Throwout Bearing on my .:R32

[JedR32]

So I've been doing some internet searching without much luck
What precisely does the throwout bearing do?
And would a chattery noise coming when the clutch is depressed and when the car is in neutral be the symptoms of a bad throwout bearing?
How bad is it to be driving around with a bad one if so?
Has anyone had this problem before?

Cheers,
Jed

[Back Door Shenanigans.]

A throw out bearing goes in between the pressure plate forks and clutch arm. Since the pressure plate rotates it needs a bearing between the clutch arm and the pressure plate forks. When you press down on the pedal the arm pushes on the throw out bearing which pushes on the forks and thus releases the pressure off the clutch plate.

Sounds like it could be a bad throw out bearing. Not sure how bad it is but definitely should be replaced sooner or later.

[JedR32]

Thanks man awesome info!
So would it be a case of dropping the whole gearbox to do the work?
ie. lots of labour costs?

Jed

[h100vw]

Thanks man awesome info!
So would it be a case of dropping the whole gearbox to do the work?
ie. lots of labour costs?

Jed

I haven't heard a completely silent one. The box has to come off, so this is the time to do the clutch as well. With the associated massive cost of that.

Don't leap into doing maintenance just for the sake of it. It's a fair job to take the box off and you would be unlikely to do it in less than 4 hours IMO.

Gavin

[JedR32]

I haven't heard a completely silent one. The box has to come off, so this is the time to do the clutch as well. With the associated massive cost of that.

Don't leap into doing maintenance just for the sake of it. It's a fair job to take the box off and you would be unlikely to do it in less than 4 hours IMO.

Gavin

Yeah that is what I was worried about!
And clutch and flywheel etc. with this and labour I'd be looking at closer to $2000 by my calculations :S
So I might have to get someone else to listen to it after exams, to determine how bad it is :S

[Back Door Shenanigans.]

Here if you have 5min a good look at what it will take to do it yourself (minus the timing chain and thermo)
Timing Chain VR6 - YouTube

Its a decent job. Box off, Drive shafts, Alignment and a whole load of other things getting in the way. Hardest part if your doing it yourself is getting the dam box to line-up with two shafts. Two grand sounds about right, Would probably look at getting the chain done for the sake of it because its going to cost the same amount anyway. But yeah lots of labour so as h100vw also get clutch done.

For example it took a weekend to do Geoff clutch given his is only fwd

[JedR32]

Yeah defs wouldn't be doing it myself haha!
Yeah I'd get them to do braided lines for brakes and stuff as well haha

[Jmac]

Careful with that though, if the noise is in the box itse;f you will mask it by depressing the clutch so know what you are actually looking for noise wise. Be horrible if you do the job and is still noisy. There is a few things that can bve noisy in there, the release bearing AKA throw out bearing can also be noisy when pressure on it if bad enough, but may go quite if you just put slight pressure on the pedal, if you depress the clutch altogether then you slow the box down as you have then disconnected the drive from the engine,
Make sense??
Cheers
Jmac

[JedR32]

Definitely no noticeable noise when the clutch is fully released and no pressure on the pedal. That is from inside the car with windows up and down though.
Only seems to be noisy when I depress the clutch or have it at balance point.
Still most likely throw-out bearing?
Also, if it were throw-out bearing how bad is it to drive around with this problem?

Cheers,
Jed

[Jmac]

Yeah sounds like it, depends how noisy it is, had the same do that in my Transporter couple of months back, bearing collapsed and lost clutch.
Jmac

[JedR32]

OH FUARKKKK!!!!!!!
Well that's not good :S
It's probably been doing it for a few weeks now and is reasonably loud

[geoff_gti]

BDS & I installed one of the ECS kits into my GTI - Volkswagen Golf IV 1.8T > Drivetrain > Clutch > ES#125 Stage 1 Clutch Kit - Steel Flywheel (14lbs.) - ESR198031S1

I've actually noticed MORE chatter from the clutch since changing, but that's due to switching to a lighter flywheel from the original dual mass unit. I can hear it rattling when I'm stationary with the pedal pressed, but it's not loud so yeah I'd say get yours checked sooner rather than later.

Obviously the clutch kit would be different on an R32 but it might be worth looking at doing the clutch as well since the whole lot will have to be pulled apart.

It's amazing how much you can learn over a couple of weekends pulling your car apart with a mate I wouldn't be game to do this by myself but I certainly have a better idea of how it all works now!

[JedR32]

Yeah from the looks of things SMFW seem to disagree with the .:R32 :S
So I'm not sure if I'd go down that path. I'll look into it though as I'd love for the VR6 to rev a little more freely

Jed

[HaydEn]

Throwout Bearing on my .:R32

Single mass makes R32 alot better. Aluminum flywheels tend to chatter much more then steel. If you get around 10-13lbs and in steel the chatter should be non-existent or very low.

[JedR32]

Single mass makes R32 alot better. Aluminum flywheels tend to chatter much more then steel. If you get around 10-13lbs and in steel the chatter should be non-existent or very low.

Yeah, that would be ideal. Although with all the problems Schoona had I dunno if I can be bothered risking being stuck in gear etc. as my car is a daily driver. If there's a kit that doesn't have these problems I'd be more than interested