Seized Throwout Bearing – How To Tackle This Problem?
August 10, 2021So, you have experienced some difficulties with your clutch pedal. It just doesn’t want to return to its place? If that’s the case you are probably having a seized throwout bearing.
- What Is A Throwout Bearing?
- Seized Throwout Bearing Symptoms
- Throwout Bearing Replacement DIY
- Throwout Bearing Replacement Cost
- Conclusion
The throwout bearing is located in the place where your transmission connects with the clutch. And this bearing is telling the clutch to engage and disengage. And that’s why it is a crucial component of your vehicle, because without throwout bearing you will never gonna be able to properly shift gears.
These bearings know to develop a lot of issues and cause problems to car owners who drive a manual transmission. This problem does not appear in cars that are running an automatic.
If you have one of these issues, it is important to address the problem as soon as possible. Because this bearing can fail any time and you will not be able to get your car into gear. This will mean that your car will be stuck and you have to be picked up by a roadside assistance. So, in order to fix this problem, make an appointment with your local mechanic and resolve this problem. Or fix it by yourself, and that’s something that we are going to discuss in this article.
In this article, we are going to cover everything when it comes to seized throwout bearing issue. We are going to discuss the main symptoms of a bad or seized throwout bearing and how to diagnose the issue. Then we are going to cover the process of replacing this bearing by creating a small tutorial. And lastly, we are going to discuss the costs when it comes to fixing this issue. So, let’s begin.
What Is A Throwout Bearing?
The throwout bearing is an integral part in your clutch setup. This bearing is also called a clutch release bearing. Its name basically tells everything. This means that this bearing releases the clutch.
When you apply the clutch with the pedal you are making the release fork that is behind the throwout bearing to move in and out. And by moving in and out it compresses the throwout bearing and engages and disengages the clutch.
This is a fairly simple process and very effective. Throwout bearings are not failing that often but when they fail, they develop some symptoms and in the next chapter we are going to cover the bad throwout bearing symptoms.
Bad or Seized Throwout Bearing Symptoms
When a throwout bearing goes bad, it starts developing some symptoms. Like with every part on your car so the throwout bearing is having issues when its feeling ill. Some of them are more pronounced while some of them are less pronounced and are more difficult to spot. We are going to get through the most common ones that are a dead giveaway when you are having a seized throwout bearing,
1. Clutch Pedal Bottoms Out
One of the clearest symptoms of a bad throwout bearing is when the clutch pedal bottoms out and doesn’t want to return to its normal position. This is a clear example of a seized throwout bearing.
Even though it can be also confused with problems with the hydraulic system. Since hydraulic fluid is telling the pedal to return to its position.
But if the bearing is seized it also wont going to allow for the clutch pedal to return to its position.
So, considering both these outcomes is a logical option if you experiencing your clutch pedal going down and not returning in place.
2. Throwout Bearing Noise
Another dead giveaway when you have a seized throwout bearing is the throwout bearing noise that the car develops. These sounds appear when you press the clutch. In order to diagnose this issue, you need to follow these steps.
Press the clutch pedal. If you are hearing some noises coming from the transmission then you are experiencing a throwout bearing problem. These noises usually start when you press the pedal and until you hit the floor with your leg they disappear.
This is a clear example of a seized throwout bearing. In order to resolve this issue, you have to change this seized throwout bearing with a new one. And later in this article we are going to explain how you can perform this practice on your car.
3. Shifting Issues
When you have a bad throwout bearings you will probably going to have some shifting issues with your manual transmission. This is inevitable and you will notice them right away.
If you have a seized throwout bearing your transmission will probably wont like to go in gear. Since the bearing is deformed it can ruin the shifting process.
The transmission will go into gear eventually but its not going to be happy. And if you are too persistent and try to put the car into gear by force, you may also damage some of the components that are inside of the transmission and also the component to which this bearing is mounted.
And this can cost you in the end a lot of money to repair. So, when you are experiencing a bad throwout bearing you have to drive carefully and when the car does not want to go into gear, don’t force it. Shift the car into second gear if possible and limp to your nearest mechanics shop to get this thing repaired.
Throwout Bearing Replacement DIY Tutorial
And now we came to the interesting part, and that is how to replace a throwout bearing in a DIY fashion. We car guys love to work on our cars and do not allow others experiment on our cars. Personally, I’m proud of that and I use every chance to wrench on my ride.
But let’s get to the point. This job is labor intensive and is basically a two-man job. You will also going to need a lift and a big jack that can go high because the transmission has to be removed. If you don’t have these tools then going to a friend’s house that has these tools will be a great idea. If you don’t have them its almost impossible to do it, especially if you are not extremely skilled. But nevertheless, let’s begin with our small tutorial.
Step 1
First thing’s first, you need to jack up the car on a lift in order to access the transmission and the drive shaft bolts. You have to be able to reach these bolts in order to remove the transmission.
Step 2
Now its time to remove the transmission. Make sure that you place a big jack up in the air that will hold the transmission and slowly will bring down the transmission, so you can change the seized throwout bearing.
Step 3
Now its time to remove the old bearing and replace it with a new one. It should be fairly simple to remove it from its place and replace it with a new oem part. Make sure that you grease the mating surfaces. These bearings usually come greased from the factory but it doesn’t hurt if you put some grease on them before install.
Step 4
After installing the bearing now it’s time to install the transmission on the car and connect everything as it should. Don’t forget anything and make sure that you don’t end up with leftover parts. Then you are good to go.
Pro Tip
When you are replacing the seized throwout bearing, it is a good idea to replace the clutch as well. I’m saying this because if your clutch doesn’t have life in it will probably going to fail sooner or later. And if it fails you will have to remove the transmission again and spend a lot of money on this work. So, the best is to do all the work at once.
Throwout Bearing Replacement Cost
Cost to replace a bearing is low, a new bearing will not gonna cost you more than $60. But the labor is going to cost you a lot. Considering the prices per hour at some shops go from $50 to $100. This work is going to be expensive.
You will probably gonna need six hours to do this work. And that is $300 on the cheapest. If you go to a more expensive shop its going to be double than that for sure.
But if you have a friend with a lift and you enjoy doing mechanical work on your car, you will only pay for the bearing and you are good to go.
That’s why wrenching is worth it and you probably should do it if you are not.
Conclusion
In this article, we have covered a lot. We learned what a throwout bearing is and where is located. What is its role and how it is helping you out to make smooth shifts in your manual transmission car.
Then we have covered all the symptoms of a bad throwout bearing and these were the throwout bearing noises, the bottomed out clutch pedal and the shifting issues.
Then we saw how you can replace a throwout bearing DIY. I hope that with this small tutorial some of you are going to have a clear understanding about this work.
And lastly, we have covered the costs concerned to this job. If you are doing it on your own with a friend is not going to cost you a lot. But if you are doing this work at a mechanics shop its going to cost you some penny. So, if you have the chance of getting this job for the cheapest, you can go for it. If you can’t, then let the more experienced people to take care of this issue for you.
We also covered other topics that can be of your interest like a tune up cost, this can be extremely useful information if you are planning to do a tune up on your vehicle. We also recently wrote about the 5.7 HEMI mods, if you have a Charger or Challenger this can come in handy. Thanks for reading.
