Best quality throwout bearing?
 

So, at only 59,000 miles the throwout bearing on my FR-S is going out. Planning to drop the tranny soon and replace the entire clutch while I'm in there. Just wondering, are there any better quality TOB's available than the OEM one? I don't want to deal with this again for a long time, so I want to use the best one I can find.

^^^ Bump. I'm interested in this as well. I can hear my TOB making a noise when the clutch is engaged (pedal not depressed). It's a light whirring noise which doesn't sound alarming and is barely audible... but I bet its a sign of things to come.

I'm not sure any kit comes with a 'better' throw out bearing as they all look like OEM replacements.

If anyone knows of a better option regarding that part let us know!

You can try SKF N4111.

Have you used this part? Is it any better?

I recommended a friend of mine with that when he was replacing his clutch. No issue yet. I used to work in the Marine industry and SKF make good bearings.

Might as well add a Velox billet clutch fork to make it last even longer

And their pivot.

Billet fork and pivot is a must. Last week I bend my fork and caused gear lockout. Im running an extreme pressure plate from ACT and it was tomuch for the factory fork to handle.

Pauter rods are on order so the engines coming out anyhoot. I wish i didnt have to order from 5 different parts vendors to complete this build.

The stock throw out bearing is an NTN which is a quality Japanese brand. SKF is a good Swedish brand. Both are quality brands so you can't say one will be better than the other on brand alone. It may be the bearing is under designed for our cars. What is it that actually fails on the bearing?

I sell bearings for a living.

EDIT: With a bit of searching it seems a lot of Subaru throw out bearings have the same ID and running surface diameter. It may be possible to mod a WRX or even STi bearing to suit our set up. It will depend on the fork as those bearings seem to be wider.

My stock TOB failed at 59k miles. I ended up just replacing it with the TOB that comes with the Exedy OEM clutch kit. I would have preferred an SKF bearing, but didn't have time to wait. Hopefully this one lasts longer.

Pauter rods? Engine trouble or is it time just time to crank the boost up.

I'll be putting in my 3rd TOB in the next week, along with the Velox fork and pivot. My last TOB was squealing after only a few thousand miles with a new clutch. I believe for those of us that have aftermarket clutches (I have an ACT Xtreme), if you don't have a stronger fork, the OEM at minimum, bends - putting uneven pressure on the bearing. Just my thoughts...

Been running an ACT 6 puck the past 2 years with considerable track use. TOB started to squeal last month and I replaced it with an oem unit along with the Velox billet fork and pivot. Ordered a new friction disk once I saw how much wear was showing as well. Got it back on the street today and the difference in pedal feel really surprised me. Overall shifting is so improved I feel like it's a different car.