Clutch Chatter-What have I done?

[1974Alfa5spd]

The car used to drive perfect, but now I get only very occasional clutch chatter (the jerking feeling when [smoothly] releasing the clutch).
My dad said it might be the rear seal throwing oil on the disc (he changed 3+ clutches in an old ford pickup because of that).
I think it may be because I learned to drive stick on it and I majorly fubar'd the clutch by my noob 3k clutch slips, but any glazing from that would certainly have worn off by now, so I've also moved to the oil on the disc.
I just really want to know any other reasons why my clutch could possibly be chattering because it only has about 15k on it I believe.

Side note: How hard is it to actually change a clutch?

[theholycow]

Side note: How hard is it to actually change a clutch?

I've never done it, but AFAIK it differs extremely from one car to the next. That old Ford pickup probably took a half hour to do the job...a few bolts to get the tranny loose, jack the tranny down, change clutch, put it all back together. A modern FWD car, OTOH...

Your Alfa might not exactly be a picnic either.

[LHOswald]

if there was oil leaking onto the clutch disk you would know. everytime you slipped the clutch it would burn the oil and you would smell it through the engine bay. i also don't think the clutch would 'chatter' if it had oil on it either, unless the oil caused some expansion on the disk (from heat or lack thereof) and then that would definitely cause some chatter.

[fa22raptorf22]

Warped flywheel.

From hard slips...the flywheel warped due to heat and at low rpm slips it feels like vibration. Feels like when your brake rotors are warped...same concept.

The clutch is fine though because my bet is that if you did a clutch dump it would lock up just fine because there was enough pressure to counteract the warped disc.

Replace the flywheel....and maybe clutch disc while you are at it.

Edit: Actually my rsx had chatter...but I just lived with it because it didn't really matter.

[1974Alfa5spd]

Warped flywheel.

From hard slips...the flywheel warped due to heat and at low rpm slips it feels like vibration. Feels like when your brake rotors are warped...same concept.

But then why would it do it only occasionally?

[vedran]

has it been raining/humid lately?

my clutch chatters like crazy when it's humid outside. i'm sure i look like a complete noob when i launch.

it's only on humid days, though. a lot of people on the maxima forums have been complaining about it, but i've experienced the same thing with my acura (although not as bad).

[fa22raptorf22]

Warped flywheel.

From hard slips...the flywheel warped due to heat and at low rpm slips it feels like vibration. Feels like when your brake rotors are warped...same concept.

But then why would it do it only occasionally?

When it heats up enough it may fix itself temporarily.

Also, you could have broken off part of the pads on the clutch. NO biggie