Clutch bearing or Exhaust?

[Ferrat]

Hey all,

I'm hoping that maybe someone has had this before. I have a '88 3sfe

The noise i'm getting is the sound of something rattleing in the front end of the engine. It only happens when the car is moderate to fully warmed up. I talked to my mechanic and he reconds that it could be the clutch bearing (needs regreaseing?) or it could be the exhaust, as i have bottomed out on the front end coz of bad suspension. When i moderately accelarate it seems that the rattle comes down the exhaust (Sounds Horrible ).

I got under the car, and the exhaust doesn't move and i can't see any damage othere then the heat sheild bent in.

So i was wondering if you guys had ever expereinced it? and any advice would be good.

Thanks all
Matt

[TheWhiteKnight]

You may have to get under the car, look towards the back of the engine (near fire wall) and there is a bracket in front of the exhaust flex pipe. The bracket which holds the exhaust may be broken, it happened to my SV21 before and I just un-bolted it from the engine and exhaust (it's a bit of a pain but what you gonna do) and welded it back together and it has lasted 4 years so far.


Hope this may help.

[marc780]

Use a rubber hammer or block of wood and beat on the exahust a little, try duplicating the sound. Check to see that all the supports and rubber hangers are there and the heat shield or exhaust manifold bolts aren't loose. You may have to jack it up, block the wheels and crawl under and try to duplicate the noise, there might be no other way to pinpoint it.

Its possible it could be the clutch bearing (throwout bearing) but the noise would change every time you pushed in the clutch. If it happened only when warm maybe the grease in the bearing got warm and a little thinner and allowed more noise?
Never regrease a throwout bearing, just replace it when you change the clutch. They are cheap and very hard to get to so i just change them.

[TheWhiteKnight]

A good indicator that the throwout bearing is suspect is a faint ringing noise when changing gears (u need the windows down to make it easier to hear it though) and if the throwout bearing is stuffed then it is good practice to change the sleeve guide that the bearing sits on as they wear badly over time causing the bearing to catch slightly when changing gears (you probably wont notice it catch when u change gears but it does on worn guides).

The guide unbolts (3 bolts) from the front of the gearbox and sits over the input shaft for the gearbox (this applies to the S51 5speed manual box as I dunno about the autos or V6 boxes as I haven't played with them yet). An replacement OEM guide will set you back about $70 AUD. But if you have an I4 engine with an S51 box then it is a piece of p*ss to pull out your g/box and change your clutch.

God I love Toyota engineering!


Respect to all TN members......

[Ferrat]

Ok sweet, i'll try the exhaust thing and check that out first :P seems the easiest, start with cheap and easy first lol.

I'm thinking of putting in a sports clutch into the car, so if isn't the exhaust then it should be easy to do it when i change the clutch

Thanks all
Matt

[Ferrat]

Ok i checked last night, it does seem to be the exhaust. The sound is echoing in it. :P So it has to be it, my friend reckons tho its the muffler end :S Is that possible. lol it'll take a while to check the entire length of exhaust.

[TheWhiteKnight]

Don't forget to check all exhaust to chassis mounting points & brackets.

Good luck, hope you find it. Shouldn't be to hard to find with some patience.


Cheerz

[Gary_602Z]

Geez do you think it could be the heat sheild since it is bent? Have somebody push on it with a a broom handle or board while you are reving it in neutral to see if the sound varies or goes away.

Gary

[Ferrat]

Ok well i looked at it this weekend, seems fine. The heatsheild was only slightly bent on the front bend. Seems ok. The heatshield was on pretty tight, no movements. The rear end of the exhuast seems to be ok. The mounts seems fine, no rattle or broken. Could it be a hole in the system, i noticed 2 small marks near the cat? Could the rattle be a small hole. Any imput would be nice.

Thanks all
Matt

[johnnyzee]

release bearing (throwout) 99% sure

[midnightmach]

is the sound like a rattling tin, cuz my 3vz does that often when i accelerate kinda embaressing dunno what to do bout it..wonder if i got same problem as you.

[mazdaverx7]

if it were your throwout bearing, when your engine was running and the trans was in neutral with your foot off the clutch, you'd hear a bearing noise or a grinding sound. when you depress the clutch, it would put tension on a worn bearing and the noise would stop. thats a sure fire way to tell.

[Ferrat]

mmm well i'm pretty sure its not the clutch bearing. So it has to be the exhaust. Jetspeed recommended it could be the flex pipe? I'll have to continue looking.

[TheWhiteKnight]

Just a thought,

I remember a couple of years back I had an exhaust noise which was very hard to find. I had replaced the cat before with a second hand one from a wrecker and when the engine warmed up (or rather when the cat warmed right up) it would rattle over bumps because the metal skin of the cat expanded slightly and the inner ceramic catalytic core was floating/rattling inside the cat.

When the exhaust was cold again I pulled the cat out only to find slight movement of the internal core. (However, I did smash the ceramic core out and re-installed it into the system. It did temporarily solve the noise problem but my HC emissions were crap until I got a new cat for about $220 installed).

Seeing there is nothing else evident which would cause the noise in the exhaust, I bet my left one that it is your cat (especially if it is an old cat).

Step 1: With a jack + axlestands or car ramps get the front of your camry up in the air, the cat should drop out by removing 2 x flange bolts each side of the cat then 'shake the cat' and see if it rattles - No? then onto step 2.

Step2: Put cat in your oven at 250 deg celcius for about 20mins until hot, with old oven mits on get the cat out and shake it up and down and latterally. Does it rattle or make noise now?

This is the way I found my cat to be the culprit of my mysterious exhause noise a few years back.

Sorry I didn't remember this earlier.