tamrat
03-05-2020, 02:19 AM
We have terrible repair shops, privilege of living in a third world country. When you go to one with a problem, you leave it with ten other new problems.
My 2009 Yaris has more than 160,000KMs on the odometer. It has been running almost flawlessly since I bought it with about 100,000KMs on it 3 years ago. Recently it started to make a faint rubbing noise whenever I engaged the clutch. Right of the bat I understood it must be a release bearing issue. As the days passed the noise became a loud screeching noise. Gear changes became awkward, especially in traffic, since the noise it made drew everyone's attention.
I knew how to do a clutch job, but I didn't have the time or the tools (power tools really) to do the job at home. So I took it to a shop. I got myself 'OEM' parts for it (this is a hit or miss in my country, what's usually branded as OEM is some Chinese rip off). New pressure plate, new clutch disk and a throw out/release bearing.
Sure enough the old release bearing was a toast. It was in pieces. I have noticed that the old pressure plate had more smaller springs while the new one had fewer but bigger/wider springs. The old clutch disk had four damping springs, and the new one had three. I didn't care much about this because this was probably a transmission that's used by a lot of other Toyota models throughout the years and there might be subtle changes. "As long as it fit right, there shouldn't be a problem," I thought. The new parts were swapped in and while at it, new gearbox oil as well.
I didn't notice much on my way back home since I was exhausted. The only thing I noticed was how light the clutch pedal felt. I thought this was due to the fact that the mechanism was cleaned and greased before being put back in. But this morning, I noticed that 1st gear and second gear are sort of difficult to shift into. The biting point for the clutch is also unpredictable. Sometimes it bites as soon as I start lifting my foot, sometime it bites midway. Gear shifts have this unsettling snap to them. It feels like you won't get it back out of that gear.
Now I don't know if any of this is normal (I hope its not). The old clutch was such a delight to drive. Apart from the noise it started to make at the end, it was very smooth. Gear changes required minimal effort. There are a lot of things going in my head. Maybe they left the pressure plate bolts loose, or its not tight enough (I don't know why I didn't take my torque wrench to the shop). Maybe the so called OEM parts are not so OEM, and its just a weak pressure plate. Maybe the oil they used is a bad quality and its just making things worse.
Sorry for the morning rant. I just want someone to explain what might be going on here. Thank you,
P.S: A couple of things about the shops here. No concept of torque wrench. No concept of clutch alignment tool (he was surprised when I told him about it while he was aligning the clutch by hand). No concept of engine variants and engine swaps.
My 2009 Yaris has more than 160,000KMs on the odometer. It has been running almost flawlessly since I bought it with about 100,000KMs on it 3 years ago. Recently it started to make a faint rubbing noise whenever I engaged the clutch. Right of the bat I understood it must be a release bearing issue. As the days passed the noise became a loud screeching noise. Gear changes became awkward, especially in traffic, since the noise it made drew everyone's attention.
I knew how to do a clutch job, but I didn't have the time or the tools (power tools really) to do the job at home. So I took it to a shop. I got myself 'OEM' parts for it (this is a hit or miss in my country, what's usually branded as OEM is some Chinese rip off). New pressure plate, new clutch disk and a throw out/release bearing.
Sure enough the old release bearing was a toast. It was in pieces. I have noticed that the old pressure plate had more smaller springs while the new one had fewer but bigger/wider springs. The old clutch disk had four damping springs, and the new one had three. I didn't care much about this because this was probably a transmission that's used by a lot of other Toyota models throughout the years and there might be subtle changes. "As long as it fit right, there shouldn't be a problem," I thought. The new parts were swapped in and while at it, new gearbox oil as well.
I didn't notice much on my way back home since I was exhausted. The only thing I noticed was how light the clutch pedal felt. I thought this was due to the fact that the mechanism was cleaned and greased before being put back in. But this morning, I noticed that 1st gear and second gear are sort of difficult to shift into. The biting point for the clutch is also unpredictable. Sometimes it bites as soon as I start lifting my foot, sometime it bites midway. Gear shifts have this unsettling snap to them. It feels like you won't get it back out of that gear.
Now I don't know if any of this is normal (I hope its not). The old clutch was such a delight to drive. Apart from the noise it started to make at the end, it was very smooth. Gear changes required minimal effort. There are a lot of things going in my head. Maybe they left the pressure plate bolts loose, or its not tight enough (I don't know why I didn't take my torque wrench to the shop). Maybe the so called OEM parts are not so OEM, and its just a weak pressure plate. Maybe the oil they used is a bad quality and its just making things worse.
Sorry for the morning rant. I just want someone to explain what might be going on here. Thank you,
P.S: A couple of things about the shops here. No concept of torque wrench. No concept of clutch alignment tool (he was surprised when I told him about it while he was aligning the clutch by hand). No concept of engine variants and engine swaps.