Straight noise coming from 355 Clutch

I dont know if anyone can help me diagnose this problem.

A high pitch scretching noise was coming from the engine bay every time I engaged my clutch and the noise remained while driving. If I depressed the clutch the noise would go, engage gear and it would come back. I then started to feel a slight rumble through the pedal under my foot. This carried on for about 30 minutes as I tried to figure out what was happening. Then on my final test drive home, the noise completely stopped and has not returned. Almost as if something was lodged /loose and has now corrected itself.


Has anyone got any ideas what it could have been? My current clutch has done around 10K miles I think, it is not slipping and has not been problematic.

Thanks in advance for any ideas.

 

This noise may be one of those enigmatic Ferrari things and will never return or cause any harm to you, the car, or the highly endangered Spix's Macaw.

Alternatively, something bad is going to happen and it will hurt the car a little and hurt your bank account significantly.

Given the latter is more likely, if it were MY 355, I'd get a reputable mechanic (not necessarily a dealer) to investigate. A gearbox rebuild on a 355 is not exactly cheap....

Dave

 

Having gone through a full engine rebuild already .... nothing scares me Of course Im lying!!!!

Its strange the way the problem came and went so fast....

 

You could have a bearing/s going bad in the syncros.

 

ade ,me be the clutch bearing has the car been stood a little while or got damp ? maybe worth checking the gearbox oil level too as when oils gets up to temp this may start to lubricate a dry bearing or something.

 

Thanks for the ideas/info guys. It turns out it was the release bearing

 

How did this get determined? Curious minds need to know!

And may I ask - why the full engine rebuild?

Thanks, Dave

 

The mechanic I use said it was a very distinctive noise that he had heard many times before. The way that it changed while operating the clutch also led him to believe this was it. So further investigation on the clutch and release bearing is underway now.


Why the full engine rebuild? Valve guides needed doing, so while they were swapped out, I had the rest of the engine brought back up to scratch, considering its done 37,000 miles I thought I might as well get the compression back up to a nice high and level set of figures. Also most of the bill was labour taking engine out, stripping it, so the actual cost of the rest of the rebuild was mainly just parts - certainly not cheap but you get what Im saying I hope.

Final cost was around £12,000 - thats around $19,000 I think.