Clutch pedal loud squeak

[seant2h]

I had my throwout bearing replaced at the dealer at 88k miles on 2/4/2016 after a squeaky pedal turned into a howl. That dealer snapped off 2 or 3 bolts holding the underbody covers on and was kind enough to leave the threads in the holes for me too. I went back to them and pointed it out and they said that they would fix it at no cost. I am taking the stance of screw me once shame on you, screw me twice shame on me so I'm never going back there.

That brings me to 8 months and 18,000 miles later and my car now has that familiar squeaky pedal that I had for about 2 weeks before my bearing went last time. This Friday 10/7/16 my car is going to my longtime mechanic, an independent shop, and I hope he tells me that I just needed more grease on the pivot but I'm not feeling hopeful.

Does anyone know if the ACT TOB is more heavy duty than the OEM or if better options for TOB exist? I'm also wondering if there is some flex in the OEM arm even with the OEM clutch and PP and I should consider the velox billet piece with pivot because that $200 in parts is cheaper than paying someone to drop the transmission.

Originally Posted by seant2h

I commute 94 miles per day, mostly highway with about 0.5 miles on each end and below is what happened to mine after 88k miles. Also for anyone who says I don't know how to drive stick, I have had several manual cars in the past 18 years: two Hondas, one Hyundai, a Saturn and this car and I have driven this car less miles than any one of them and none of them have I ever replaced the clutch or TOB... Until today.

[Si_Chris]

Since there are numerous members in this thread that had their whole clutch assembly and throw out bearing replaced under warranty, and had the squeak noise eventually come back, can we come to the generalization that the squeak noise is indeed from the clutch fork pivot point?

[radroach]

Driving downhill on a mountain ~20-30 mph for a few miles, already can hear my TOB making grinding sound on deceleration, have about 10k miles on this one.

[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by Si_Chris

Since there are numerous members in this thread that had their whole clutch assembly and throw out bearing replaced under warranty, and had the squeak noise eventually come back, can we come to the generalization that the squeak noise is indeed from the clutch fork pivot point?

I keep insisting just that.

[SlammedSilly]

dealer only warrantied the TOB, and lubed up the clutch pedal assembly and slave cylinder.... squeak came back next day. im done with that dealership

[radroach]

Will the mods eventually fix the thread title lol? Clutch peddlers.

[seant2h]

Originally Posted by Si_Chris

Since there are numerous members in this thread that had their whole clutch assembly and throw out bearing replaced under warranty, and had the squeak noise eventually come back, can we come to the generalization that the squeak noise is indeed from the clutch fork pivot point?

To follow up on my noise issue and touch on yours....
I took my car to my mechanic who is an independent mechanic and he was able to lube the pivot with white lithium grease without removing the transmission and now the noise is gone and it feels much better. He said that it appears that nothing in there was lubed when assembled. I am no mechanic and thinking out loud and I'm wondering if the service manual calls for lubing the pivot and if not, could that possibly be a reason that so many TOBs are going bad? Maybe if the pivot point is binding then it's putting an undesirable force on the bearing causing it to fail prematurely.

The best part is that he charged me $46 and change for the service. The dealer would probably charge me more just to unlock the car and smell the tree hanging from my mirror.

[aegisdrgn]

Originally Posted by seant2h

To follow up on my noise issue and touch on yours....
I took my car to my mechanic who is an independent mechanic and he was able to lube the pivot with white lithium grease without removing the transmission and now the noise is gone and it feels much better. He said that it appears that nothing in there was lubed when assembled. I am no mechanic and thinking out loud and I'm wondering if the service manual calls for lubing the pivot and if not, could that possibly be a reason that so many TOBs are going bad? Maybe if the pivot point is binding then it's putting an undesirable force on the bearing causing it to fail prematurely.

The best part is that he charged me $46 and change for the service. The dealer would probably charge me more just to unlock the car and smell the tree hanging from my mirror.

The service manual does call for lube. They call the pivot the "release fork support"

[Si_Chris]

Originally Posted by seant2h

To follow up on my noise issue and touch on yours....
I took my car to my mechanic who is an independent mechanic and he was able to lube the pivot with white lithium grease without removing the transmission and now the noise is gone and it feels much better. He said that it appears that nothing in there was lubed when assembled. I am no mechanic and thinking out loud and I'm wondering if the service manual calls for lubing the pivot and if not, could that possibly be a reason that so many TOBs are going bad? Maybe if the pivot point is binding then it's putting an undesirable force on the bearing causing it to fail prematurely.

The best part is that he charged me $46 and change for the service. The dealer would probably charge me more just to unlock the car and smell the tree hanging from my mirror.

Good to know. I actually did this a couple weeks ago as I posted a few pages back. I unbolted the slave cylinder and moved it out of the way. I then pulled the rubber boot off surrounding the clutch fork, and applied hi-temp or wheel bearing/axle grease (had a tub of this stuff lying around) with my hands/finger. I also applied a dab of grease on the dimple where the slave cylinder rod presses on the clutch fork.

After a couple weeks, I sometimes hear a faint squeak only if it's hot outside. With the temperatures dropping, there is no audible squeak. After the car sits overnight, or for an extended period of time, there is no squeaking noise either.

However, the times where I do hear a faint squeak, I noticed it correlates with how fast you press the clutch pedal. Slow = squeak, fast = little to no squeak.

I guess I'll put a note in my maintenance schedule to check the pivot ball area every couple months and to re-grease it if needed.

[shellslinger]

Just wanted to share my experience @Si_Chris.

My clutch first started squeaking when I was at 22k miles and I brought in the dealership and they replaced the throw out bearing and associated parts. The noise went away and came back at 52k miles. At that point I decided to get a new clutch anyways, not that my old was bad but because I wanted a stiffer clutch. So I decided not to bring it into the dealership and lubed up the fork. The noise was still apparent for about 300 miles then the noise went away completely. I drove on that for about another 2k miles and the noise never came back after that. But I have since changed over to a new clutch and don't have that issue anymore.

So I'm just thinking its just going dry in which causes that squeak.

[Oxyg3n]

Since I'm too lazy to read too far back right now...sorry, it seems like most of the posts are talking about squeak from both the clutch and transmission.

Is this the same as my issue where there is audible AND feeling of the clutch pedal squeak as you let it out? It's really annoying me and it has started happening before my car even had 1000 miles. Doesn't seem to squeak right after I start up the car in the morning but within ~10, 20 uses of the clutch the problem starts.

[SLVRSRFR]

I wanted to read my way through this thread before asking, but 38 pages is just too much.

I think my TOB or something else in my clutch assembly gave out last night.

I have had some light squealing at idle on cold starts for a few days now (car running in neutral with the pedal not depressed and I can hear it from outside the car while I have my morning smoke), but nothing too crazy, and it would go away once the car warmed up.

Today I was pulling into a parking lot and accidentally let the clutch out too fast, lurching the car. Instantly there was tons of squealing from the clutch, and a big puff of smelly clutch-smoke coming from under the hood. I parked and shut it down. Opened the hood to vent the smoke.

Came back out of the grocery store and started it up again, and it was squealing just a bit at idle with the pedal out, accompanied by a bit of a mechanical rattling sound, but it squeals non-stop with the pedal in. Driving seems fairly normal; there's no noise from the clutch at speed, and it doesn't feel like it's slipping at all if you step on it. But the engagement point feels slightly different now, and there's tons of noise every time you so much as rest your foot on the pedal.

I was testing it in my driveway after I got home, and there was about 3 or 4 times where I would push the clutch pedal in and the car would stall out completely. But it squeals loudly, non-stop, when the pedal is depressed. No sound with the pedal out.

TOB?

[Bushhy]

Originally Posted by SLVRSRFR

I wanted to read my way through this thread before asking, but 38 pages is just too much.

I think my TOB or something else in my clutch assembly gave out last night.

I have had some light squealing at idle on cold starts for a few days now (car running in neutral with the pedal not depressed and I can hear it from outside the car while I have my morning smoke), but nothing too crazy, and it would go away once the car warmed up.

Today I was pulling into a parking lot and accidentally let the clutch out too fast, lurching the car. Instantly there was tons of squealing from the clutch, and a big puff of smelly clutch-smoke coming from under the hood. I parked and shut it down. Opened the hood to vent the smoke.

Came back out of the grocery store and started it up again, and it was squealing just a bit at idle with the pedal out, accompanied by a bit of a mechanical rattling sound, but it squeals non-stop with the pedal in. Driving seems fairly normal; there's no noise from the clutch at speed, and it doesn't feel like it's slipping at all if you step on it. But the engagement point feels slightly different now, and there's tons of noise every time you so much as rest your foot on the pedal.

I was testing it in my driveway after I got home, and there was about 3 or 4 times where I would push the clutch pedal in and the car would stall out completely. But it squeals loudly, non-stop, when the pedal is depressed. No sound with the pedal out.

TOB?

Definitely a throw-out to me.

[SLVRSRFR]

I am thrilled to tell you guys that my throw-out bearing and pressure plate are BOTH being covered under warranty.

I cannot recommend my local Subaru dealer enough. I was terrified that I was looking at a $1000+ bill to replace the whole clutch. Turns out my clutch itself is perfectly fine, with 55% life left, and both items noted above are being covered in full.

I am beyond happy with this. Based on all the reading I've done about others who have suffered this affliction, I didn't think it would be covered, and was preparing myself for the worst.