Huskymaniac

My mechanic "lubed" the pedal assembly and it went away for a couple of day. I don't know what he used but it doesn't appear to be good enough. I have read about the Honda Urea grease. I have read about Moly-rich greases. Has anyone tried Krytox for this purpose:


Ferrari used this stuff a lot and it comes in a nice syringe which is convenient for injecting into the hole where the pushrod is. I just don't know if there could be any issues with trying it.

Huskymaniac

No opinion on the proper lubrication for various pedal parts?

gwiffer

iTrader: (7)

It's not the pedal assembly that's the problem; search for the CMC (Clutch master cylinder) TSB.

TLtrigirl

iTrader: (1)

^^what he said.

i had the TSB performed...no more squeak.

Huskymaniac

That's a bold statement given that you haven't seen or heard the issue. And people have argued this point over the years, from what my searches have turned up. In some cases, it was the MC. In other cases, changing the MC and lubing up the pedal only helped for about as long as people have reported for just lubing the pedal assembly. In other words, it was the pedal. But there has been a lot of debate on what lubricant to use and where.

For the plunger/push rod, the two most common are Honda Urea grease and aerosol white lithium. With the aerosol, it seems as though people need to spray it in there, let it dry and then let the pedal back out. That has the advantage of getting into tight spaces. But the Urea grease is what is suggested by Honda and people who injected it with the pedal depressed, using a syringe, have also had success.

There is a wide array of greases out there. The most common thickeners are Lithium, Calcium Sulfonate, Aluminum, Teflon and Urea. The base oils can be silicone, mineral oil, PAO, POE or other esters and some more exotic stuff like what is used in Krytox. Then you have additives like Molybdenum, Teflon (PTFE) and Graphite. But I read somewhere that using a grease with particulate additive in the MC is not recommended. Esters have the tendency to wet metal surfaces and creep. I don't know the advantages of Urea over Lithium. I am hoping the Honda grease is Urea thickened ester.

For the spring and pivot point I am thinking an ester based grease with moly is the best bet. Moly is good for metal to metal contact and ester has the advantages mentioned above. I may just use my Redline grease for them.

For the bearing/bushing holding the spring, a grease with moly and/or Teflon, which is tackier than average, is probably the best bet. I am thinking of using the grease sold by either Energy Suspension or Prothane for their polyurethane bushings. There are other options like Krytox but I need to buy the bushing grease anyways for my sway bar bushings so it seems logical to try that first.

Huskymaniac

I'm not getting a squeak. I'm getting a few pops that go away when the spring is lubricated. They didn't go away when the MC plunger/push rod was lubricated. I will lubricate that anyways but it is clear that there are two issues people experience and mine appears to be the one with regards to the pedal assembly and not the MC.

gwiffer

iTrader: (7)

If you put your head under the dash and depress the clutch pedal, where is the noise coming from? Is it the pedal assembly or the clutch master cylinder? The pushrod is part of the CMC, not the pedal assembly.

My CMC pops and the pedal assembly makes no noise. White lithium grease injected with a syringe works temporarily for me.

TLtrigirl

iTrader: (1)

my dealer lubed the pedal assembly...it squeaked immediately after i got the car back (while i was still at the dealer).

i occasionally would get the "click" you are speaking of. it wasn't so much of an audible click, but i could feel it through the pedal along with the squeak. one of my service advisors i mentioned it to said...doesn't matter what the conditions, it makes the noise (based on the cases that they had). they try to lube it, but it doesn't get rid of the problem. the TSB came out in 2011, so Acura figured out what the problem was...only took them 6-7 yrs since the 04-05 model years. the push rod you guys are talking about for the MC cylinder is rubbing b/c it's too long. at least that is what my SA told me. will it fail? who knows. is it annoying as hell? yes. i have enough rattles and ticks in my car...i dont' need a squeak to add to the collection.

nj2pa2nc

on rare occasions I get the clutch click but not enough to be annoying.It happens after the car has not been driven for a few days. After 161K miles I have to write my car seems to be rattle free. (knock-on-wood)

Huskymaniac

At this point I would have to say it is coming from the pedal/spring.

Huskymaniac

I finally got around to greasing the pedal assembly up. It is tight in there for my big a$$ and sausage fingers but I did my best. The plunger was the easiest. I put the Urea grease in a syringe, pushed the pedal in, filled the cavity with grease and started working it in by pushing the pedal in and out, a little at first and then out more and more. I then wiped off the excess when the pedal was fully out. I used Prothane bushing grease on the plastic bushings that hold the ends and center of the spring. That was tougher to get to and I think I may have been unable to get to one of the center bushings. On the spring itself, I used Redline bearing grease which contains a lot of moly. That's good for metal-to-metal contact. That was the toughest to do. One side of the spring wasn't too bad but the other was a bear and, really, all I could to was put a little grease on my finger tip and just poke it up there. Hopefully it will work its way around the spring and between the coils. It should because Redline uses an Ester oil base which wets the metal and creeps over the surface.

Now the car stinks a little of grease but hopefully that will dissipate over time. But, damn, the pedal feels SOOOOO much lighter and is much quieter. Next up, replace the tranny fluid with Redline MTL for better synchro operation and less notchiness in the shifter.

614erich

I had clutch master done 15k miles ago and no more squeak or pop

Huskymaniac

First of all, a squeak and a pop are not the same thing and could indicate different issues. Second, many people who had popping or clicking just lubed up their pedal assembly and went just as many miles as you without it returning.

I learned a long time ago to try out the simple solutions first. I once had a car with a coolant temperature gauge that fluctuated as I drove. Some people insisted it meant I had a blown headgasket. They "had the same exact symptom as me" and it turned out to be the headgasket. It was a "well known fact" that when those cars reached a certain age their headgaskets were likely to start leaking. It was "common". But a wise man suggested trying some simple stuff first like checking to make sure the water pump was working properly, the radiator cap was working properly and to try changing out the thermostat. None of them helped. So it was the headgaset, right? Well, not so fast. I noticed the gauge was bouncing from cold to normal, not normal to hot. So I had the sender replaced. Then the gauge bounced from normal to hot! For sure, now, it HAD to be the headgasket, right? But I was bothered by the fact that the behavior changed. Didn't make sense. Either the car was overheating or underheating. It couldn't be BOTH. I did a little more digging and found out that third party senders could be inaccurate. So I bought an OEM sender and tried again. The gauge has been rock solid at normal ever since!

I had people telling me I was in denial or that I was wasting money just randomly swapping out parts when everyone KNEW what the problem was. Sooooo many of them replaced their headgasket and it fixed THEIR bouncing temperature gauge. Well, a thermostat, radiator cap and temperature sender are a hell of a lot cheaper than a headgasket job! Temperature senders drift out of calibration with age and temperature gauges are made with a dead zone in the middle. When the sender is out of the dead zone, the gauge fluctuates. Aftermarket senders tend to not reliably hit the dead zone. The dead zone, by the way, is there so people don't freak out when their gauges move. Any temperature in the normal range puts the sender resitance in the dead zone and your gauge stays nice and still.

So when people tell me I need to replace a master cylinder or synchro, I get skeptical and start searching for simpler answers first.