Another clutch noise question

New to the miata scene as of last week & really enjoying it.....! Not had so much fun driving since my '87 MR2!

This is a '97 miata, ~85K miles. Relatively unknown maintenance history. General condition seems to be very good.

When I release the clutch, sometimes I hear a kind of 'chirring' sound, maybe around 1khz, until the clutch fully engages. This occurs in first gear only (might have heard it once or twice in second). Also, if I keep the engine revs just a little higher as I release the clutch, it doesn't make the sound.

Ideas or knowledge on what this sound might be and if it represents something that needs further attention?


Thanks!

Sounds like it could be this : http://www.miata.net/garage/tsb/s003_95.html

Notice it doesn't fit in the year range of your car but it does sound similar.

Welcome to MME!

Mine does something like that but it rattles, started out small noise.
Now my clutch rattles almost every time it's not engaged.
Almost everyone who has heard it has said throwout bearing needs replacing.
They also have said that it's not serious that I change it right away, so I am holding off to get another complete clutch (just because I want to add something more heavy duty).
Hope this helps somewhat, it may not even apply to yours since mine is a 99 model.

My clutch was making a similar grinding noise when halfway to fully engaged, drove the car in its first autocross at Mineral Wells & it hasnt made a peep since, that was a year ago...

:burnrubr:

Throw Out Bearing?

I'm just throwing that out there. ::Rimshot:

Even new installations sometimes have a chirpping sound when the clutch is out. Sometimes it can be the connection between the slave cylinder rod where it meets up to the clutch fork. It is ametal connection and sometimes adding a little grease there may stop the tweety bird sound.

Gary

Thank you for all the suggestions. If/when I find out what it is, I'll certainly post it....

A little more information now on this. I took a friend with me yesterday & tried to get the car to make the sound, but ... no luck! However, this morning, when the car was cold, it made the sound right away as I started to drive away from the house.

Also, the sound ONLY occurs when releasing the clutch pedal -- meaning, when the clutch is neither disengaged, nor fully engaged, and seems to be related to the differences in speed of the engine & transmission. Apparently, that difference in speed needs to be "just right" for the noise to occur. Faster engine speeds, or lower engine speeds than the 'normal' amount of slipping the clutch to start the vehicle moving don't seem to produce the noise.

Thanks again.

Im no expert here but it sounds like you just need to re-grease it.