How do you know when to replace the clutch?

[dawg]

My clutch is starting to feel rough… almost feels like its vibrating. I also hear a squeaking sound coming from the pedal. Are these signs that my clutch needs to be replaced? I have 13 thousand kilometers on my car.

[SR5_4WD]

I have an oldschool rolla and I know my clutch is going bad because it will start to slip: your engine will rev up a lot higher than your speed used to. Does this happen? I dont know about that vibrating, possibly unbalanced tires or in need of an alignment (did you run over any curbs lately?) It could also be CV joints which arent that cheap either. Let me know what it sounds like..

[Cyorke]

Squeaking sound coming from pedal could be the spring that returns it to position when you relase the cluthc or one of the pivot points for the pedal or rod going to the cluthc msster cylinder.

I dont know what the conversion is between miles and KM but 13000 doesnt sound like very many miles.
Are you driving it hard. Is the vibration while you are actually driving the car or is it when you release the clutch to accelerate. If it is when you accelerate and you ahve been driving it hard it is possible taht you have burnt the flywheel, clutch disc, or pressure plate similar to what happens when you get brake vibrations with warped rotors.

[TBayToyotaBoy]

When you say it feels rough and it 'vibrates' it almost sounds like you have oil on the clutch plate...but that wouldn't happen unless your rear main oil seal is going, and with 13,000km on the car that absolutely should not happen.

Is it a new car? A rebuild?

[freakinbox]

I have the squeeking and vibrating, sqeeking is nothing to worry about. My vibration is comming from a bad passanger side rim, the HUGE weight canadian tire put on it has fallen off lol so now it vibrates again when I start out in first.

[dawg]

I dont think it has anything to do with my tires or alignment and I havent gone over any curbs yet (seems like you know me pretty good). I do drive my car kinda hard but still a clutch should last longer than this.

What I mean by vibration is that I can feel the engine rev in my foot when using the clutch instead of it being smooth. And I can even feel the engine rev faster when I give it more gas.

I made an appointment with toyota to take a look at it. I will let you know what they say. I have heard bad things about these clutches in the xrs and I wouldnt be surprised if its fried.

[freakinbox]

I get some feeling in the pedal, when I wear my crappy shoes for working on my car. The soles on them suck so I can feel it quite well. Think thats normal too, since my cars are pretty old

[KnightX_AE86]

i rememebr readin on DK once sayin the best way to find out when your clutch is goin

put the car is 2nd... rev it up to about 4-4.5k?
then DUMP the clutch
if your car stalls then your clutch is fine..
if it doesnt stall then your clutch is dead...

thats wut i saw posted on DoriKaze.... so u can give that a shot.. mine stalled =P

[rolla-XRS]

Ack! With 13,000km on and XRS, take it to the dealer and let them figure it out rather than have us guess about diagnosis from afar.

The squeak is pretty common though with XRS clutch. Seems everyone has it.

[silkydraws]

The vibration caused by friction when you let out on the clutch is caused form heat glazing of the flywheel. Just be sure if you do get a clutch that the flywheel is resurfaced also. Nothing worse than getting a new one and 10K miles (or less) later it starts shaking when letting out the clutch again

[dawg]

The dealar says nothing is wrong. He said because its a "powerful" engine it is common to feel feedback from the engine. I was probably over paranoid. Still I don't think the clutch is of good quality. I don't feel it slipping or anything like that but I do think it could be much better. It feels like it cant keep up with the engine (if that makes any sense). I will probably save my cash for a trd clutch.

Thanks for all your input.