Hey guys,

My clutch was feeling a little sticky so I polished up the slave cylinder rod, applied fresh Honda Urea grease to the rod and the clutch fork cup, and lubed the tips of the fork.
I also bled my clutch with fresh ATE Typ 200 fluid.

Clutch felt amazingly smooth for about a day, and although the stickiness is gone, the clutch now feels very rough, but only when the car is on.
The weird thing is that sometimes I drive the car it feels buttery smooth, but most of the time it's very rough.

Any ideas?

 

VERY likely that your release guide is not properly lubed or is worn out.

Try spraying some grease at it through the fork opening in the trans. If you note a big improvement after doing that...its probably time to think about dropping the trans to fix it permanently.

Fix permanently = new release guide and urea grease.

 

 

Thanks guys, it probably is the release guide.

I lubed the fork tips again and it was fine for about a day, then rough again.
It's weird though because I didn't have roughness prior to disassembly, only slight stickiness.

 

Hmm, I made a video while the clutch fork boot was off and the clutch slave cylinder rod and fork moves even when the car is off.
Does the release bearing not slide on the guide when the car is off?

Trying to narrow things down short of dropping the trans

 

 

 

There seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding of how the clutch works. Its all mechanical/hydraulic. Everything that happens, everything that moves when you press it is the same if engine is running or not. As mentioned, the only difference is wheyher or not some of those pieces that move are also spinning.

The pedal presses the MC rod, which forces hydraulic fluid through the pipe and hose to the Slave cylinder. The slave cylinder rod moves in unison, pressing the clutch fork, which mirrors the pedal motion. The fork pulls on the release bearing, which is spinning if engine is running (and which slides on release bearing guide), and release bearing pulls against the pressure plates spring (and of course the whole pp assembly is spinning with engine). The pressure plate moves away from the disk (also spinning if engine is), creating clearance, and disengaging trans from engine.

Hopefully that paints a mental picture that clearly shows all the same things happen engine running or not...

 

How many miles on the clutch disc & pressure plate? Throw-out bearing? Maybe time for dropping transmission and inspecting those items?

 

Appreciate all the inputs guys.

I bought the car a few months ago, so I'm not 100% certain exactly how much mileage is on the parts of the transmission and if they were replaced or replaced properly for that matter.
The previous owner told me that the clutch was replaced with an Exedy OEM equivalent around 50k miles. I bought it at 70k, and now I'm at 75k. However, based on some of the things I've seen while tinkering with the car for the past few months, the previous owner likely didn't replace anything but the clutch while the trans was out. I've also read somewhere that the TOB that comes with the Exedy kit is crap.

Anyways, looks like I'll have to drop the trans regardless to solve the issue.