clutch Engagement Issue?
 

Hey guys, so after roughly 800-900km I started slowly having this issue.
its been more present last few drives and after a 300km in the mountains its a lot noticeable.

when coasting in any gear and applying throttle its like theres play in the tranny and it makes somewhat of a clunking sound and you can slightly feel it as well. However the problem is still there when clutching in and releasing in neutral.
If i clutch in and release you can feel the engagement between clutch and flywheel, well i guess i should say you can hear it, only time you feel it is when coasting in gear or shifting and you feel a slight jerk, initially i thought there was play in the drive shaft but ive looked over that and its fine.'also ruled out the differential as the problem is present when parked.

in my mind some of this makes sense as the transmission is not spinning with out the clutch engaged, however at the same time it just doesn't feel right.

has anyone else noticed this? I was a mechanic for 6 1/2 years and I fully understand mechanical aspect. Still every car is different and before i take it back to deal just want to confirm its just me and not just something this car does. Really its tempting for me to throw the car on the lift and start trouble shooting but since i no longer work at the shop its not that easy and i haven't had the time, Im going to swing by tmr after work to fully check for mechanical failure and fluid levels but the symptom based on my experience seems internal(as in inside the transmission/clutch) rather than a failed external part.

I have a brief video of my car (cold start) with me engaging and disengaging the clutch, you can clearly hear the sound im speaking of.

let me know what you think!

cheers

http://youtu.be/6rYKte0ll28

P.S you can see it drop the idle down as well, and problem is still present even after the cars completely warm. ( after a long drive)
the clutch was babied during break in, I still have not launched the car in any way, but have WOT burned threw 1-4 gears

I've heard a similar clunk in my car but I only hear it when I'm at a dead stop and I'm kicking the clutch. But the car drives fine and I've heard similar noises in other cars so I've just ignored it.

I'm no mechanic but that's a bit of a concerning sound, to me.

Doesn't sound right to me, but also not a mechanic.

There's a noticeable clunk when putting the tranny in 1st or 2nd at low speeds/stopped. It's been commented on before as simply the momentum of a moving part coming to a sudden stop. I'm not sure of the terms or specific parts as I'm actually not very knowledgeable about how transmissions work but after reading the explanation I was able to visualize what was occurring. It causes not damage and I'm not worried about it. As a matter of fact I actually find it somewhat reassuring to hear/feel the gear engage.

This may not be what you are experiencing. I don't think I've felt or heard this when the vehicle is really moving.

My car does not do this.

I just hate taking my car to dealerships, you never know how experienced the tech will be, the more ive thought about it the more I realize its not normal. I get the feeling there wasn't enough tranny fluid. it does drive fine when going. luckily I have a buddy thats a tech @ the dealership i bought my car from so he can at least tell me the straight truth to what they find.

again, if this car wasn't under warranty I would possibly have had the tranny off by now lol. Cant sleep knowing this problem is there. Top it all off I got a decent rock chip on the windshield and barley escaped a hail storm in the mountains this weekend.

It looks like he steps out of the car and pushes the clutch by hand...therefore not in gear, but neutral. It's thunking every time he presses the clutch. I heard a louder thunk pushing in, a lesser audible thunk lifting off the clutch

I've never heard of this noise from any car. If my car always makes this noise, I would get it checked ASAP.

Take it to the dealer ASAP. You could have a clutch fluid problem.

figure out what this is? pulled in the garage today with my windows down and notice i get a clicking sound when letting up the clutch in neutral. i know the thud sound putting it in first and its not that.

I watched your video and thought my car made some wierd noises, but I have not had anything like you are experiencing.

Take it to the dealer, and let the warranty have you be worry free.

i made a video of my car. it sounds exactly the same. it also does the rpm drop, but only when its at high idle from a cold start. drops maybe 50rpm...it does not seem to move the tach when the car is at warm idle.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMwnf0QeIS0"]2013 Subaru BRZ clutch click/clunk - YouTube[/ame]

I took it in last week, They went as far a ripping the tranny out and doing a full inspection on Clutch, flywheel and tranny. Everything seemed fine, diff was checked as well and drive shaft. so they gave me the car back and said take it back in a few weeks.

interesting info, Went over to a buddies shop and tested his 2010 STI, same sound when releasing clutch @ idle. thing is in my tranny I can feel that same clunk shifting to every gear. you and feel theres play in the tranny everytime the load comes off and is reapplied.

regardless my buddies a tech @ the dealer and hes been helping all tho he was not assigned the workorder. Chances are im getting a new tranny and will see if that was indeed the issue. If not than ill accept that its a subaru thing?

its funny cause the idea of it bothers me more than anything, if this does turn out to be a normal thing I would be fine with it, its not knowing what it could be that bugs me.

i havent had any issues(grinding gears, clutch slipping, etc...) ill mention it when i go for my first oil change unless something changes or gets worse. ive heard the noise in neutral, reverse and 1-2 shift. so i assume it does it all the time, but just cant be heard over the engine.

The transmission itself is Toyota's call and built by Aisin, I don't think it's a Subaru thing. As for the clutch, I am not sure.

I didn't know until I watched Lytheum's video.
I thought it was making noise on its own during idle without touching the clutch.
After I watched Lytheum's video, I tried pressing and releasing the clutch while at idle.
Mine makes the noise too and it's loud :o
I don't know if cars other than FR-S/BRZ makes this noise too, because I've never done this on any other cars.
I'm subscribing to this thread in case anyone find out any information about this noise.

The transmission is Aisin and it's a very close relative to the manual gearbox in the RWD 6MT used in the Lexus IS250. I drove a 2006 MT IS250 for two years, from brand new until 2008 (approx 35,000 miles). From my experience, I have heard VERY similar noises as described by the OP. I even had the infamous "jar of marbles" sound when shifting lower gears at slower speeds. I never had any mechanical problems with the IS MT clutch or tranny. I sold it to a work colleague and she and her husband drove it another 25k miles with no issues. I'm not saying you don't have an issue to be addressed, but I can say from my experiences the tranny and clutch did have a few quirky noises in my IS. BTW - I drove that IS hard and loved every minute of it.

That's the best description of the noise I've been talking about!
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8344
I updated my post :)

i never heard it till the weather cooled off and i had the windows down pulling into my garage. with windows up i cant it.

Update,

Im still experiencing issues,

Shifting from any gear to any gear 90% of the time, unless its a super delayed long clutch in, and I mean like much longer than it should for any car, you can feel there is slack/play.
best I can describe it is that it feels like it takes a full second for all the force to be reapplied to the gears and actually start applying power to the drive train, its only when load is let of and reapplied, EG: starting from dead stop, shifting gear to gear 1-6. coasting in gear and accelerating.

Dealer has asked me to continue driving it until it gets worse. Its increasingly harder to have smooth shifts in the car now. I went and took another FRS for a drive, there was no WOT and only normal driving, was able to endlessly shift gear to gear, down shift, coast and accelerate with NO ISSUES @ all.

the clutch engagement sound however is existent even on there brand new FRS.

anyone else notice what im dealing with?

I will most likely be getting a new tranny soon, I understand its not easy for a tech to make a call of replacing a tranny so soon. But im taking it back mid august and they will make the call than.

Bu-Tang:
That sucks. Mine definitely doesn't do that. If you can feel that much of difference between yours and demo car, then something must be wrong. I hope you get yours fixed.

I just scrolled straight to the bottom to answer this. Sorry if it has been answered already.

It's the differential. It's normal.

The mounts and/or bushings are probably not the best. Personally I like the sound..... Because Racecar :)
I have several friends with 240's and other cars similar to this that all make the diff clunk noise.

Edit: I watched the video: obviously not the diff lol. But our car does still make that noise in the diff, for manuals.

I have the knock noise when pressing the clutch pedal. It doesnt do it when the car is off. Im thinking it may be related to the throwout bearing.

I have also been having difficulty engaging first or second if I come to a stop. I have to almost force it into gear.

Thanks for posting this.. I'll have to listen for this, and the delayed clutch engagement issue when I go test drive a BRZ/FR-S..

Hope you get the problem resolved.

My car makes this sound as well but there doesn't seem to be any performance issues.

I'll keep an eye on this thread.

Okay I watched the vid. That's messed up. I get the diff clunk when I engage first or second at low speed or from a stop.. which is normal.

u driving it all wrong!!!

Subscribing. I'm hearing this problem on my BRZ as well. Kind of worries me that one day, after much changing gears and clutch use, the transmission will just fall apart in the middle of driving :(

In a weird way it sounds normal to me, OP. some of the issues your mentioning in your first post I can relate to in my own car (06 Solara 5MT) but the video later on, thats no exception. sounds normal but at the same time dosent sound right especially if it happens this soon.

Since this only appears to be happening when the engine is idling, what you're hearing most likely requires something to be spinning. To narrow it down, the clutch IS spinning, always, because it's attached to the engine; this is one possibility. When you engage/disengage it from the tranny, the only part it's affecting is the input shaft; the second possibility. Since the gears are helical, when one shaft turns it tries to corkscrew itself forward or backward against the mated gear. Since no gears are engaged in neutral, we may be hearing the near-instantaneous force of acceleration on the input shaft, and the drag caused by the thick tranny oil slowing it down quickly. Considering this car has had extreme efforts put into engineering it's transmission "feel", the noise may simply be a byproduct of the bushings or shifter linkages making a normal action become more audible.

I wouldn't necessarily suspect a throwout bearing I'd expect to feel and hear it pitching a fit with the pedal depressed.

When you move the clutch in/out more slowly (say 2sec in, 2sec out) does it still make the noise?

In mine, it makes a noise if you slowly depress the clutch. It isnt the same loud clunk though.

My car makes this noise as well, but I figured it was nothing more than the transmission not liking me trying to get it into gear with some residual speed on the clock. You know how it's been said that you shouldn't try to force a trans into a gear at a speed that exceeds the maximum of that gear (!)? Basically, that's what I figured was happening.

Lately, I've been letting the car come to a complete stop, and THEN sliding it into gear, but as my clutch use is getting smoother (As I'm getting used to the clutch take-up), I'm noticing less and less of the clunk.


Honestly, I wrote this off as a quirk of a RWD car, but if you guys are all having serious trans problems, I'm in for more info.

Just had to put my 0.02 in. I definitely hear that same clunk when I let my clutch out.
As far the clutch taking a second to be fully engaged, I also have experienced this slightly. Really neither issue was much concern to me, but please keep us updated.

Any new updates ? I have this also but I thought it was normal since the two manuals I test drove did this as well... Wrx/Sti's have this but not all the time

After reading posts and hearing same clicking when disengaging clutch idling I went to the dealer, they checked a brand new identical model and it made the same noise as mine!

Mines a little more server, as mentioned in my past posts I have play engaging initially in every gear, the most consistent is 5-6 gear under 3k rpm, you can feel the initial slack in the powertrain before it goes smooth, and also while coasting in gear and re accelerating, you can feel a good amount of slack, as if the main shaft in the tranny is a little loose, but however once it gets over that initial slack everything is fine, and under WOT or heavy load its fine, my dealer has forwarded the issue to Toyota Canada, awaiting response.

If anything what bugs me is it makes it very hard for smooth shifts when driving economically, again I went to the dealer and test drove there demo and I was able to drive it smoothly effortlessly, no matter how I drove and shifted it was smooth and effortless.

The sound I posted in the video no longer bothers me as it exist in every FRS/BRZ ive seen in person, seems to be a very normal thing, anyone share any symptoms I jsut talked about?
there is also a clunk sound when engaging every gear in my car too. Same clunk that you would hear popping it to first.

I'm not sure if this is something to be concerned about, but I am experiencing a *Clunk Clunk* when depressing the clutch at parking lot speeds. The sound is very predominant, especially in reverse gear. I would partially engage the clutch to get the car rolling (in reverse) then fully disengage the clutch, this is when the clunk clunk sound happens, and happens every time.

I have the clunking noise only when i go into first gear, but i read somewhere that if you do an oil change and change the tranny fluid it goes away so im not really worried about it

My condition is more of a double clunk, like something is snapping back under a spring load. I was getting this all morning while in stuck in stop and go traffic and on a slight incline. Get the car to creep a little, *Clunk Clunk* literally every time I pushed in the clutch.