Does your throw out bearing seem kind of noisy?

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I took mine into the dealer last weekend, they checked it out to 'verify' it was the TOB and I have an appointment for this Saturday (after the parts have come in from shipping) to have it fixed under warranty.

It's an all day process, so you'll have to come in early in order to get your car back the same day.
 
is there a better aftermarket throw out bearing available? i had seen a heavy duty bearing in the FRPP catalog and was curious if anyone has tried it. i heard the spec bearing wasn't that great. thanks
 
Tylerb59 said:
I took mine into the dealer last weekend, they checked it out to 'verify' it was the TOB and I have an appointment for this Saturday (after the parts have come in from shipping) to have it fixed under warranty.

It's an all day process, so you'll have to come in early in order to get your car back the same day.
You know , this is a recurring question. They (Ford) have been installing lame TOBs for ever. Either you can spray it with grease (it goes away for a little WHILE), or you can turn up the CD player. The squealing doesn't really affect the function, it's just embarrasing to have a car that sounds like a POS. If you really think they are going to pull your trans, etc. to fix the TOB squealing, go ahead, it's under warranty. Ask to watch. See what they say. They might refuse to let you watch, or, they will spray it with grease. I think we all ought to get togther and complain to Ford. Maybe they read these boards - I hope so.
 
TripleBlk said:
You know , this is a recurring question. They (Ford) have been installing lame TOBs for ever. Either you can spray it with grease (it goes away for a little WHILE), or you can turn up the CD player. The squealing doesn't really affect the function, it's just embarrasing to have a car that sounds like a POS. If you really think they are going to pull your trans, etc. to fix the TOB squealing, go ahead, it's under warranty. Ask to watch. See what they say. They might refuse to let you watch, or, they will spray it with grease. I think we all ought to get togther and complain to Ford. Maybe they read these boards - I hope so.


I dont want to be negative, but I think that Ford could care less for reading these boards. Besides do you know how many cars they would have to recall if they decided that the throw out bearing was bad or faulty....bahahaha thats probably what they are doing now :spot:
 
TripleBlk said:
You know , this is a recurring question. They (Ford) have been installing lame TOBs for ever. Either you can spray it with grease (it goes away for a little WHILE), or you can turn up the CD player. The squealing doesn't really affect the function, it's just embarrasing to have a car that sounds like a POS. If you really think they are going to pull your trans, etc. to fix the TOB squealing, go ahead, it's under warranty. Ask to watch. See what they say. They might refuse to let you watch, or, they will spray it with grease. I think we all ought to get togther and complain to Ford. Maybe they read these boards - I hope so.

Sometimes you have to be an absolute dickhead when talking to the service managers to get the point across exactly what you want done. Otherwise they'll find any way possible to screw you out of your $$$ by performing an operation you didn't request which isn't covered under warranty or some other fine print reason you should pay. That and try to say your warranty isn't valid because of any minor performance mod.

Anyway, this is my second Mustang and I replaced the clutch / flywheel in my 99. It's an easy operation, just takes so damn long to do in your garage when you don't have a lift and setting the transmission in place is a major pain as well. If I wasn't under warranty I'd do it myself, but it's to much of a pain for something so simple which I can get fixed for free.

The squealing is from a defective part, it's under warranty and I expect the issue to be resolved. I'm NOT going to hide that fact by turning up the radio. That's poor maintenance ethic right there. Plus who wants to hear 1000x crickets / water boiling sound coming from under your car?

The grease is a temporary solution and something which really shouldn't be needed to be done. I'm pretty close to the end of my warranty and want to get all my free labor stuff done before I have to start doing it all myself. At least replacing the TOB as a whole it'll put my back long enough when the TOB starts to squeal again it'd be a good excuse to replace my clutch and throw in an aluminum flywheel.
 
I guess my point is (if they wind up replacing the TOB, great !) the part will squeal again ( hopefully, after you sell the car) My '99 TOB squealed, and obviously, they did _NOT_ improve the part YEARS later. So, you are inconvenienced by having to take off time from work or by having to arrange a ride from/to the dealership. Nothing has been fixed !!! You have the same faulty part they have been putting out forever , that is defective. Are you going to happily bend over after the car is out of warranty, or are you going to ignore the noise, or are you going to let Ford know you are unhappy ?
 
After the warranty is expired, I'd most likely resort to greasing the mother up every couple thousand miles until 60k when I'd just replace the clutch.
I've been under the car to do a quick run through of greasing up the TOB, by ramping the car and taking the inspection plate off the bellhousing. Shouldn't take more then 30 minutes overall.

You just can't seem to win with the TOB though. I had a SPEC clutch in my 99 and if you think the Ford TOB suck ... eek ... the SPEC one is basically a flimsy piece of plastic especially in comparison to Ford's. The SPEC started to squeal slightly after about 10k on it.
 
Mine was killing me so I replaced it last Monday ( June 14 ) is was so noisy that I had ( in town) to ride with my foot on the clutch to make the bearing spins that way it won't squeek.

Jan. 2003 I got a S.P.E.C. II clutch installed with a new bearing and the stock flywheel was machined to make sure it was perfectly flat but not long after the flywheel got warped again so I had to take it apart anyway.

My new setup is now : Centerforce Flywheel , same S.P.E.C II clutch , new clutch bearing and some fresh grease.

It was so dry in there that sometime my clutch was sticking when I was pressing on the pedal , now it's all nice and smooth and no more vibration when I take off and the million noisy crickets are all gone... :nice:
 
I've had 3 Ford's, 87 Ranger, 96 Ranger, and my 01 GT and the TOB in all of them made noise. As a matter of fact, pay attention to MOST Ford's with a standard transmission with any miles on it at all. I think you will find that it's a common issue. It's not faulty, as I have put over 100,000 miles on two of the three vehicles and I never had a problem.
 
try this, I have a firewall adjuster on my 99 and when the TOB begins its lovely call I will stretch the cable tightly with the car running and slowly let it back out until I dont hear the squeal anymore. this is just a temporary fix but usually seems to work for several hundred miles or until the cable slacks out again, whichever comes first
 
The TOB on my 02 GT was making noise (would go away when I pressed the clutch pedal) so I took it in under warranty. The service writer heard it. When I got the car back the next day it was quiet and the service writer said that the tech couldn't hear it. Indeed the noise had miraculously vanished. I was a little annoyed because I figured they did a quickie fix or something to get rid of me but the TOB was quiet so what else could I do.

Two weeks later and the noise was back with a vengence. I tried spraying it with white lithium grease but that didn't really do anything. I searched this and other message boards looking for an answer and found that even after having TOB's replaced people were still getting noise, even with aftermarket TOB's. The only sure-fire solution seemed to be to put more tension on the TOB by installing a quadrant and firewall adjuster. I ordered the Steeda ones but haven't had time to install them yet.

However, I followed the OEM clutch adjustment procedure as outlined in the tech article over on corral.net. Worked like a charm, doing pretty much did what I was hoping to do with the quadrant and firewall adjuster. I had to adjust it 3 clicks to get it to totally be quiet and it puts the pedal and clutch release feel somewhat high but I kind of like it that way now. I haven't observed any adverse side effect since adjusting it and best of all, the TOB has been TOTALLY QUIET ever since. Every so often the OEM adjuster sets itself back but it only takes me 15 seconds to adjust it how I want it so it hasn't been a big deal. Eventually I'll get around to installing the quadrant and firewall adjuster as a permenant solution but for now adjusting the OEM setup has been easy, free, and very effective.

Oh, and looking back I think this is all the tech at the dealer did. Too much of a coincidence for the noise to totally disappear without doing anything.