Clutch Whine

[Joss Walker]

So, when the clutch pedal is not depressed there is a constant whine from the clutch, whether I am driving or stationery in neutral. The moment that I depress the pedal the whine disappears. There doesn't seem to be any clutch wear or slippage so it doesn't feel that the clutch is going.

Does anyone have any clue what this may be and whether it will cause any damage if I continue to use the car before getting it fixed?

Thanks, as ever for any comments

Joss

 

[robwright]

Sounds like it could be the clutch release bearing mate.

 

[bmnelsc]

As per Rob - its likely the release bearing although you usually can't hear it at speed if you are going fast enough The only likely related damage will be to the guide tube that the bearing "rides" on when in operation. This is a cheap part easily accessed while servicing the clutch. Eventually the release bearing will start to bind up on the guide tube and cause problems shifting because the clutch won't release fully. If this starts happening - fix it immediately as transmission damage will follow.

 

[924Srr27l]

So, when the clutch pedal is not depressed there is a constant whine from the clutch, whether I am driving or stationery in neutral. The moment that I depress the pedal the whine disappears. There doesn't seem to be any clutch wear or slippage so it doesn't feel that the clutch is going.
Does anyone have any clue what this may be and whether it will cause any damage if I continue to use the car before getting it fixed?
Thanks, as ever for any comments
Joss

Hi, with engine running in neutral does the whining noise change with more rpm?
Does the gearstick shake & vibrate ,and what year is your car?

R

 

[Joss Walker]

Thanks for your replies guys, apologies that I haven't responded sooner to your comments. The whine disappeared for a little while, I tried taking it to a local indy but without the noise they obviously couldn't help much. I took the car to work the other day and about 40 miles into the journey I suddenly lost all oil pressure, warning lights flashing and a horrendous mechanical noise from the engine that is obviously bad!

So AA recovered me 8 hours later (not impressed with that, but that is a whole different story) and it is now back on the drive and about to be SORN'ed. Any repairs will have to wait until Feb/Mar and I have spoken to RPM Technik who have a boroscope that should be able to give me some kind of info before they need to take everything apart to see what has gone wrong.

So, the lesson for today is pretty damn obvious, if you think something is wrong don't take your car on 120 mile 80mph journeys in zero degree temperatures!

Just when I thought I had done everything on that would need doing and it was beginning to go up in value, well some serious man maths are required now.

 

[edh]

Oh no! That doesn't sound good at all, really sorry to hear that.
Possible that it wasn't the clutch that was noisy?
Hope the damage isn't too severe

 

[scam75]

Not good news Joss. I think we have all done things similar in the past. Noise chasing and recognition is part and parcel of classic car ownership. In fact it drives me crazy some times whilst other times i just whack the music up and drive.

I hope the damage is not too bad.

All the best

Stuart

 

[Indi9xx]

Off the top of my head, I can't think of anything that would make a noise in the scenarios you mentioned, that would effect the engine, except for perhaps the crank thrust bearing, but I have not seen one of these be a problem in an M44 engine.

For the noise you mention, it sounds like either a transmission bearing, torque tube bearing, with a chance of being the clutch release bearing, but often the clutch release bearing will make a noise in the opposite situation (clutch down)

Have you had a cam belt recently? If the main front pulley is not bolted up correctly to a high torque setting the oil pump can slip and loose all oil pressure. If the balance belt timing is incorrect, the vibration can snap/crack the oil pickup tube which will again loose oil pressure.

One other thing that can fail is the seal on the oil filter, which will usually cause one hell of a mess under the bonnet (and often the road) and can happen with cheap oil filters.

The noise might not be something as bad as you expect if you shut the engine down quite quickly or were not "gunning it", as the cam followers will have deflated damn quickly and will make a hell of a noise.

If they see bore scoring on number two bore, the loss of oil pressure was probably due to number two bearing spinning or burning out, which normally only happens if you have low oil level and then brake hard or corner hard or both, but could be a side effect of the loss of oil pressure (chicken and egg situation)

Good luck... If you want to know if there is something you can do in the meantime, get a big deep socket on the bolt in the middle of the crank pulley and a half inch breaker bar and check it is tight and also check that your engine is not covered in oil.

 

[Joss Walker]

Thanks Jon

I appreciate the detail of your post, I don't think I'll be doing anything until Feb/Mar but I'll keep your comments to feed through to RPM, I know that you have a lot of experience with these engines so they are excellent pointers. The belts and water pump were all replaced about 4-5 years ago, which apparently was only about 4,000 miles ago (that surprised me when I had a look at the old MOTs, unfortunately such low use makes justification of the re-built harder!)

I hope I minimised damage as much as possible, fingers crossed and all that!

I'll post something once the car is looked at so that it may at least be a learning point for some others.

 

[PSH]

Hi Joss

Sorry to hear of your woes....I hope you get it sorted soon... one point in regards to your last post, IMHO 4-5 years is pushing it a bit between belt changes even if only covering a short milage. IIRC Porsche state up to 4 years max, I try very hard to replace mine every 2 years if I can....

regards

Pete