I have a 96 Nissan Altima with 160K. Recently I found that if I drive the car for a long trip, the car makes a metal rubbing noise whenever I depress the clutch.
The noise seems to be from the clutch slave cylinder area. Do I need to worry about that? Anyone has some idea?
Thank you!
Is it leaking brake fluid? If so, then, yes, you need to worry about it. If not, I suggest you lubricate the clutch pedal pivot points under the dashboard and see if that makes the noise go away.
I’d think the noise would be happening more during day to day driving, during which you use the clutch a lot, vs long trip driving, during which you rarely operate the clutch.
Let me try that again. If the noise is coming from under the hood, near the slave cylinder, it could be the throw-out bearing, although a noisy throw-out bearing usually gets quiet when you step on the clutch pedal, and makes noise when the clutch pedal is released. At 160K miles, a problem with the clutch disc, pressure plate, or throw-out bearing cannot be ruled out.
Does the clutch operate normally? No slipping or anything unusual?
Many thanks for the reply!
Yes, it is operating normally. There is no brake fluid leak.
BTW, I forget to add that even when the car is shut down, the noise is still there, whenever I depress the clutch. Weird thing is that, the noise is gone if I park the car for a while before I drive it again.
Lubricate everything you can see and reach. See if that helps. A bad throw-out bearing only makes noise when the clutch is rotating (engine running). I think the noise is in the mechanism that releases the clutch, either under the hood or under the dash.
I’ve seen a couple of times where the pilot bushings caused shrieking problems when the clutch was depressed. It turned out the bushings were quite dry. New bushings, properly pre-soaked in oil, solved the problem.