Hey guys,
I just wanted to put a post out there about an issue I had recently, and a simple solution that fixed it. I had looked all over the internet and found a few threads on some other cars that had some good advice, but nothing with the twins.
TL;DR: Squeaking when clutch fully engaged, pedal fully out. Solution was to grease the clutch fork pivot ball.
About 2 weeks ago, a buddy and I tackled a clutch job on my BRZ. The overall process went well, besides just taking a long time. However, after doing the clutch job, the car developed a noise. It was a squealing sound similar to the dreaded TOB high pitched squeaking (but a lot louder than the crickets), however, this was only when the clutch pedal was all the way out and the TOB was not touching the diaphragm spring. It was louder when I was in gear, but still happened in neutral. The instant I put any pressure on the clutch pedal, the noise would vanish. As I started getting familiar with the noise, when it happened, what things I could do to stop it from happening. I began thinking that the TOB was inadvertently touching the diaphragm spring or something of the sort or was somehow bad even though brand new. I did some searching around the internet, but for these cars, the TOB issue seems to be so prevalent that any searches of any of the keywords that i was using yielded results flooded with TOB issues and noises and not the types I was experiencing. I reached out to a friend with more mechanical knowledge than me for advice, @
xkalelx, and also Exedy.
Turns out that it was a lack of lubrication between the clutch pivot ball and the fork. When I replaced the TOB with the new clutch, I didn’t take the clutch fork out of the transmission, therefore not properly lubricating the pivot point.
To fix the issue without taking the transmission out of the car was actually not too hard. I began by unbolting the slave cylinder and taking the rubber boot off the fork. I noticed that I could move the top of the fork far enough to see the pivot ball. I then unhooked the heater hoses and moved them out of the way. Since they are pretty much the top of the cooling system, not much coolant was lost, but I still pugged the lines coming from the firewall for the meantime. Once they were out of the way, I was able to have full access to the clutch fork hole. I bought a tube of graphite molybdenum grease at Harbor Freight for $5 and used a long q-tip to dip in the grease and stick down and lather the ball with lube. I put everything back together and held my breath as I started it up. Viola! The squeak was gone!
The reply from Exedy in case this happens to anyone else in which lubricating the ball did not work:
Quote:
The noise you described is related to the clutch fork not the release bearing.
The common point to check for this type of noise is the clutch fork pivot ball socket. If the socket was not cleaned and then greased properly it will produce a chirping noise. If this is the case you will see red dust on the pivot ball and socket area on the fork.
Another very common issue we see is the clutch fork bending which will make the release bearing contact the diaphragm spring unevenly.
Also if the pivot ball retaining clip is bent of not positioned correctly it will also cause a noise.
Any of the above conditions will cause a chirping noise at idle that will go away with slight pedal pressure. This noise is caused from the fork moving slightly. The slight pressure applied (this removes the free space between the bearing and diaphragm spring) to the fork puts a slight load on the fork and stops the fork from moving/chaffing.
If the release bearing was the cause the noise would ONLY be present when the clutch pedal is depressed as this is when the bearing experiences the greatest load.
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I just wanted to put this out there to help anyone suffering from a similar symptom. This forum has helped me a lot through the years and I try to give back as much as I can.