I started hearing the same noise with the exact same symptoms that Cabo described, that started around 8K and I now have over 16K on my car. Other than a few little noises like this, everything including the clutch are holding up just fine (knock on wood).
I agree that this does not sound like a throw out bearing, the disk spring sounds reasonable. So I would not get too excited about this noise.
I have about 280WHP and drive the car hard most of the time, it's been to several road course track days.
I do not drag race but I have done many hard (5-6K)launches and I do not baby the clutch as some have suggested we do. I am not overly abusive, but I enjoy taking off fast from a dead stop usually 2-3K with a fair amount of clutch slip does the trick. If it causes the clutch to wear out sooner, so be it. Whats the point of having it if your not going to enjoy it?
To me the clutch is no different than the brake pads or tires, yeah if you don't go around corners hard or stop fast they will last a lot longer too. IMO the key is using the proper techniques to get the performance you want without wearing these components out any more than is necessary.
Steping off the soap box now.

 

A head tech I talked to says that the clutch in the Evo is the same as the one in the v6 Eclipse, crap.

 

What exactly does that mean?

 

Hey guys. I've got a 3g eclipse and we've been dealing with this issue for 3 years now. From what we've gathered, its actually the clutch disk rattling at idle, not the TOB. Those that have replaced the whole assembly (with or without the TOB) have not had the rattling continue.

Here are the primary threads to read:
http://www.eclipseforums.org/forum/s...&threadid=8600
http://www.eclipseforums.org/forum/s...threadid=62729

Hope it helps.

 

Head tech at GIllman is incorrect! We have tested them. They look similar and bolt up the same but that is where the similarities stop.

 

If your rattle is the same as others we have heard about, this rattle is definitely from the disc. The rattle is caused by torsional vibrations from the engine. Torsional vibration (crank pulsing) is worse on 4 cylinder cars, diesel cars, and turbo cars. It is also bad on cars with really hot cams. If you had a low compression V8 you would never have this issue. This torsional vibration is supposed to be dampened out by the springs in the disc to prevent the gears in the trans from making noise. The EVO, being a performance car, 4 cylinder and turbocharged makes it difficult for the disc to completely dampen out the vibration. A heavy flywheel also helps dampen out the vibration, but the EVO has a light flywheel.

You could make a heavier flywheel to help get rid of the noise. You could probably design a disc with a multi-stage dampening system to quiet it down. The disc would be heavier, not last as long, shift slower, and give a vague feeling as you load and unload the clutch. You could also go to a dual mass flywheel with lots of dampening and probably get rid of the noise. But, who wants a 40lbs dual mass flywheel? The bottom line is that you will give up something in the way of performance to totally get rid of the noise.

 

T/O bearing warrantied/repair at 700 miles. loud rattle, vibration of clutch around 3k rpm in neutral, everyfin aite now rattle still there but not that noticable no more

 

The gear rattle is different from the bearing failure in that there is no clutch pedal vibration and the rattle noise is sensitive to power changes.

 

Thank you ACTman!
This thread is funny... E36 M3 owners are changing out their
dual mass flywheel (though it weighs 25lbs??) to a lighter piece
to gain performance and live with the rattles... maybe we should
thank Mitsu for giving us a lighter unit to start with??

ACTman,
do you know the weight of EVO's flywheels??
E36 M3 owners are changing theirs to either 11lbs or 8lbs unit...

 

I picture is worth a thousand words.

 

THANK YOU ACTman!!
and THANK YOU Mitsubishi!!!!

I have a feeling that eventually Mitsu will fix this rattle.... with a
25lb unit...

People might want to know what BMW owners are paying for
the rattles...

$600 from Rogue Engineering... (11.6 lbs)
http://www.rogueengineering.com/Merc...gory_Code=LTWF

$500 from UUC... (11 lbs)
http://www.uucmotorwerks.com/flywheel/LFWLE36.htm

$500 from UUC (8.5 lbs)
http://www.uucmotorwerks.com/flywheel/LFWLE36SH.htm

And all of them require that you buy another clutch disc (upgrade)
in order to quiet down the noise...

 

Just a little note here. I replaced my clutch at 7000 miles to upgrade to a twin disc. The inner race on my TO bearing was neatly cracked in half on one side. I figure about two more launches and it would have been scatter time.

 

DUde my freaking throwout bearing poped out of the ring causing the clutch to fail. AND STOP FREAKING OUT ABOUT THIS WHAT?

 

I recently rotate my tires front to rear and notice the deceleration noise we get is lessen to “almost” gone. I had the factory tire pressure spec before I rotated them so it was 32 pounds in the front and 29 pounds in the rear. Now after the rotation I have 29 in the front and 32 in the rear. I might increase the front 1 pound more to make it 30/32.

The old WRX had the same problem with deceleration noise like the evos and that was one of the way (increase tire pressure in the rear by 2 pounds compare to the front) suggested by Subaru of America to reduce the noise.

 

If it is the throwout bearing it should be at it's worse with the car in neutral, clutch all the way out, and ac turned on. the noise should go away when you depress the clutch pedal.

**** just finished reading the thread and saw Dirks comments so I guess i'm wrong. However my tob was replaced along with the disk and pressureplate under warranty in an attempt to cut down the decel noise.... noise in neutral went away... decel noise was/is still there.