Well I finally got around to replacing my whole clutch assembly. I ended up putting in a new clutch, flywheel, pressure plate, throwout bearing, and pilot bearing. The pilot bearing on the old flywheels was definitely shot and the throwout didn't look much better. They must have just done a really cheap clutch job like others mentioned... The car feels 200 times smoother now and is a joy to drive. Thank you everybody for your response.

 

My 2001 gt legacy 5spd with 140k on it started doing that when put in neutral and clutch let out in traffic. Thrust bearing or bushing was failing.

It's possible the PO had the local shop boys do a cheapie clutch job and they didn't replace the thrust bearing during the process.

But your description sounds exactly what mine sounded like. It eventually started to squeal like a stuck pig an I had the subaru dealer do the clutch job $1300 for all new parts no recycled junk. I had it back the next day.

 

Thanks for all the comments guys. I went to the place that installed the clutch previously and they claimed the noise was in the transmission and not the clutch, we seems like complete BS to me. I took it to a Subaru dealer immediately afterward and they are guessing it is the pilot bearing that is shot but they can't be completely sure. I'm probably going to just take out the transmission myself and make sure what is wrong in there. I will update this thread when I figure what it is for sure.

 

Yeah, that's what I was thinking.

Like I said, you never know what people will do or ask a shop to do to cheap out. Could be a new part was defective or the shop put something together wrong ... don't really know until you get in there.

Good luck, hopefully they'll back up their work. No reason for a clutch to go out in 3k .. even if you ride the damn thing all the time ;]

 

could be a siezed release bearing. It will also wear out the release lever. I have seen failed release levers posted on other boards.

 

It's kind of a whirring noise, but mostly a metal on metal scraping kind of sound. Definitely a very interesting sound. Kind of sounds like brakes when you don't have any pad material left at all...

Thanks for the ideas. I do have the name of the shop that did the clutch so I'm going to try and get in contact with them about it. Hopefully they can narrow down the problem a little more. It would be great if they could do it cheap, otherwise it looks like I have a weekend of fun ahead of me....

 

Not a big clutch guy but;

Is it making any whirring noises ? throwout bearing spinning ?

Does the clutch engage smoothly ? I know it's making a noise but, is it smooth ?

If the flywheel was resurfaced poorly or was wavy, you should have a pulse when you engage the clutch.

Any idea who did the clutch work ? If so, it might be worth stopping by and having them take a listen to it and tell you what the previous owner asked them to do on the clutch [substandard parts, reuse old parts etc]. Maybe they didn't resurface the flywheel when they did it.

Since you're the new owner and don't have any warranty with them, I don't see why they wouldn't tell you what was done. If it's a decent shop and they used all new parts and did everything as it should be, they might fix it or give you a deal on fixing it.