TOB and Clutch deja vu at 110,000 miles
 

I'm at a bit of a crossroads as to what to do with the transmission. A bit of history: At 60K miles in 2017 I had the Clutch, flywheel, and throw out bearing replaced. I was having the typical TOB squeak, crunchy pedal feel, whirring noises at idle. I did hours of research on this thread, reading up on the TSB and the revised parts. I made sure to buy the OEM 2017 revised TOB, and picked up a new Exedy clutch kit and flywheel.

Now, I am at 110K miles and the problems have come back with a vengeance. It's as if the engagement point is impossible to hit. The clutch is either fully engaged or fully disengaged somewhere in the last 50% of pedal travel. I often over rev starting from a stop, and most shifts are jerky. The only chance at a smooth start is an extremely slow and controlled pedal release. The Exedy clutch has never been to my liking from day one either, there's a vibration that shakes the whole car from 1500-2000 RPM, and engagement was never as smooth as the OEM clutch/flywheel combo.

I doubt just replacing the TOB alone will make the car drive like before. If I have the transmission off, and given the mileage, I would like to replace the following:

Clutch and flywheel (OEM parts this time)
Throw Out Bearing
Bearing retainer cover
Clutch fork and pivot
Slave cylinder
Transmission mount
Shifter bushing

Will replacing these parts give me a smooth transmission feel at 110,000 miles? Has anyone gotten rid of the TOB issues for good? It's discouraging because it would cost nearly $1000 on parts alone. Having gone through this once already it feels like I am throwing good money after bad.

https://xcessivemanufacturing.com/to...hrb-ram-k.html

Something like this may help.

I remember seeing a thread where someone made a custom hydraulic throw out bearing setup specifically for the FT86 transmission. I don't know what ever came of it. I wonder what the long term reliability would be like.

Well, rustymuffler, that's got to be disappointing - :sigh:

Have you tried something simple and inexpensive - like adjusting the clutch and bleeding the clutch system?

If that don't do it, I'd suggest you replace the slave cylinder, to see if it's bad.

Good luck.

Looks like they ended up making it, but it’s currently sold out and I’m unsure if they’ll make more. I can’t imagine they made/sold too many, considering the $600 price tag.

Do you hear any noises when your clutch is fully pressed to the floor when you are sitting at a stop light?

Another part of interest to look at is the “snout” that the TOB sits on. I think it’s connected to the Transmission input shaft bearing, and if that’s out of whack that could cause TOB wear, but you’d hear it rattling around in neutral...

Good luck though, I’m at 155k miles and on my 2nd Exedy clutch. OEM lasted 70k until failure/explosion, and I replaced my replacement Exedy clutch at 130k because I was hearing noises and just didn’t want to deal with another failure. My current Exedy setup has the updated TOB and Verus clutch fork and things have been great so far.

Thanks for the advice I did actually go so far as to replace and bleed the slave cylinder last year, but that didn’t seem to make much of a difference.. that’s why I came back to thinking it was the throw out bearing

I don’t actually get any noise with the clutch fully pressed in, or fully out for that matter. The noise is the squeak while the clutch pedal is in motion. That and there’s a significant resistance pressing the pedal, and also a bit less noticeably so while releasing that corresponds with the squeak. I think maybe the snout got scored from the original bearing and the grease has worn off, because I did not replace that part the first time the transmission was dropped.

When you did the clutch did you also replace the flywheel? Would you say the Exedy clutch introduces a bit more vibration than the stock OEM clutch?

I have exactly the same problems as the OP. I bought my 2014 at 60k in November and now it's at about 65k and the 'revised' TOB has burned out already. The car came with the previous service records and the transmission got replaced at 40k. This must have been with the new TOB put in and it's already burned out. I am looking at SC-ing the car in the spring so I'm putting the exedy stage 1 clutch in ahead of time. I took the tranny out on Friday and the bearing is shot. Stock flywheel is staying in because it looked great. Quick sand and bolted it back up. The only thing I haven't done (or at least ordered) is the trans mount and slave cylinder

Even though my bearing failed after I took off from a stop sign, the snout wasn't damaged and I'm still using the original one. It can't hurt to replace it though as I know other users clearly needed to replace theirs.

When I first did the clutch I actually had the flywheel resurfaced. It cost me $80 to resurface when an exedy replacement flywheel was like $120, so I did that for my second replacement.

And yes I did notice the Exedy clutch having more vibration than the OEM clutch. I've recently learned it's really not the same quality as OEM, and I'll for sure be doing an OEM next time thanks to your thread haha.

Gitchie, gitchie, ya-ya, da-da. I'm on my 3rd TOB

:slap:

* shift faster

* skip gears

* learn to shift without the clutch

Bubba has spoke.

:D

This thread is getting me nervous. My TOB started making noises so I'm replacing it and the clutch/fw tomorrow. I want to avoid this for at least another 80-100k miles, so I bought an updated TOB, forged clutch fork, pivot, and bought a host of small items (OEM FW bolts, snout, springs, etc.) Not sure what else I can do to make this TOB last.

Pay attention!

* shift faster

* skip gears

* learn to shift without the clutch

:D

:bonk: So that's what I've been doing wrong lol.