Just wanted to give an FYI. My 2011 6 speed had the clutch throwout bearing go out a few weeks ago at around 86,000 miles.
Symptom was loud whining when the I started the car that stopped when I pushed the clutch in. That's the standard signal for the throwout bearing.
Took it to Six Star Service in Decatur GA. When I walked in about 20 minutes after they closed, one of the shop guys was working on his Lancia Delta Integrale. That's all I needed to see to be completely comfortable having my car worked on there. They're real car guys.
They pulled the clutch, confirmed the bad throwout bearing and recommended that I go ahead and replace the clutch parts too since I was at about 20% useful life left. I got a chance to feel the bearing afterwards, I couldn't move it at all with my hands.
Cost for a new clutch at 86k, $1100. That's about how much I saved over the CVT in the first place. Confidence that I'm good to go for another 100K while getting to row my own gears....priceless.
My bearing went out on my '10 at 110k miles. Clutch was still good, but since I pulled the tranny out I was replacing everything, no sense in doing it again. Car now has 131k miles on it.
The best way I could describe the bear was a coffee grinder full of glass, sand, and a little mud for good measure.
How difficult was the job? (I've done big ol Chevy's, including engine rebuilds, so, I am mechanically inclined and all, but these new cars are a bit different)
I had to change this out fairly soon too. Mine was making the same noise but Subaru kept telling me it was something else. After going through my paper work I found the Throwout bearing is covered under the warranty. Luckily after they took the clutch apart twice they honored the warranty and I got my money back, though I walked in telling them what the problem was. I brought the car to my mechanic first to make sure he said it was the bearing
Just make sure you replace all the parts dont keep the plate. Mine in the 5spd 01 with lots of heavy towing and abusive commuting in Sanfrancisco started squealing at 140,000 clutch had 10% meat left on it. General rule if you can get 100k your doing ok. If your burning up clutch parts 40k 80k you would do better with the Auto.
We got a CVT Subaru when we replaced the 01. Big reason wanted a limited and the throttle nanny on the new Manuals was something wicked bad. SF hills and towing a boat with the throttle nanny giving you marginal throttle response made it a no go. The 01 would give you instant power and just go!!!! The 2010 would lugg and chugg even when empty for a car length or two then the nanny would approve power request and bingo all of a sudden you had throttle response. HA!!!
I'll throw my 2 cents into the conversation. The throw-out bearing in my 2010 6MT is beginning to be audible when the pedal is depressed. Sounds like a dry bearing. 86K miles, about half of which are long-distance highway miles. Having driven manuals for most of my 40 years of driving, bearing noise at this point seems like an early soon-to-be failure of the part.
One observation is that there doesn't seem to be enough throw in the clutch pedal before the bearing engages the pressure plate. The bearing engages with just the smallest of movement of the pedal. I'm wondering if the bearing spins somewhat even when the pedal is up. I would prefer a little more breathing room in there...
yes, gen 3 sorry about that but applicable to multiple subaru MT builds, thanks.
Scheduled a new clutch kit replacement for next week, 2007 5MT w/ 103k. Throwout bearing has been noisy in cold weather and decided to proactively replace clutch to prevent more problems. Have been driving manuals for years and for example routinely drove some hondas and acura manuals to 150-180k miles on original clutch. Point is I try to make the clutch last.
I believe 100k miles to be too early for a clutch to be failing but looking around at various forums it seems apparent from approx 2005 on subaru manuals from outbacks to foresters to wrx are routinely seeing clutch failures early and in fact perhaps 100k is the new 150k of old? Most subaru failures seem due to poor throw out bearings. WRX forums are littered with new clutch kits jobs that start squealing again within months.
So my questions is should I go with the OEM exedy kit or anybody advise another comparable oem clutch kit? Is the throw bearing issue a design flaw? Going to have the indy shop replace everything and they said exedy was a good kit.
thanks
I think Exidy is same as OEM cant recall but pretty sure they were one in the same.
Pedal range has always been short throw with subaru. Its one of the nice retained Rally ish heritage things Subaru has tried to keep.
That bearing will wear faster if you hold the pedal down at stop lights and touch the pedal for anything more than on or off clutch. A good friend and respected drag car builder managed a local Subaru shop during the new dealer start up as a favor. He said that if he put a number on todays Manuals and those being operated correctly it would be less than 10%. He said WRX drivers he would put money on it that only 1% know how to propperly drive a manual. The two years he manage that shop he said every MT that came in with 90k and less much much less miles all had torched plates and cooked clutches. He said most of those no joke were between 18,000 and 50,000 miles. He said about once every two months they would see a 24,000 mile or less fried clutch on a brand new car.
His drag car builder employee at his own shop who works at a local GM dealer said that they see the same trend at their dealer too. The gear heads and shop guys all seem to agree its two things, our heavy stop and go traffic paired with MT skills that are a lost tallent and skill today.
Speaking of which I sat behind a Forester last week driving home from SF the driver was dragging the clutch to control speed. You should have seen the smoke rolling off the transmission! It reached a point that other drivers were switching lanes to get some distance from him. Watching the guy maybe in his 40s it was clear he had no idea what he was doing to his car.
20 years ago MTs were not uncommon but currently the pool on MT drivers is quite low and dropping-- think driver behavior affects clutch life and the wrx crowd does drive hard. I tend to drive easy, always n at stops, etc. The environment around here is very harsh though and 10 winters on the car so far. Today it is warmer and the bearing is much quieter, and if temps go above 50 I do not hear it at all. The pedal itself feels like it could go another 10-20k but the goal is to go another 10 winters so no reason not to replace it on Monday. Do not want to find out what happens if/when the tob goes but will report back post swap on old parts condition.
I think I have suddenly developed a bad throwout bearing. It started last night a routine short trip. When I was coming home clutch was erratic. Sometime is had very little resistance to the floor, then it was "grabby" when I pressed it, also it was also catching in different spots.
I drove to work today which may have not been smart, but now it feels and catches correct but I get squealing when fully depressed and sometimes a light squeal with foot off of it.
1st question is, does this sound like an adjustment issue or throwout bearing?
2nd question is, I'm at 62,2xx miles. One post in the thread says its covered under warranty. Any chance Subaru would help? based on CVT thread, i'm hoping.
I think that this failure at 62,000 is very premature. While I haven't owned the car since new, but have had it for 2 years and driven ~25k miles on it. I have driven a stick for most of my cars and don't driven an Outback like its a WRX. Have had cars with 150,xxx mile on original clutches.
Sounds more like a worn out clutch plate. Early for failure, but first owner may have abused it. Maybe bearing too, but a bad bearing wouldn't cause all those symptoms.
So mine was the throw out bearing. They test drove it to determine that, which was confirmation what I already assumed. I called Subaru and waited a couple days for them to get back to me. They issued a $500 credit towards the ~$1800 repair. This included the bearing, the clutch parts, and the flywheel. I was really surprised to see the $380 flywheel on the bill. It this typical to replace, it didn't think this was a "wear" item and would just be pulled cleaned up, maybe resurfaced, and reinstalled. I do have the old parts but haven't thoroughly inspected them but the clutch and flywheel don't show obvious wear. The throw out bearing is completely shot.
I am very disappointed about the amount of the goodwill credit. To have a $50 part fail 2900 miles after the warranty expires is not acceptable. The whole reason I got a manual was to have a more reliable cheaper to fix car.
The T/O bearing on my 2010 6MT started making noise at 85K, and 1K miles later it quit. We're experienced MT drivers and know not to spin the bearing unless you need to shift. First, if the T/O bearing starts to make noise when you depress the clutch pedal, attend to it right away. You could find yourself with an inop car on the side of the road. My dealer (the only one I've ever liked) replaced everything but the flywheel. $1,900. They have a mill to resurface flywheels and that's what they did. What is nice now is that there's just a little bit more free travel in the clutch pedal before the T/O bearing engages the pressure plate. Maybe this one will last longer. Hope this helps.
Wow, I did mine last year at the dealership for $1,185 or so. I'm swapping it with a higher end clutch that can handle mashing it in the sand next year, and (just last month) they quoted me "about" $750 for labor plus the parts I bring them (about $750).
Not sure why other dealerships are charging sooo much.
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