Update on 2016 Throwout Bearing

If mine goes, hope still under warranty...........but I will say this, it seems much more quiet now than when new. I am going to really listen to it today. The "noise" is not not disturbing in any way. Not metallic for sure. Maybe really like whirring would be a description, but the bucket of bolts engine noise is so much louder!! There is no noise engaging and disengaging with engine off.

 

When the TO bearing is being changed, be sure to have the diaphragm spring inspected.

 

i just had to deal with a spacer issue (wave ring spacer whatever it's actually called) affecting the TOB. made noise like TOB but the wave ring didn't seat correctly, which required re-opening, reinstalling with a new spacer and TOB right after doing all that with a clutch swap. pita but pay to play. my noise was with the pedal down.

 

So to answer your question I'm going with the bearing lasting 150,000 miles. Based on your noise you don't have a bearing problem. If you had a bearing going out the noise would be present when you had load on the bearing like when the pedal is depressed. What you have is the chirp which is caused by the bearing collar not being solidly against the pressure plate fingers. The reason it's quiet initially is everyone replaces the bearing and clutch components together. So you have a pressure plate with about 15 fingers that are perfectly aligned and a new bearing with a slightly rough collar surface so the collar doesn't try to spin on the fingers. As soon as the pressure plate fingers start varying in height and becoming polished as well as the bearing collar surface you don't have enough friction between the two and you get the chirp. Obviously there have been some bearing failures but I ask anyone that has their old bearing to check it for play or any roughness when it spins. I bet we don't find many with any problems. Look at what changes Toyota did to the Gen 2's stiffer spring in slave, longer pushrod in slave, and height change to pivot ball for fork all these changes added pressure against the release bearing. These changes work for some Tacoma's or at least for awhile.

 

The noise I believe is now caused by the throwout bearing collar (in my mind) spinning unevenly (or alternatively as you say without friction) against the pressure plate fingers thus causing the chirp, what I'm trying to figure out is why after 10-15k did it start chirping again and worse? I've replaced the bearing, the clutch, pressure plate, flywheel resurfaced, honestly it will give me a migraine if driven for long enough. I have a video from my original post some months back that shows the bearing rotating smoothly, with a small amount of noise, with a clutch fork that stays straight. When I'm under the truck now, the clutch fork wobbles around and causes the TOB to do the same.

I will try to get a video today to compare the two, if it's just the clutch fork that needs replacement and bingo boingo then that's great, however I'm curious if the spring on the fork has come off the pivot ball or if the mount for it on the bell housing has broken. I know very little about what the inside of these bell housings look like, and haven't found many images online so I don't even know how this thing is mounted, I was simply surprised that nobody had come to find the same during their troubleshooting.

I'm curious if the hydraulic throwout bearings from Clutch Masters made for the RA60 would fit in the 3rd gen trans, I doubt it otherwise they'd say it. It would eliminate the fork as a whole.