lowbee

I have a faint hydraulic noise during the clutch travel whenever I engage or disengage the clutch. The noise can only be heard in 1st gear and with the radio off so the it is not loud at all and you have to pay attention to hear it. I am not sure if it is making that noise in higher gear because I can't hear it due to engine rpm. It doesn't make that noise when the engine is NOT running when I am pushing/releasing the clutch; it will make that noise when engine is idling but the car is not in gear. I can only describe the noise as hydraulic noise because it sounds like the noise any hood or hatchback hydraulic damper will make going up or down. The car has only come out of winter storage a few days ago and I can't remember if the noise was there last summer. I should also mention that I had no trouble going in gear. Brake fluid reservoir is at max and fluid looks clean.

The car drives completely normal and smooth so I am not sure if I am just being paranoid or if this is an early sign of something going to fail.....

TheBruce

Not sure. How many miles?

Couple suspects are the clutch release bearing (aka throwout bearing) and the slave cylinder. The clutch release bearing is typically more of a squeaking noise vs a "hydraulic noise". Not much you can do there. Thats replaced with the clutch. Another common issue on 997s is the rubber boot on the slave cylinder piston dries out and cracks off. That allows the metal piston to ride on the metal release arm. My indy said it can gouge the release arm. This could create some type of noise. Mine was cracked off but I had no noise and luckily no gouging on the release arm (if it is your need to replace or it will chew up the new piston boot). You can remove the slave to inspect it without taking the transmission off but its not fun.

Best I got. Hopefully some of the other guys have more suggestions.

lowbee

Thanks, car has 50K miles

floatingkiwi

I had to replace the clutch master with the same symptoms. It eventually went to the floor and would stay there.

lowbee

How many more miles do I have before it fail ? Does it get progressively louder before it fail ?

How big a job is it to replace the master cyclinder?

floatingkiwi

It's easy, just fiddly. When it goes it goes.....