Not too long ago a blew apart 4th gear in my trans. It also took out a chunk of the case sending bits of case and gear splines into the bell housing. The car was still driveable and the clutch felt fine for the short duration I drove it after that. I was in the process of cleaning up the clutch, clutch plate and flywheel when I noticed a small chunk, ~1/32" deep taken out of the flywheel:



And zoomed out:


The clutch and flywheel only have 30k miles on them, but I think the flywheel might be done. The clutch and clutch plate look fine though:

 

I realize it's tough to see what I am talking about. Here's the two flywheel images with an arrow pointing to it:

 

I don't think that's because of the 4th gear explosion (I'm not sure if that's what you're thinking, but that's how I read it). The pressure plate makes a pretty effective dome over the flywheel, and when disengaged, the clutch is like millimeters away from the contact surface.

I'd bet it might be a manufacturing defect and my thought would be that it's okay, as long as there aren't sharp edges that'll tear your clutch plate apart. But that's just a guess (albeit, an fairly educated one).

 

I didn't think that it could be a manufacturing defect but I pulled up pictures of the flywheel back when I bought it and installed it and it's there! Wow, so I'll just re-install the clutch at this point. Thanks!