Scottish Elises

It sounds very similar to a loose alternator belt, it's not that and it disappears when I touch the clutch pedal.

Any ideas?

Cheers

scott

It's the release bearing; when you start to apply pressure on the pedal the actuator arm pushes the bearing against the pressure plate which compresses the bearing a little and it stops squealing.

New bearing required and soon, probably. They can fail leaving you with no clutch. It should go without saying that you should replace the clutch at the same time.

Cheers,
Robin

Mine makes a kinda grinding noise, not a squeal... I know mine needs replacing soon as it makes the box sound like an 80's race car, dip the clutch and silence. It's on my to do list!

If anyone has a spare CR box I could be tempted to hit that at the same time along with a LW Flywheel but not sure I need either for my use

Mark, I do have a LW flywheel somewhere or other, new, unfitted, if you're interested.

They always make some noise, but if it sounds like a dry-clutch gearbox then it is time to replace ASAP. Rather than going down the CR box route you could consider some of the aftermarket gear kits floating around - see the gearbox man on the inter web for example. I have a completely standard box that is yours for free if you decide you want to send it away and get it rebuilt into some alternate ratio box.

Cheers,
Robin

Robin... I've said it before and I'll say it again.... You are the man! I'll keep you posted on progress, it's a dry rotational noise I have

robin wrote:It's the release bearing; when you start to apply pressure on the pedal the actuator arm pushes the bearing against the pressure plate which compresses the bearing a little and it stops squealing.

New bearing required and soon, probably. They can fail leaving you with no clutch. It should go without saying that you should replace the clutch at the same time.

Cheers,
Robin

It got a new clutch about 4 years ago and I'm only doing 4000 miles a year these days. I think even then it was the clutch arm that had seized, the clutch itself wasn't the problem iirc.
Do you think it could just be the bearing drying out and need lubrication? Which of course means opening the whole thing up anyways, but still... would be good to know

You cannot lubricate the bearing - you just replace it.

The labour dominates the cost so unless you're doing the work yourself you should replace the whole clutch at the same time as the bearing.

If you've got time on your hands and like the smell of gearbox oil then you can remove the gearbox, replace just the bearing, put it back together again.

I think the release bearing by itself will be about £40 and a whole clutch kit from a motor factors maybe about £150?

Cheers,
Robin