Squeaky clutch pedal

[CL65 Captain]

My clutch works fine... but it squeaks when pressing and depressing the clutch. I got down under the dash and sounds like it is actually coming from the Master Cylinder push rod instead of the pedal. Does that make sense? No leaks at all. Is the squeaking a symptom of things to come. I also opened up the reservoir and it is alot dirtier than the brake fluid which I flush often. I guess the first step would be to flush the system.

Just checking to see if anyone else experienced this symptom.

BTW: 2000 with 19k miles.

 

[Briank]

The pedal return spring likes to make some noise a little wd40 should take care of it.

 

[nsxtcy85]

My clutch works fine... but it squeaks when pressing and depressing the clutch. I got down under the dash and sounds like it is actually coming from the Master Cylinder push rod instead of the pedal. Does that make sense? No leaks at all. Is the squeaking a symptom of things to come. I also opened up the reservoir and it is alot dirtier than the brake fluid which I flush often. I guess the first step would be to flush the system.

Just checking to see if anyone else experienced this symptom.

BTW: 2000 with 19k miles.

I had this same problem. I just installed the new master and slave cylinder a few days ago and the noise is still there. So I doubt its your master cylinder.

 

[BLKDMD]

I had the exact same thing happen with my prelude. WD40 work for all of 20 mins. need to replace linkage pin and grease the pedal linkage.

 

[MJK]

I had the same problem in another car. Greased the pivot pin and it solved the problem. Had the same problem in the NSX, but the master was beginning to weep after about.... 9 years. Anyways. Might want to poke your head under the dash with a flashlight and make SURE the master is OK. Mine had the same crud in the reservoir. It also had a slightly wet piston that you could see under the dash. I DIYed a new slave and master 'preventatively'. The feel was much improved and the noise was gone.

$.02

 

[CL65 Captain]

Double checked and the rod is bone dry and clutch works fine. I will try and grease the pivot pin, and assist springs tomorrow.

thanks guys.

 

[CL65 Captain]

Not the pedal.... greased it real well and it doesn't squeak when the piston rod was disconnected and I move the pedal back and forth. Must be the master cylinder squeaking.

 

[SWIFTVISION]

Mine is doing this too.

 

[MJK]

Not the pedal.... greased it real well and it doesn't squeak when the piston rod was disconnected and I move the pedal back and forth. Must be the master cylinder squeaking.

I'd probably swap it. Especially if there is black crap in the reservoir. Its really not hard to do.

Some links if you are so inclined:
One here and another here.

 

[JoeSchmoe]

I had a similar problem as well a few years back. After trying WD40 on the pedal assembly didnt work, I eventually traced it back to the slave cylinder plunger / clutch release fork. The plunger rubs against the cup on the release fork and the sound was transmitting back through the hydraulic lines to the master cylinder. Lubing the release fork and slave cylinder plunger quieted down the squeaks quite a bit in my case.

-- Joe

 

[stevenlee]

I had a squeak and stickiness in my clutch and traced it to the clutch fork. I removed it enough to get some grease on it with a chip brush and my clutch travel was much smoother and the squeak went away.

 

[jagtiger]

I had a similar problem as well a few years back. After trying WD40 on the pedal assembly didnt work, I eventually traced it back to the slave cylinder plunger / clutch release fork. The plunger rubs against the cup on the release fork and the sound was transmitting back through the hydraulic lines to the master cylinder. Lubing the release fork and slave cylinder plunger quieted down the squeaks quite a bit in my case.

-- Joe

My clutch starts squeaking when I drove my nsx today. Does anybody has a picture of the clutch release fork?

 

[mwagner10702]

From the service manual:


View attachment 152256

Actual fork:

View attachment 152257

 

[Old Guy]

As JoeSchmoe described, a common source for the clutch related 'squeak' is where the slave cylinder piston presses on the semi circular cup on the release fork. It gets dry and you get a squeak and it can feel a bit 'grittty' (for lack of a better description) when pressing down on the clutch pedal. It takes a little bit of effort; but, with the longest cotton swab that you can find use it to apply some of that wonderful ultra fragrant Honda urea grease into the cup area on the fork. You don't have to take anything apart to do this so its worth a try.

 

[jagtiger]

From the service manual:


View attachment 152256

Actual fork:

View attachment 152257

mwagner10702,

Thank you for the pictures. It really help me a lot to locate the release fork. I really appreciate the help. ��

 

[jagtiger]

As JoeSchmoe described, a common source for the clutch related 'squeak' is where the slave cylinder piston presses on the semi circular cup on the release fork. It gets dry and you get a squeak and it can feel a bit 'grittty' (for lack of a better description) when pressing down on the clutch pedal. It takes a little bit of effort; but, with the longest cotton swab that you can find use it to apply some of that wonderful ultra fragrant Honda urea grease into the cup area on the fork. You don't have to take anything apart to do this so its worth a try.

Thanks for quick reply and invaluable tip oldguy. Would you know if this is something I can reach from the top or I will need to raise the car and work underneath?

 

[mwagner10702]

I believe you will need to access from underneath. You will also need to pull back the boot that covers the fork (yellow arrow). The "knob" at the end of the slave cylinder that @Old Guy mentioned is what needs the lube and is marked by the blue arrow. As @Old Guy mentioned, you can lube the fork cup as well to get lube onto the "knob".

View attachment 152289

 

[Old Guy]

Thanks for quick reply and invaluable tip oldguy. Would you know if this is something I can reach from the top or I will need to raise the car and work underneath?

It is much, much, much easier to do it when the car is up on a hoist. It can be done from the top; but, it can be frustrating. I used a long dabber to work the grease on to the cup because you are not getting your fingers down there. You don't really need to pull back the rubber boot on the slave piston because it does not cover the contact area between the piston and the fork. Where the arrow with the grease gun points in the diagram posted by mwagner is where the urea grease needs to go.

The first time I had my car lubed I had the service tech do it during an oil and coolant change. About 4 years later I did it myself. Next time I will probably have the service tech do it when it is up on the hoist.

 

[mwagner10702]

. . .You don't really need to pull back the rubber boot on the slave piston . . .

Thanks for the correction. I thought I remembered my tech having to pull back the boot slightly but time has a way of altering one's memory.

 

[Old Guy]

Thanks for the correction. I thought I remembered my tech having to pull back the boot slightly but time has a way of altering one's memory.

The tech might have done that. Pulling the boot back slightly (the boot doesn't cover the contact point) probably makes it easier to work grease into the contact area. Probably easy to do from the bottom of the car. No way that you could get your hands in there to pull the boot back and apply grease from the top of the car.

My advice to Jagtiger is that if you are going to grease the contact point from the top of the car, close the garage door so that any small children who happen to be in the area will be saved from learning colorful new adjectives.

 

[Kaz-kzukNA1]

If you want to check whether the noise is coming from the 'pocket' of the release fork or not, then with the engine switched off while in quiet place, operate the CL pedal several times.
You may hear the squeaking noise (metal on metal) or even you may be able to feel it through the pedal (vibration, roughness, etc).

Then, get the penetrating oil spray and aim it carefully only at the 'pocket'.
Never aim it towards the opening of the CL case where the release fork leads into as you may cause new but serious issue.

Repeat the above CL pedal test after spraying the oil at the pocket.
If the noise has disappeared, you found the cause.

I have seen many people claiming that you can replace the CL slave cyl or apply the grease from the top but I have no idea how it can be done properly
especially how to clean any remaining of the previous grease/debris from the pocket and also check the seating of the plunger into the pocket as well as the dust boot.


By the way, seems like bit of confusion regarding the 'boot'.
There are two of them but one is more of a dust cover and the other one is the bellow boot of the slave cyl plunger.

You must shift the dust cover well enough to expose the pocket area but since the cover is not that soft material/shape and it sits around the body of the slave cyl, not an easy task
unless you remove the two slave cyl fixing bolts.
You don't want changing anything after checking the seating of plunger into the pocket so you will need to do this with the dust cover around the slave cyl body.

Please apply silicone/rubber grease around the outer surface of the plunger bellow boot as well.
After years of usage, the surface could be contaminated and it could create different type of noise (rubber on rubber) when sliding against the internal surface of the dust boot.

After applying the fresh grease at the pocket, please check the seating of the plunger into the pocket and then re-install the dust cover.
Please double check the seating of the dust cover all the way 360deg.


Kaz

 

[Old Guy]

Well it appears that I was able to blob grease on to my plunger from the top because I am missing the dust boot. Something to add to the to-do list. I definitely didn't clean the contact area before blobbing new grease on. Looking at Kaz's picture of the dust boot, I am presuming that I am going to have to unbolt the slave cylinder from the clutch housing to fit the new boot. I am further presuming that this would just be an unbolt / bolt back on operation involving the two mounting bolts without touching the hydraulic line, that there isn't some hidden mystery that precipitates a need to bleed the clutch system?

Given the comments about assuring the correct engagement of the plunger with the fork, I presume the correct order (for me) would be to:
unbolt the slave
clean and lubricate the fork
slip new dust boot over slave
bolt slave back on to housing making sure that plunger correctly engages the fork
pop dust cover back into clutch housing opening

Installing the dust cover on the clutch housing first and then slipping the slave piston into the dust cover seems like much less of a struggle; but, not the preferred way to do this?