Clutch Pedal Bronze Bushings?

Has anyone replaced the clutch pedal bushings with bronze bushings? I've done this on numerous other cars before and its fairly simple. Anyone ever measure the shaft OD and pedal hole ID with a caliper n millimeters?

 

For smoother operation I'm guessing? sounds like it'd be a nice cheap upgrade to quality of life.. but no I haven't measured em with a caliper sorry

 

My clutch has a boat load of side play. I am surprised no one has done this yet. All this talk of squeaks and grease etc. Oil impregnated bronze bushings in place of the cheapo plastic bushings tighten things up nicely and don't squeak.

 

If your talking about the white thin plastic bushings you would be hard pressed to replace them with anything else unless you change some other parts around the pivot because those thin nylon bushings are very, very thin. I've spent more than a few hours fiddling around with the mystery that is the 2nd gen clutch pedal. The majority of the side to side flex comes from the clutch pedal itself flexing. I replaced all my nylon bushings and re-greased the pivot at around 30k and most of the side to side play went away and the remaining play stayed with the pedal itself since its plastic. If you haven't tried replacing the bushings and re greasing I would recommend it. Also make sure your clutch play is at the proper amount...

The ultimate answer IMO would be to get a aluminum pedal custom machined. I drew it up in Autocad once upon a time and got a quote from a machine shop $$$$$$!

 

My old 3series BMW had similar bushings and I replaced them on both the clutch and brake pedal. McMasterCarr to the rescue.

 

It would be waaaay easier to bore out the hole in the plastic pedal to fit a thicker bushing than to machine a custom aluminum pedal. The tighter the tolerances are on the pedal shaft, the less side play you have. I'm talking .001-.005 of an inch can cause significant side play.

 

Believe me I'm not disagreeing with you in the slightest bit. But you will find you still have flex in the pedal itself. You might be surprised how much tighter it would get with just some new OEM bushings. How many miles out of curiosity? I say go for it though as I would like to hear your results.

 

I have 110k. Sure the pedal with flex but that's expected and acceptable. I have over 1.5" of side play in each direction. If I am going to take it all apart and replace the bushings Im not going to waste my time with the plastic ones. Looks like this weekends project, disassemble it all, measure, reassemble, order parts, install next week. Will let you know.

 

Holy shit 1.5" is insane lol. My bushings where pretty worn and sloppy and the pivot was dry on mine at 30k, there was lots of plastic dust everywhere too. Is your clutch freeplay within limits? Mine was even more excessive when my freeplay was slightly over. Do you have the TOB chirp btw?

 

Mine is doing this right now ^^^

I want to bump this and ask if any other 5-spd 2nd Gen 4wd guys have side to side play in the clutch pedal. Maybe the clutch pedal assembly is the same for the 6-cyl models too. I haven’t looked into the part numbers yet.

Mine is to the point if it goes a bit left you hear the pedal clunk against the floor, when it’s centered it’s quiet as it’s against the carpet. I’m u dear warranty barely and the dealer doesn’t “see” the problem.

I can duplicate it anytime I want with just slight pressure on the pedal to the left and then depress it and you’ll hear it hit the metal part of the firewall.

This is on a 2015 4-cyl MT 4X4.

 

I know you mentioned the dealer didn't care much... but since you're still under warranty you might try pressing hard for the dealer to replace your bushings in the pivot... I'm just assuming the 5 speed pedal is of similar design if not the same as the 6 speed. You could also do it yourself, its not particularly hard and parts are somewhat cheap. Of course there is no guarantee that the pedal will be to your liking afterwards. But if you could get them to do it then it would be no harm. Replacing the bushings helped me quite a bit.