Dying Throw Out Bearing...
 

Yeah!.... :bang: When my broke ass was a week behind schedule trying to turbo my car over Christmas break, I installed the ACT Extreme clutch I bought. Stock TOB looked fine with 145k miles on it at the time, as did the stock clutch and flywheel. Pilot bearing had a bit of wear, but nothing excessive. In my infinite wisdom I cheaped out and didn't replace either bearing. I mean after all, I knew I'd be pulling the motor 6 months from now anyways to put a built motor in.

Yesterday I noticed a new noise. All the tell-tale signs of a dying TOB. Let the clutch out, it's fine. (input shaft and PP are turning same speed, so TOB isn't spinning or doing anything). Push the on the clutch pedal as to apply some pressure to the PP with the TOB and no noise (PP and input shaft still turning same speed, slight load on TOB). Start pushing the clutch pedal in and have a good load on the PP, but still haven't disengaged the cltuch completely and no noise (PP and input shaft still turning same speed, full load on TOB). Then I get that last 1" of pedal travel down where it finally fully disengages the clutch disk from the PP and flywheel (TOB is now spinning and under full load)....

And it makes that noise that TOB's make when they're going out. Spin-hiss-hiss-sckrrrrrr all mixed together. I can feel the vibration in the clutch pedal when it happens and I can also feel it in the shifter when changing gears. Also note that if I put the shifter into 1st gear while having the clutch pedal disengaged, the noise is the worst (putting it in gear forces the clutch disk to stop spinning).

Woo hoo! Question: Think it will hold up for another 3k miles/through early May? Guess I'll stop holding the clutch fully disengaged when sitting at red lights from now on. But this kinda sucks. No way in hell I can fix this while at college. It's possible I could change it over spring break, which is early March. Might have to.

Note to self: Don't be a Jew.

Anytime I've heard TOB noise, its failed on my attempt to get home. However I was able to make a 40mile trip home after it failed, but it completely locked up when i finally pulled into the driveway :P

Describe "failed". If it locks up, I guess it just rubs against the PP? That wouldn't sound good. A friend of mine had a TOB go out on his civic, and he drove it like that for 2 months... Sounded terrible, but it never seized up.

http://boostedmiata.com/clutch/tob_failure001.jpg
http://boostedmiata.com/clutch/tob_failure002.jpg

yeah it caught against the PP.

In my altima I was driving with my wife, I pushed in the clutch and got a crazy whining noise and knew it was the TOB, by the time i used the clutch a few more times I simply lost the clutch engagement completely. I was able to get a few block further by rev matching.

but as long as your on a highway....

Ouch! That's crazy how it wore though. Was the PP crocked or something? Also was that a new or used bearing? OEM bearing? I'm hoping this one doesn't die that fast. If it does, I'm fucked. Have to get a bicycle or something...

i drove on one that made a good bit of noise in one of my old vw's for quite a while. although it doesn't seem like it was as bad as yours currently is.

i say continue rolling the dice. like you said if you're at school it's not like you can do anything about it anyway. i'd just try to bum rides if at all possible.

if not does your school have a parking garage? i did some work to my car a few times in one at my college. nothing as involved as pulling a trans, but if it does go i guess it'd be better than getting a tow.

I drove a first gen RX7 for 3 or 4 months with some pretty loud throw out and pilot bearing noise. When I gotthe bearing out eventually, they were stiff to the point I could barely turn them by hand, and you could feel the needle bearings inside the pilot bearing werent as round as they probably once were, and the throw out bearing was about the same, very catchy and hard to turn. Felt like it was full of gravel. It may have lasted anouther month or two, but I probably wouldnt risk it if I had to do it over.

Drove it to school again. It's a good 3 miles to school, and another 1/2 mile driving through campus to get to my parking zone. I managed 8 clutch engagements from home to school and 9 from school to home. Only using the clutch to get going from a roll, rev-matching to shift, rolled through a few stop signs, etc. This sucks. :)

My dad drove his old '83 Ford Ranger for almost a year with a bad TOB. lol.

Ouch.

Good luck man. Mine whines, but it was brand new 15k miles ago...clutch works fine though.

:) That reminds me of an old MKIII Supra turbo (that I should have had) that was given to a freind of my stepfather about 10 years ago. The T/O bearing failed and he drove it for several months without using the clutch. He would let it stall at lights and stop signs, then use the starter (with the clutch switch cut) to roll away and start the car. Was funny to watch him drive that way. Match shifting, letting the car stall and rolling to speed with the starter. :bowrofl:

Everyone told you to change it holmes. You know better.

I know. I've even told people on here to not be a dumbass and not change that shit while it's apart. I try to cut one corner during my build and this is what I get. Lesson learned. I guess I'll change it over spring break. Just hope it keeps on kick'n till then.

you don't have tools at school? No friends with tools? I would change it before you get stuck somewhere and have to get a tow.

I got tools basic hand tools, and a neighbor of mine has a floor jack and pavement. But to drop the trans. means I'd probably have to drop my exhaust, which I fitted and welded, and then welded two hangers right to the car. That all has to be cut/ground to be removed and then refit and welded. Overall it would be a bitch. If it fails completely I'll have to fix it though.

I wasn't aware of the exhaust. Maybe you can go to an exhaust shop and ask them to weld a flange in place so you can drop the tranny without messing with the exhaust too much.
I just would hate to get stuck somewhere when you have the resources to fix the problem.

I dropped my transmission with the exhaust still in the car. I did remove the down pipe (two-piece BEGI) but otherwise it was OK.

Also I am not sure how your car is, but on my '99, when I removed the diff, I was able to drop the entire exhaust, from the downpipe exit flange back, in one piece. All I had to do was remove the tubular bracing that attaches to the frame in the diff area.

May I ask why you welded your transmission into a tomb with exhaust hangers? Maybe it ill be ok till spring, but Id hate to see it lock up on you. Could make for a very bad time.

WHY DID YOU CHANGE IT WHILE IT WAS OFF!!! You give me shit for my stupidity during my build, and here you are no better that I. :bang: I learned the t/o bearing lesson too though, which is why I will never do it again. Its a $50 part, no reason to cheap out there, especially being as hard as it is to get to.