That's odd, because I was under the impression that the TRD "performance" clutch was nothing but a thicker OEM pad. AFAIK it still uses regular organic stuff... no "high performance" materials like kevlar composites or such. I think it engages sooner since its a thicker clutch, and can probably can more abuse because of that.

 

Ok, so the problem is fixed. It ended up being the master clutch cylinder. The extra pressure from the TRD performance clutch was the cause. I'm a little nervous too because the clutch was installed in June '06. I hope this won't be a recurring problem or else I'm going to have to ditch the TRD and go to stock.

The repair took so long because I had been waiting on a friend to check it out. He wasn't reliable, so I drove (in another car) to Torrance Toyota for some suggestions. One of their head mechanics, after listening to my problem, suggested it was more than likely something in the transmission and that they'd have to remove the whole tranny and inspect it. Said to expect at least 8 hours work, plus parts, so probably near $1,000. Yikes. He asked me if I checked the fluid levels and I replied that I did check the master cylinder. He asked, "both?" to which i replied, "well, i could only see one, the big one". So he told me, no, there are two. the master which has the fluid for the brakes and one that has for the clutch. Even though they both run off the same. So we walked over to a tC, popped the hood and he looked around. After he couldn't physically see the one he was referring to he said, "wow, that's odd. i thought it was right here, right by the firewall. maybe it's back behind here (pointing to the cover by the wipers)". That had me a little worried since I figured a Toyota mechanic would know exactly where everything is. Armed with that, I called Mazda Nissan Import Service in Torrance. When I had my '93 RX-7, Jose Silva did a lot of good work for me and charged honest prices. I figured a mechanic, even if his shop is "mazda nissan", will know any car. Jose told me immediately that it sounded like the master or slave clutch cylinder. I had it towed over there and he shook my hand and said, don't worry, we'll take care of it. Simple job. He laughed too when I told him about Torrance Toyota. Now maybe they'd have found the same thing, but to talk about pulling the whole transmission scared me. The only thing that kept this from being a same day job was the fact that since these shouldn't blow out so quickly, nobody had them in stock. He got the master cylinder today and replaced that. We're still waiting on the slave. He told me that it works fine, though, so obviously that was the problem. But as per standard, you replace both just in case the slave is nearing problem status too. So that'll be done tomorrow. I'm driving the car now until. The cost...$300 for parts and labor. Nice deal. I would have paid over $170 for the parts alone through Toyota. I had him bolt on my TRD sway bar too, which had been laying around here waiting for me to try to put it on.

So for anyone who has the TRD Performance Clutch or any aftermarket clutch, if your pedal starts to feel different, starts to grab a lot lower than normal or gets stuck halfway when you let off to bring it back up, you have about a week until it goes out completely. Then you know what to do....

Thanks again to everyone with your suggestions.

 

Thanks for the update, glad it worked out for oyu.

That's odd that Toyota would offer another clutch option that would accelerate wear on other essential components to an unacceptable degree.

 

Glad to hear you finally figured it out. $300 is a lot better than $1000, but that's still about $250 labor for a simple job.

 

i have the same problem basically. my clutch keeps on getting stuck to the floor and it seems when i acceleerate it goes down more. My clutch is going as well so thats why i thought it was the clutch at first but after talking to a few people and reading this its proally this. Can you tell me what parts were ordered ? Like part #'s??

 

I can't give part numbers, sorry, I didn't "order" them. It was just the master clutch cylinder. My mechanic replaced that and the slave clutch cylinder together. Don't go to Toyota! They will rip you off. It's not a difficult job for a mechanic. Just let them know the problem and tell 'em you're pretty sure that's what it is. Any decent mechanic will confirm that. Toyota wanted to pull my whole tranny. $1200 just for that....____ers. Avoid!

 

hmmm wow. but are your symptoms like mine ???

basically this morning i stopped and the pedal wouldnt come up. so i had to force it up and pull it to get moving again. it happens often now and sometimes when i slightly touch the pedal to go into gear the pedal goes down by its self.

 

that's exactly how mine was right before it was done. I stepped down on the clutch at first and it just pulled to the floor. I had to get out and pull it back up. I waited a bit with the car off, trying to figure out what it was. Started it up, everything seemed fine. 10 mins later, there it was again. pulled over, shut it off, tried again 30 mins later. all was good. drove a little further until it happened again. it was done after that.

your problems sound exactly like what i had.

 

Gotcha so to be safe just replace everything ? Master cylinder, slave, and hydorlic lines and the flex hose????

Is there any aftermarket beefier version of them ?

 

i don't know about the lines or flex hose. again, my mechanic did it. i thought he just ordered the master and slave cylinders.

i asked if there is a tougher version and as far as i can recall, i don't think he found anything.

 

Ahh gotcha, well i asked my local peoples as wel as TRD sparks both said bubble or condensation in the line maybe a possibility so they would check that first.