Hello,
Been trying to figure out what's causing this noise on my 192 5 speed Rx8,

The squealing noise presents itself only after the car warms up and I rev the engine up to the higher rpms. Then it stays even at idle until I turn the car off and let the car cool back down. It's not there when the car is cold, or when it's warm until I rev the engine to higher rpms.

It gets worse/louder with higher rpms up to about mid way, then disappears towards the top of the rev range, then sounds its worst when the rpms fall back to the lower rpms.

Happens in neutral and in gear, and the noise instantly goes away with the tiniest pressure on the clutch pedal, as you can hear in the audio at the part where its coming and going every few seconds is when im touching the clutch pedal. even if I just pull the clutch fork by hand it goes away, that's how light of a press gets rid of it...

So seen as it goes away when I press the clutch even slightly, I was thinking it was either the throw out bearing or the input shaft bearing, I've replaced the throw out bearing and regreased the input shaft bearing as I didn't have a puller to take it out, but it appears to be perfectly fine condition wise.

Also while I was there I took the clutch off and inspected that and the flywheel, looks fine and it's not that old only being replaced about 10k miles ago.
Kinda stumped as to what else it could be?

thanks

 

Still got this issue.. I've greased the slave cylinder pin as well as the clutch fork etc.

I can adjust the clutch pedal in enough to get rid of the noise but then my bite point is really high and obviously this might wear my clutch a little more. Really not sure what else to check now? Anyone got any ideas?

 

It sounds like clutch chatter. Do you only hear it or feel it in the pedal?
Is the clutch original?

 

Did you try replacing the pilot bearing too? When I did my clutch I had to do both TOB and pilot, then greased pivot slave on fork, how long have you been driving on the new TOB?

 

I don't feel anything unusual in the clutch pedal, the noise is quite hard to identify exactly where it's coming from but I'm pretty sure it's not coming from the pedal

The clutch was replaced under 10k miles ago so it's not original. I've taken the clutch off and put it back on too, and nothing seems unusual.. put a new throwout bearing while I was there too. The clutch feels really good and works perfectly with no slipping and strong bite.

What sort of things would cause clutch chatter?

 

I haven't replaced the pilot bearing yet as I didn't have the tool to pull it out or remove the flywheel, but from my understanding and research, that only spins against itself when the clutch is depressed so been as it's not spinning when the clutch is engaged it can't be the cause of the noise right? I could be wrong on that but that's just what I've heard

The car is a project car I'm going to be using for drifting, so I haven't driven it much since I got it as Ive been working on it. Maybe 15 miles on the new TOB at most..

 

I would definitely replace the pilot next time you are in there, what happens is a lot of times the needle bearings from the inner race/bushing come apart which can quickly damage your input shaft splines as they have nothing to ride in except bare metal .. I figure a $30 bearing is good insurance over a $1000 gearbox for something preventable. You don’t need the Mazda tool either, you can go to any parts store and rent a collet blind hole puller set with multiple sizes and use the one that fits which is what I did and had mine it out in about 20-30 min.

But from your audio clips, I actually do think the sound is more like a TOB and wondering if it’s binding or just didn’t use enough grease

 

This is a very puzzling issue. The fact that the slightest of pressure makes the noise go away says it is neither a pilot bearing or transmission issue. It has to be completely related to the TOB/clutch fingers issue. I got ChatGPT involved. You might be interested in the conversation