Honda Jazz BHP test | What happens when a clutch SLIPS on a dyno?!

Added: 2026-05-19

[00:00:00]Hello. VTEC is definitely not about to kick in, y'all. VTEC has in fact left the chat. This is a 2002 Honda Jazz 1.4, which uses a 1.3 liter engine. This is the opposite of what you would expect a Honda to be. But then if you look at the kind of car this is, and the typical Cleonel that drive these cars, you'll realize that this engine is exactly what they needed. This Honda is in fact owned by uh well, it's owned by Taylor's mom. If you went on my social media a little while ago after Rustville, you would have seen me put out a post saying, "I thought I saw a kid at Rustville for wearing one of my t-shirts, but never actually got to see him." And I thought that's kind of like weird that there's a kid there. But I was also kind of touched that a kid would want to wear my merch because my own kids would rather be seen dead.

[00:00:47]Well, he's here. I invited him down.

[00:00:49]We've tracked him down through the powers of the internet and they've gone to McDonald's. So, I've put his mom's car on the dyno. I hope she's okay with that. So, yeah. Shout out to Taylor and his little brother. didn't catch his name. You want to meet two lads who know a lot about cars, meet them genuinely.

[00:01:05]So, um, yes, on to the matter in hand.

[00:01:08]The Jazz or Fit as it is known most places, but Jazz in the UK is a small compact car made by Honda. In this case, it's pink.

[00:01:22]Now, this is not the first Honda that's been on the dyno. We've had the Honda Beat already, but this car could not be more different to the Beat. I have done hasty research into this engine, and I've what I've learned about this engine has actually surprised me massively in the last 10 minutes or so. This is an IDSI engine. There is no VTEC here. What this engine actually is to me is a massive surprise. Um, this is a Honda from 2002. So, when you think of Hondas, I think of some of my favorite cars.

[00:01:53]Integra Type R, S2000, EK Civic, Type R, NSX. We're talking many cam shafts and lobes and very high revs and no torque at the bottom and then loads of revs at the top and lots of drama and people laughing saying that, you know, they've got no guts and like rice racing and all that kind of stuff.

[00:02:14]This is not that. Very much not that.

[00:02:17]This is a 1.3 L technically 1339cc L13A engine. That means this engine has single overhead cam, eight valve, so two valves per cylinder, only revs to about 6,000 revs and has two spark plugs per cylinder like an Alfa Romeo. It is a dual and sequential ignition engine. Basically, it will spark those plugs, those alternating plugs depending on the throttle load, engine speed, everything like that to get a more efficient burn. It's a long stroke engine as well, 73 by 80 mil. So, Honda have made a long stroke, non-revving, high efficiency engine.

[00:03:03]Is this actually a Honda? Well, yes, it is a Honda. Honda like efficiency, Honda like technology. And this engine brings it. Uh, this engine is a very frugal engine. It's a very tough engine. It's a very smooth engine. You're looking at 83 horsepower apparently at 5,700 revs. But the torque is pushing 90 lb foot, just under 90 pound foot, only between like 2 and 12, 3,000 revs. I can't remember the exact figures because I only learned about this car 10 minutes ago, but I will write them on the bonnet there.

[00:03:30]There you go. That's the book specs of this car. Now, this particular model's done 128,000 mi. And as you can see by looking at it, it's careworn battle scarred. Uh, it does have two buckled wheels and a perished suspension top mount that I'm looking at there. But that doesn't matter because this is an honest car. This is the car of the people. It's the first Honda Jazz I've ever sat in. It's the first Honda Jazz I've ever opened the bonnet on. It's the first Honda Jazz I've ever looked at.

[00:03:57]But what I want to know is is the Honda Jazz going to fit into that kind of range of oldies cars like the Dhatsu Syrian. There was a Scoda Felicia. Um, I mean the Panda, well the Panda was 100HP, but Panda, it's normal Panda.

[00:04:11]Basically, there's a lot of cars that go on there that do a lot more than they're supposed to do. Is this car going to fit into that? Are Honda being pessimistic with their power figures or are they being ruthlessly optimistic or ruthlessly accurate?

[00:04:26]Well, I don't know. Um, so there luckily there is a dyno that it's strapped onto.

[00:04:30]We can find out. Someone's being burgled, so please ignore the noise out there. Um, so as far as predictions for this machine go, well, the lad Taylor guessed 83, he thinks Honda are right.

[00:04:42]It will make what they said. And despite the fact it's done 128,000 mi, we know mileage doesn't always play a part. The younger lad, he thought 79. He would didn't have as much faith in the H, the badge, he didn't think that it was going to do it. He thought 79. Um, me, I have no idea.

[00:05:26]Um, yeah, something's gone wrong there.

[00:05:28]Now, when you if you hear the dyno runs normally, you hear them kind of they start off low and then they bring the revs up and then the dyno starts biting and then we go and up we go. That one went like that.

[00:05:44]Now, initially the first thing I thought was, "Oh, it's my bloody dyno. My dino is uh playing up." Um, and that's why I kept my foot in.

[00:05:59]No, it's not that. Uh, the dyno is actually fine. Um, that was clutch slip.

[00:06:06]Clutch is slipping, but then started biting again. Uh, the, um, lady who owns it mentioned to me earlier on, she goes, "Oh, sometimes it just revs itself up, you know, for no reason when you're driving along."

[00:06:19]I for some I assume she meant when you're changing gears or if you're sat in traffic or something like that. I think what she means is it's the clutch is slipping. I think the revs are just coming up and then going again. Uh either slipping because of oil contamination or it's just worn out.

[00:06:35]Could be the original clutch. 130k could be the original clutch. Um the what this means is that dyno runs are not good for it. Um so really I shouldn't do another one. I might try doing another one higher up the rev range when the um I'll do one more. I'm not going to bother doing one from the back because obviously there's not really any noise to listen to, but I'll do one from inside, but we'll start it much higher up. I'll explain why later. But let's have a look at the graph because it did start biting. The graph is not going to be representative of what this engine's capable of doing. I think that engine is very healthy, but the graph when it did start biting around about 4,000. So, we should get some meaningful data above 4,000. Um, but I can smell the clutch now. So, um, and there is our meaningful data. So, this here is clutch slip.

[00:07:27]It suddenly started biting and then off it went. And it has to be said.

[00:07:34]It's done well. Torque. Oh, no, not 207 foot. That's at the wheel.

[00:07:40]92. So, it's supposed to be about 87, I think, and 83 horsepower. 84 horsepower.

[00:07:47]A little bit more torque, conducive what I see with other small economy cars um that that have done a few miles. Not crazy miles, but enough. That is a healthy engine. If it weren't for this confusing everything, I think that would have been quite a nice smooth graph.

[00:08:03]That's quite a shame. Yeah, you can see the torque here. So, this is where the clutch wasn't slipping, then it started slipping, then it bit again. So, if I do another run, I need to make sure that it's doing about 3 and a half thousand revs because then you've got you've got inertia then you've got momentum with the mechanics. But, um, bugger, that's annoying. Thought we were going to have a nice little run that you know, if it weren't for the slip clutch, that would have been a a really good little run. So, what I need to do is I would say I'm going to start the run.

[00:08:32]Normally, it starts at 30. I'm going to start it around about here at 60 60 65 just to get the last little bit just to make sure it does about this. Okay, so we are on board the jazz listening to some jazz. Well, we're not really. Um, so yes, basically when you do the dyno run, um, I can change the speed that the dyno starts recording at.

[00:08:56]I normally make it about 30 mph on a car of this kind of power and everything because it gives us a graph from the bottom of fourth gear effectively all the way to the top. I use fourth gear because it is the closest one to one ratio. While I'm here talking about gears, that is a nice gear change. Very snicy.

[00:09:14]Um, now the problem is that the torque the engine is producing um the torque is too much for the clutch. The clutch is letting go. Um, but when the uh revs are higher and the wheels are going faster, there is less there's more inertia, there's more momentum, there's less chance of the clutch slipping. Um, so I think we'll take it to 60 and it will bite there and we'll just do the last little bit just to see if the peak number is about the same. Our hopes of getting a good graph are gone.

[00:09:44]We're not going to get a good graph today, but who knows? Apparently, we're also doing 99 volts. So, that's um that's interesting, right? So, let's build her up.

[00:09:59]Do you know when I when I brought the car in, I thought, God, that clutch is soft.

[00:10:05]I feel a bit bad cuz I wouldn't have kept my foot in if I'd have known that it was clutch slip. It would seemed like it was dyno. And I've had more much more powerful cars on here recently. So, I thought, "Oh, have I got a setting wrong or something?

[00:10:19]So, normally it would be biting now, but we're not going to let it bite because that will stress the clutch out. So, I'm just going to gently bring it up higher.

[00:10:34]Now, it's starting to bite.

[00:10:36]Now, I'm flat out. Clutch isn't slipping. It's fine.

[00:10:47]It's going to be a weird ass graph, but it managed that one fine.

[00:10:52]Oh, this is a real shame that this thing is not healthy. Um, or the the clutch isn't because that engine is getting sweeter. This does tend to happen. You would with a naturally aspirated engine, little naturally aspirated engines, you tend to keep going and they tend to keep climbing up and then all of a sudden they stop and then they start coming down again. So, we are still in the ascendancy. There is a chance this thing would have hit 86 87. Uh it feels really sweet. Really really happy that engine.

[00:11:21]Um it's a shame that the uh Oh, left the lights on. It's a shame that the uh friction plate connected to it seems to be made of slush because um yeah, it would have done really well. Uh the graph is going to be a weird graph cuz it's going to start at 3,600.

[00:11:40]But yeah, that's given it that's basically given it less stress. If I overlay that on the other one, you'll see just how far out it is. So there's our two graphs. Um, pretty similar, but obviously it doesn't include this bit. It just comes in up here. So road speed or revs, it's either way. It's the same thing. So below 60 mph, fourth gear. Basically, she needs to drive this like a Honda. if she wants to look after her clutch and stop it from slipping until she gets it fixed, uh, drive it like a VTEC. Keep the revs high and keep the throttle load low. So, always a always a lower gear. Um, higher gear is going to stress the clutch out.

[00:12:16]That's a real shame, man. I really wanted to send them home with a Well, I can. The engine's great and the power figures are good. It will go on the website. It has good good figures. Um, but can't do a proper graph with it. And I'm going to kill the car if I keep trying. So, it's not even going to be three runs this time, just the two runs.

[00:12:33]Um, but there we go. Honda Jazz, the granny's no better.