Once the clutch fully expired does it affect the fly wheel

Question

Vehicle partially submerged in a drive in beach and clutch completely exhausted, does it harm the fly wheel?

Answer 1

It can and mostly likely has affected the flywheel. There are two likely culprits here.

First, if the friction disk is worn out (lived its productive life to the fullest and now no longer has any friction material left to speak of), then usually the flywheel is worn out at that point as well. If nothing else, just like with brake rotors, the flywheel's main mating surface has been glazed over.

Secondly, there may be an issue with heat. If the friction disk has expired because someone overheated the clutch once too often, the flywheel will most likely have heat cracks in it (as well as glazing), which means even if you did put a new clutch in, getting it to engage quietly (ie: without a lot of chitter) is not going to happen. It will be a rough start every time you release the clutch pedal to get your vehicle to go.

Once either of these things have happened, you'll need to, at a minimum, get it resurfaced so as to have a fresh mating surface for the friction disk to ride against. This will provide for a clean surface for the new clutch to bed into and allow for smooth engagement once it's all back together.

Resurfacing, as stated, is a minimal effort. Replacement may be needed if the surface is too far worn or if the heat cracking is too bad to machine it back into tolerance. In that case, a replacement will be needed.