"I've never seen a throw out bearing completely melt down like that" -my mechanic
Just wanted to share my experience with you here in case someone else runs into this issue.
Background
This is my first full time manual car. Daily driven track oriented build I would consider my driving style moderate-aggressive. Have had 3 trackdays and two Auto-x sessions. Put on about 42,000+ miles at the point of failure in 18 months.
Symptom
Its started as a weird noise every time I pressed down the clutch. I would describe the sound as water running through copper pipping I've also heard it compared to marbles rolling around in a can. I've read about other owners her who've had the same issue but like me it would come and go.
Failure
Was at a red light and went to take off but when I released the clutch something was wrong, as the car could barely move and there was a smell of something burning. I pull over into a neighborhood and get towed to the closest Toyota dealership (FYI the Toyota road side will only tow you to a dealership/service to have your car serviced). I had to sign of on a $130 inspection fee, and the service rep assured me that if this was a warranty issue that i would not have to pay a dime. Hoped in a 35$ a day rental and was on my way to work while I waited to hear back from them. They kept me updated and let me know exactly when my car was being next in queue and when it was being expected. Then I got the call i was waiting for. Techs think its the clutch, so repairs will not be covered under warranty. They ask me to approve an $800 tear down to further troubleshoot, which would go towards the final cost of the repair which was quoted at $1600 - $2000!!!
Thanks, but no Thanks
I told them I'll need to think about that since that's alot of money to pay outta pocket. The service rep tried really hard to get me to approve the tear down, I even got a follow up call from his manager who tried to tell me all the benefits of having a Toyota service center doing the repair, they have all the experience, warranty, quality, etc. Ultimately since I'd be paying out of pocket I had to decline the service and go to an independent shop to get my repairs. I just couldn't justify dropping that kind of cash for OEM parts...
We can Rebuild, We Have the Technology
During the time when I was thinking about it, I called around to local shops to get quotes for the repair. Evasive Motorsports list a clutch labor for $400 and some of the other places I called quoted the $400-600. My mechanic fixed it for less then these places even, and they have had lots of experience working on other Subie trannies, so i felt good about going to them. I'm going to have to give him a shameless plug for fixing me up, Check out their 4.5 star Yelp reviews:
HERE
I checked around an OEM replacement oddly the OEM replacement clutch kit from Exedy was a little over $600 while a Stage 1 Exedy clutch kit with LW flywhell was $400 shipped. The choice was easy, go big or go home...
When my mechanic got in there he told me that the throw out bearing was completely melted. While the clutch, pressure plate and fly wheel were completely intact. I considered leaving them installed, but he was going to charge me the same amount in labor anyways, so I had him install the full clutch kit, and going to hold onto my OEM stuff.
Melted all the roller bearings, the housing is still intact
Flywheel is in pretty good shape
To my surprise the clutch is in pretty good shape
Pressure plate with all its teeth
So the lesson I learned here was lay off the clutch!
I had a bad habit of holding down the clutch at lights and leaving the car in first, that will wear your throw out bearing prematurely. If you "ride" your clutch or do a lot of hard launches all of this will wear out your clutch and parts. If you hear the same noise, water through pipes or marbles rolling around in a can, you should take your car in to get it inspected. Maybe you'll be luckier then me and get it repaired under warranty if you catch it early enough.
Thanks for reading!
