Burnt grease inside of the clutch slave cylinder causing a squeaky clutch pedal

tylermmorton

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Hi guys, I wanted to share my discoveries just incase anyone else was experiencing the same problem. Around 50k miles my R's clutch pedal started squeaking pretty loudly whenever the car got hot - especially after about 30-45 minutes of stop and go traffic, or anytime the weather was above 80 degrees. I took it by the dealer since it seemed like something that would get covered under the powertrain warranty but they weren't able to reproduce it so they did nothing.



Well, I dug in myself and I found out the squeaking was coming from the slave cylinder located just on top of the transmission right next to the downpipe. Here's a video demonstrating how the cylinder operates when you press the clutch.



I peeled back the rubber boot and it seemed like the heat from the exhaust completely burned up the grease. Probably also some dirt and grime got in there over time.



Here's an example of a normal OEM Slave Cylinder that has never been installed. I bought one of these a while back when I was thinking about deleting the delay valve. You guys out there that have done this probably recognize this little guy. An uneducated observation, but it seems like the grease they use here is just normal silicon grease. Not sure how heat resistant that stuff is and how comparable it is to hi-temp grease - I'd be curious to know from anyone that does.



Long story short, I bought some Hi-Temp grease from Autozone, cleaned off the cylinder boot and push rod of the old grease, and re-greased it. Immediately I was able to feel a significant difference in the smoothness of the clutch pedal, and the squeaking seems to be gone!

I'm going to start checking the grease now whenever I change the transmission fluid, since the slave cylinder is literally right next to the transmission fill hole and both jobs require you to take off the airbox.

To do this work, you'll need:
- 5.5mm socket or phillips head screwdriver for the hose clamps on the air box
- 10mm socket
- Some socket extensions
- Needle Nose Pliers (for re-applying the boot)
- Some hi-temp grease

Anyways, I hope this helps some people, especially as we go into the spring and summer months. Good luck and happy modding :)
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TheLifeOfBrax

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blitz

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Very informative, thanks for sharing your findings, and remediation tips
 

Hayabusa160

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you can but from my prior experience i used to use high temp wheel bearing grease i find it dries up much faster then the oem grease. but i think any smilar urea based grease will work fine gm makes one that works very good also you can prob find something similar at your local parts store

Can we use any high temp grease? I drove for about 2 1/2 hours today. I was almost home and my clutch started creaking. I’m guessing this could be the problem.
 
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tylermmorton

tylermmorton

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I bought some of the Honda Super Hi-Temp Urea Grease Part 08798-9002:

72fenvV.jpg


I’ll be making sure the grease boot stays greased.
Awesome dude, let us know how it works for you! The grease I used wasn't the Honda brand and it seems to have already burnt up. Might have to re-do this with the Honda grease
 

Si_chRis

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While greasing the slave cylinder dowel/shaft might help with the noise, you need to grease the ball end where it pivots on the clutch fork to stop the squeaking.
 


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tylermmorton

tylermmorton

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While greasing the slave cylinder dowel/shaft might help with the noise, you need to grease the ball end where it pivots on the clutch fork to stop the squeaking.
Thanks Chris, that's a good tip. I will make sure to do that the next time the car is apart.
 
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tylermmorton

tylermmorton

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Hey guys, an update; I had my car apart this past weekend and made sure to give the slave cylinder some more grease using the genuine Honda Urea grease. I used a Q-tip to clean out whatever was in the boot of the slave cylinder (a lot of brown gunk came out) and re-greased the dowel and shaft.

My question is, how do I go about greasing the ball end like Chris suggests? It seems to be attached pretty securely and not easily removable by hand. Does the whole slave cylinder need to be unbolted? If so, I'd assume that the clutch line needs to be bled empty to avoid a mess. Any tips would be great!

- Tyler
 

Fountainhead

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Hi Tyler,

After 50,000 miles have you noticed if your throwout bearing is still touching your clutch fingers?
Coming from a hydraulic clutch with all those associated failures I was hoping that the CTR at least had the throwout bearing not spinning on the clutch fingers 24/7 to reduce wear and increase it's lifetime.

Thanks!
 

Si_chRis

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Hey guys, an update; I had my car apart this past weekend and made sure to give the slave cylinder some more grease using the genuine Honda Urea grease. I used a Q-tip to clean out whatever was in the boot of the slave cylinder (a lot of brown gunk came out) and re-greased the dowel and shaft.

My question is, how do I go about greasing the ball end like Chris suggests? It seems to be attached pretty securely and not easily removable by hand. Does the whole slave cylinder need to be unbolted? If so, I'd assume that the clutch line needs to be bled empty to avoid a mess. Any tips would be great!

- Tyler
I actually regreased mine recently after passing 35K miles for preventative maintenance even though I did not have any squeaking sounds.

I unbolted the slave cylinder from the transmission, as well as the one nut that holds the hard line to a bracket. Once you undo both, you can swing the entire slave cylnder assembly over, and off the clutch fork giving you better access. What I did next was swing the entire slave cylinder assembly up towards me so it was easier to work with. You can pull off the boot and push pin entirely to clean and regease it. You also have better access to the clutch fork below to clean and dab grease on where the push pin ball end sits and pivots.

It is a bit tricky to get the slave cylinder back in its place though. You gotta compress the push pin back into the slave cylinder and hold it in, quickly position it on the transmission, and push it against the clutch fork, all while starting to thread one of the two slave cylinder bolt to hold it in.

Doing the above, the hydraulic system stays closed. No lines or bleeders have to be cracked open.
 
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tylermmorton

tylermmorton

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Right on! Thanks for clarifying, Chris. I've got the airbox and battery out today to do a Flex Fuel install, so I'll give this a go while I'm down there.

As for what Fountainhead mentioned... I'm not sure how to tell the positioning of the TOB. I'm assuming I would hear it spinning still. I'll see if I can do more research
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