I have a 96 Legacy L 2.2 MT

 

The car shifts fines, but it was maiing a cricket sound when i was driving. The littlest touch to the clutch pedal would stop it. I could just rest my pinky on it and it would stop. I decided to go under the hood and tighten the cable just a few turns. I let off the lock nut and adjusted the other nut maybe 5-10 turns and it stopped, I tightened it all back up and thought i solved the cricket noise...

 

But now when I rev the engine, it has a rattling noise both with the clutch in when out. I think it stops when the clucth is sort of half way, but i could be wrong. It doesn't rattle at idle.I'm hoping its the throw out bearing, I don't know. Should i adjust back the cable so if I have a new clutch put in it won't do the same thing after a few hundred miles. Did adjusting the cable cause the throw out bearing to get worse? does it sound like a throw out bearing? Its a rattle when reved.

What probably happened is the throwout bearing came off the clutch fork completely, and is now spinning freely on the input shaft. That requires dropping the tranny to fix. Bummer

 

Don't feel bad, that's what happened to me.

 

However, tightening the cable might have made it worse, yes. Clutch cables on Subarus can be confusing to beginners because they don't quite make sense. If you TIGHTEN the cable, you make the freeplay of the clutch pedal smaller by putting the throwout bearing closer to the pressure plate. By loosening the cable, you make the freeplay of the clutch pedal larger by bringing the throwout bearing away from the pressure plate. By tightening the cable like you did, you probably just had the throwout bearing constantly pressing against the pressure plate, which would stop the squeaking, but will wear out the throwout bearing faster, or make it come off the clutch fork.

Would the car still drive and shift well? It shifts and drives fine, no slip at all, smooth shifting.

 

Would you recomend loosening up the cable again?

The throwout bearing is trapped on the input shaft between the clutch fork and pressure plate, so it still has to push the pressure plate in when you push the pedal down. So yes, it will still drive normally, shift fine, and assuming the clutch is in good condition, not slip.

 

Honestly, it's not that big of a deal, you might be wearing your pressure plate out faster by driving it like this, but it's really not doing much else than making a lot of noise. Unfortunately, playing with the cable is pretty useless at this point

 

If it bothers you though, with a friend's help, you can drop the tranny, put a new throwout bearing in, and reinstall the tranny in a day.

 

Use these tips to be SURE this is the problem:

 

- The bearing should make a lot of knocking noise when you push the pedal in, regardless of engine RPM.

 

- The clutch fork should be very loose and wobbly when you grab it and wiggle it

 

Good luck!

The bearing always sort of made a "bad cable" sound when i pushed it in. The fork was fine two days ago when i tightened the cable, I'll re-check it to see if its loose now. I'll back the cabel down to where I had it or maybe just mention it to the guy who would be doing my clutch and have him adjust it.

You should have around 3/8 of an inch of play at the fork lever and around 1/2 inch of play at the pedal.

The fork lever was hard to move if at all by hand.

I should have specified. Try to move it side-to-side. If it feels like it's attached to something, you're alright. If it feels loose and wobbly, then your throwout bearing has probably come loose.

It didn't seem to move much at all.

I returned the cable to basically its original position this morning. The pedal feels easier to push now rather than much closer to the top.

If its in neutral (clutch engaged or not engaged), there is a rattle when reved. I also notice a similar rattle when I shift gears or push in the clutch while driving. I'll live with it for the time being, I bought the car thinking I'd have to do a clutch anyways. If I'm going to go in there, I'll do it all.