MrBluGruv

For background on my car, it's a 2002 Camaro SS 6M, Tick Master Cylinder with a Luk (I believe?) clutch kit for all other clutch parts, Master done at approx 90K miles and the rest of the clutch kit done at approx 95K miles, car currently has approx. 104K miles.

For the past few months I've been fighting an issue with irregular clutch disengagement; sometimes I can drive completely normally as though the clutch has just been swapped, but mostly it will simply refuse to enter a gear with the clutch pedal fully depressed. Sometimes while holding the clutch down it will make a metallic squealing noise of varying loudness, and usually when that is happening coincides with when the car will not go into gear. At no point does the pedal have any different feel, it always returns to the top of its travel and never feels loose.

I have tried the ranger method for cleaning hydraulic fluid and it seemed to help a bit, but it's now gotten to a point where even with clear fluid it still has this issue, though there was a LOT of blackened fluid at first.

Here is another kicker though: I can try to put the car in gear with the engine running and it will absolutely refuse to enter a gear, but if I shut the engine off, sink the trans into gear and then turn the car back on with the clutch depressed, I can then proceed in that one gear with totally normal clutch engagement feel (no lurch, no slip, totally normal) until I try to hit another gear, which is basically hit-or-miss unless I work to rev-match.

Does anyone have any thoughts? I can't even rationalize what to look at next at this point. Any thoughts or further questions for clarity are appreciated.

Darth_V8r

iTrader: (4)

Sounds like the pilot bearing is toast. Possibly throw out bearing too

MrBluGruv

I was really hoping that wouldn't be the case, especially since both are still relatively "fresh" time-wise and mileage-wise. Well, at least I'll have a decent idea what to expect when I take it in to get worked on if that's the case...