47

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Fri 22 Aug 2025 22:17
Mk9 Honda Civic 2013 1.8 i-VTEC - Mk9 Civic Clutch Biting Point Very Small, Replace? - bathtub tom

When the engine's warm, press the clutch, put it in a high gear, give the engine some beans and drop the clutch. Does it stall - good. Does it slowly pull away - you need a new clutch!

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Sat 23 Aug 2025 13:12
Mk9 Honda Civic 2013 1.8 i-VTEC - Mk9 Civic Clutch Biting Point Very Small, Replace? - Engineer Andy

Shouldn't need a clutch at 50K miles unless the previous owner(s) rode them ? My father-in-law used to wear out clutches by resting his foot on the pedal. None of my cars have needed clutch work in 60 years plus, but I suppose if one lived in a hilly area needing lots of hill starts that might happen

Does the knocking vary with cornering ?

Whilst there may be a problem with the clutch, it isn't always caused by someone 'riding' it unnecessarily as you imply. My 2005 Mazda3's clutch lasted 'only' 60,000 miles, but 10 years, because many of my commutes during that time (especially in the final few years) were on roads with slow-moving, heavy stop-start traffic, including on dual carriageway A roads.

We couldn't reasonable just leave big gaps or trundle along in one gear all the time to keep a reasonable gap without risking the wrath of other drivers or some oik jumping into the gap to gain a few metres.

I would've been able to do so if I'd had either a TC or CVT auto without doing much damage to the gearbox system, but not DCTs as they still would use clutches, just the car does the clutch changing and would still 'slip' the clutch just as much as on a 'pure' manual.

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