So, I had posted a similar thread in BuffScoob, but I wanted to open this up here too…
Specs:2009 Subaru Legacy 5mt ~81k miles
Problem:I know for a fact either my slave or clutch master cyl is failing (or both)
symptoms: softer pedal feel, lower engagement indicative of most likely the slave failing internally or the master, although the slave is the more likely culprit. Intermittent. I get clean feel one shift, and terrible another… as this just popped up two days ago and has been manageable, but not something I can afford to milk along. I have all day sunday to swap out the slave/master.
My question is this: Along with the pedal feel and obvious imminent failure of said master or slave, I am getting ONE HELL OF A WHINE when the clutch is depressed, and an intermittent whine when the car is in neutral and no clutch engagement. Is this indicative of the slave failing and the whine is from failure to hold pressure, or am I also looking at potentially replacing my TOB(throw out bearing)… (and naturally the clutch while i’m in there)
Talk to me. I have been talking about moving away from this car for a while now, and this will either be the final kick to do so, or i’ll replace the failing cyl and milk it another 10-15k before (more) major maintenance pops up.
EDIT
No, there are NO visible leaks from the hard or soft line from the master to slave, and my resevoir levels are fine… indicating internal failure of one of the two… FYI
Talk to me about this (if you know.) Would this affect pedal feel? Part of the problem HAS to be one of the two CYL right? This fucking whine scares the shit out of me.
I really really really don’t want to go in and replace the clutch along with other components in there if I am just going to ditch this POS in another 6 months. I’ll just suck it up and move on now.
My gut tells me that the slave is failing, but who the fuck am I? Certainly not a fucking mechanic. I hope to shit like 4 fucking things didn’t decide to fail all at once.
I replaced the clutch with a 5 puck and new throwout bearing. When the car sits in no gear the whine goes away when I push in the clutch. Let it out and it comes back. Pulled the tranny and replaced the input shaft bearing, figuring it had to be that. No difference with the new. I babied it all last summer thinking it was going to blow. This season I just said screw it and drove it the way I wanted. I don’t think it’s internal to the tranny because of the clutch in and out thing but what do I know? I thought the tranny was completely static with the shifter out of gear but when I put the tranny back in and let it idle on the lift, the wheels turned slowly. Doubt I’m helping. I’m still trying to figure it out myself. Hope it works out for you.
In my 2000 Outback I had somewhat of a similar problem. Once the hot weather came in around May I began having a SUPER soft clutch with no resistance after driving. It would be fine first thing in the morning, but as soon as I got it up to temp and had some miles on it the clutch pedal would get progressively softer until only the last 1" off the floor had any effect on the actual disengagement of the clutch. It felt as if the first 95% of travel just had pure air in the lines. Like you, no leaks, fluid level was good, everything looked fine. I grabbed a slave cylinder from the local Advance and changed it in 5 minutes. I was concerned about having to bleed it but just topped off the fluid and gave it a few pumps. No more issues. Apparently the seal inside the slave leaks internally and causes it not to engage/disengage the disk.
I don’t see any way a slave or master cylinder could cause a whining sound like that. With the pitch changing so much with the clutch depressed or not my money is on throw out bearing over input shaft bearing.
I appreciate the responses guys. @Norb O, i’m hoping this is the case. The slave is only like $35 so I am going to pick it up on the way home and toss it in tonight. It’s a seriously easy part to replace, and from all accounts should be pretty easy to bleed with a helper on the clutch pedal. If I still have the whine afterwards i’ll have to address it, but at least i’ll have the clutch back, haha.
Last night on the way home from work on the freeway, I lost the clutch completely. Seemingly a complete slave failure, which forced me to rev match shift and bump start the car to get home. It’s funny, I knew my battery was getting old, but I didn’t know it wouldnt be able to get me home last night. I came to a light off the exit. Coasted in neutral, shut down at the light to get back into first, and boom… not enough juice to get me rolling again off the starter… rad. Had someone push me into a parking lot, ran to get a new battery, changed it in the lot, and bumped it the rest of the way home. I hope to have the slave wrapped up tonight and i’ll report back re:the whine.
Yeah, expected this post. If it was just the slave, or any part of the hydraulics for that matter, it wouldn’t be making a whine. If a failing slave could cause it to whine you could generate the same sound with a fully functional clutch simply by holding the clutch pedal at a certain point. The hydraulics simply allow you to move the clutch from fully engaged to fully disengaged and all the points in between and when they fail the clutch ends up somewhere in that range (usually fully engaged).
It’s not until something goes wrong with the mechanicals (bearings, springs, clutch disk, forks etc) that noises show up.