Help identifying failing part

[pb2k]

Can anyone tell me what this part is and how serious it will be if it completely fails? It's making an awful noise that mostly goes away if I manually press the valve(?).

I also noticed that the engine occasionally won't return to idle when I take it out of gear.

Naturally I'm on a road trip in Eastern Utah, 250 miles from the nearest Toyota dealership on my route and 1100 miles from home. I don't have much choice but to try to make it to Salt Lake tomorrow, but I will have to skip Arches NP if this is critical.

[Cletus Garfunkle]

I'm guessing you own a manual/standard Toyota Yaris. From what this looks like it is a clutch slave cylinder or Toyota calls it a Clutch Release Cylinder in the manual. I'm not 100% sure because I own an auto 2001 Toyota echo. If it fails the clutch wont engage or disengage could make a clutch noisy, slip, chatter. It's not the biggest deal in the world but get it fixed when you can shouldn't be very hard to do urself seems like 2 bolts and disconnect clutch line. I couldnt tell you about the car not returning to idle might be a different problem.
https://i.imgur.com/x5BkoO9.png

[ex-x-fire]

You might have a clutch throw bearing making noise.

[pb2k]

Thanks. I found a reference to a seal kit (04313-35060) that might be the cure, but being so far from home, I think the dealership is the only option.

[pb2k]

So I ended up deciding to head for home, as the sound almost completely went away once I was up to speed on the highway.

I pulled it apart today and the cylinder itself actually seems fine. I pulled the boot off the levered part attached to the engine and shot some WD-40 in there and tried to clean it out with some paper towel. It now makes no noise with the clutch out (huge improvement) and just a little bit of growl when the clutch is pressed in.

Is that part suppose to be lubricated at all? I don't think transmission fluid is present in that area, but the WD-40 I shot in there drained away somewhere (hopefully not into the transmission fluid). I also noticed that part was really quite loose and wobbly, but that could be by design?

I'm thinking I'll still take it into the dealership, just to have it checked over and make sure I'm not overlooking something that could bite me in the arse down the road.

[Mike Dexter]

The shift fork is the part you are talking about, and getting squeaky is a common issue. I saw a recommendation on another thread to spray lithium grease, and that worked well for me. The shift fork lives inside the bell housing, which is separated from the transmission internals, so no transmission fluid is there. I replaced by clutch last year and from what I remember the fork had a little bit of play along its axis of rotation.

[pb2k]

I tried the lithium grease last week as it started making noise again but it didn't help. I had decided to call and make an appointment today and not drive it anymore, but my mom needed it this afternoon (couldn't find her keys) and it made it ~10km before dying at a red light, literally right in front of a Toyota dealership. Lucky break there (service adviser was able to limp it in), but I have a bad feeling that my clutch is now a goner.