Originally Posted by Carlanga

alright guys, this is my clutch. First of all, I baby the cr@p out of my car. I have seen soo many drive axle stories (including Ace), that shaving a tenth off of the 1/4 wasn't even worth it for me. To be more specific about mileage, it had about 6450 miles on it. The clutch started acting funny the during the first month after install. While engaging the clutch at low rpm in first, second and reverse, the drive train would start to shake up a bit. For example; whenever I was going in reverse, normally I don't let the clutch out completely if I'm just moving a couple of feet. The idea it to feather it just a bit to get it moving and that's when it would act weird, almost as if it would grab, lose, grab, lose, and so on, it was kinda weird.

Last week the car started to make some noise at idle, I though it was the throw-out bearing and tried to lube it up a bit with grease. It did go away for about a day and then it came back. Lube it again and went to work, after I got out of work not even 5 miles into my trip back home I couldn't get the car to shift into any gear. At this point I'm like, WTH is going on? Finally got the car to shift and drove it in second gear to the nearest auto parts to get some lithium grease. Sprayed that puppy up and it worked again, at this point I didn't even know what to think.

That afternoon I drove the car to several places, on the last one the car gave up on me and had to drive about 6 miles of stop and go traffic in second gear (thank God I did the oil change that morning). That evening I tried lubing it again and drove around my neighborhood to see if it worked, luckily it did work. Problem was that every time I decelerated in any gear, once I pressed the clutch to change gear I would have some restriction on the pedal and it wouldn't shift. If I shifted while in acceleration, it would work. :O Yeah, really confused at this point. At this point the clutch is making a faint bearing noise, like something was loose.

Once Chris and I dropped the tranny, we found out that the throw-out bearing wasn't as bad as we though it would. It had some minimal play on it, which I don't even know if it is supposed to have at some after a couple thousand miles. I don't remember the stock one having any type of play. Once I unbolted the pressure plate one of the big spring fell on my damn face, and the little one was stock in between the clutch disk and the pressure plate. I guess that's the reason it wasn't going anywhere.

My question is: why did it work every time I sprayed the throw-out bearing with grease? Is it possible that I had both problems at the same time, just one worst than the other and it finally gave up?

What ya guys think?

Originally Posted by B_Real45

Don,

Which method of pedal adjustment do you recommend? There's the modifying of the pedal or installing a longer push rod.

Originally Posted by DezodDon

Also you should use the stock OEM throw out bearing, the CC one sucks and they will be including the OEM one with clutch sets from now on.

Originally Posted by DezodDon

You should never try to grease a throw out bearing with spray lithium. That is possibly the worst idea I have ever heard and could lead to early clutch failure from contamination from greases.

That said, the springs should not fall out of the disc. That is from shatter which is caused by the clutch not disengaging 100%. You said you felt this when in first/reverse and creeping. If the pedal was not adjusted when you replaced the clutch this would cause the clutch to not disengage properly and stay semi engaged. Also if you used too much grease on the input shaft splines this could also cause a chatter issue from contamination.

Chatter is the cause of this failure. The friction material was doing it's job it just seems like it wasn't fully disengaging.

Replace clutch, bleed hydraulic system, adjust pedal. These are steps every clutch job should entail especially if you are installing an aftermarket clutch with a stiffer pressure plate. The stock hydraulics of the TC and many other cars often times cannot handle the higher demands of aftermarket clutches without causing issues.

I personally like Exedy. That's it.

Also you should use the stock OEM throw out bearing, the CC one sucks and they will be including the OEM one with clutch sets from now on.

Originally Posted by DezodDon

If people follow this I think that most of the clutch issues we see on this board will disappear.

Originally Posted by TCpete

since when 4 days ago?? i thought they handled all their r&d already on the throw out bearing months ago after they figured out their first batches were garbage... what a shocker... because of that.. i now have to buy a new clutch fork and OEM TOB because my fried itself to death.

Originally Posted by TCpete

and what about those of us who did follow the rules to the T and bled the clutch and did the correct adjustments... you can't blame install error all the time on people... ive blow 2 stag 4s in less then 1 year... both lasted me 1k miles before problems surfaced... and both failures were because 1. the disc being garbage, 2. the throw out bearing being garbage.. even after the supposed update was made....

you cant always blame the end user... the OManf. has to step and say ok we messed up we put out a garbage product TWICE and still couldnt get it right.

and this is not only with the scion community but honda and nissan also....

Originally Posted by crush02342002

the reason he sprayed grease in it was the clutch wouldnt release at all so we assumed it was the tob was trashed already and he was just trying to get home....you do what you gotta do when you on the side of the road.

Originally Posted by DezodDon

I am not sure when they are including the new throw out bearing. The last i knew they were still using the old design. Let me call my rep at CC.......

Just got off the phone with him. He states that they have been shipping them with the OEM throw out bearing for about 3 weeks or so.

JUst to clarify the wear issues exist even with a factory clutch. They are in essence a wear item. The problem shows itself when a heavier clutch is installed. The stock pressure plate is weak and takes only the designed amount of force to move it. The heavier ones require more and if there are any weak points in the system now is when they will be exposed.

THIS PROBLEM IS DUE TO NORMAL WEAR. If it is occurring at all on the Scions. This is just a theory at this point and not confirmed but again alot of other cars experience this same problem.

Originally Posted by DezodDon

I was in no way blaming you or anyone. If you re-read my original post I said I prefer Exedy ;)



Agreed and understandable. I was more or less saying that things like this can cause issues. Also the blueing would be from heat and if he was seeing heat like that and still has pad life left I'm going to go with clutch chattering.

You guys gotta realize that I am on this board to help people not argue Simma down na!