Cold start groan

I have got a groan coming from what seems to be the clutch on a cold start. Truck is an '03 3.4L extended cab with just under 280k on the clock.

It only happens for the first minute or two after I start up the truck, and only when the clutch is pressed in, especially if I hold the clutch pedal down for a slightly longer period of time (when I'm about to turn out of my neighborhood onto a busy street, or something like that). By the time I have shifted a handful of times, things seem to be warmed up enough for the noise to stop. It's certainly worse on colder days, too.

Any thoughts on what might be going on here?

 

When was the clutch changed last?

Clutch release bearing getting tired .

If you warm things up just idle in neutral does it go completely away?

 

I don't know when the clutch was last changed - I have the full service records back to 199k and it hasn't happened since then, not sure what happened before then because I didn't own the vehicle. The pedal assembly was re-done at 240k or so. I think it's a reasonable assumption that its on the original clutch.

I played around with trying to pinpoint exactly when the noise happens a bit today. It seems to only happen when the truck is cold, and even more so if its been sitting out on a below-freezing night. Putting the truck in gear seems to trigger the groan a bit more reliably than if I'm in neutral, and even more-so if I am rolling.

Still not sure if it goes away if I let it completely warm up while in neutral. Will try that out tomorrow.

 

When was the last transmission fluid change? Sorry, only thing I can think of is old fluid not behaving appropriately in the cold.

My 1st gen is on the original clutch at 300,000 without issues.

 

I changed all the fluids it at 274k, used redline MT90 in the transmission. It feels more like a clutch issue than a transmission issue. I should add that even when the groan happens, shifting is still pretty smooth.

 

Hey there, any update on this? Did you ever figure out the issue? I’ve got exactly the same thing happening on my 04 taco. Thanks!