3S-GE Clutch Change
This guide is for changing the clutch on Gen6 Celica with 3S-GE.
This is how I changed the clutch in my car, as there was no real guide to work from I just did things in the order I encountered them! I'm assuming if you are going to attempt a clutch change you will have a reasonable level of mechanical skills so there will be less detail for the self explanatory stuff!
I'm in the process of creating so bare with me if it looks like things have been overlooked I'll get to them in a bit
Ok first things first...
Tools used:
- 1/2" Drive Breaker Bars and deep reach sockets
- Good 3/8" ratchet set (the £50 a decent one costs will pay for itself the first time it doesn't break your fingers by slipping!)
- 30mm Hub Nut socket
- 24mm socket
- Rubber Mallet
- short pry bar for popping NS driveshaft
- Ratchet/ring spanner set
- WD40/GT85 or other penetrating spray oil
- 2x solid axle stands
- 1x 2t trolley jack (2 is better for re aligning engine mounts)
- 1x 1t engine hoist (a bit overkill a lesser one will do)
- sandwich bags & sharpie to label parts and keep together
- cable ties
- copper grease
- helper / cybernetic monkey
- tea making facilites
I always try and put nuts/bolts back in the item I've just removed this saves annoyances with picking up the right dia but wrong length bolt!
bag and tag stuff, it'll save serious headache whilst re-assembling
1. Lift the car
(If you don't know how to lift a car properly this guide probably isn't the best idea!)
Front Wheels off
spray wd40 around hub nut area and leave to soak in
2. Whilst the WD40 is soaking in
Disconnect battery and remove (-ve first!)
Start removing the under trays (10mm Socket) there are 2 bolts in each wheel arch and a few attaching to the chassis. there is the high probability that you will sheer some off I just cable tied mine back on at the end
3. Drain Transmission Fluid
You'll find the drain plug on the nearside of the diff I used a 24mm socket to just loosen it at first then position the container you use to catch waste oil.
unscrew the plug all the way and drain that gearbox, check oil for metal fragments if you have these your gearbox needs a refurb!
3. Removing hub nuts
Remove the split pins and crown thingy get someone to stand on the brakes and use your longest breaker bar with a 30mm socket to loosen the nut, this may require some serious force,
I wouldn't recommend pulling towards you as the nut will go from super tight to finger loose in an instant and you don't want a breaker bar to the teeth!!
unscrew the nuts until it is flush with the end of the shaft.
if you don't have a helper / cybernetic monkey then you can remove the pin and crown then pop the center caps out of your alloys, re-attach them and put the car back on the ground to lever against. if you choose this method re-lift car and remove wheels.
4. Drive shafts
Both sides - Tap the driveshafts towards the engine with a rubber mallet and they should move quite easily out of the hubs and once it is free remove the nuts completely
remove the little bracket that attaches the brake hose to the suspention strut
remove the 2x 19mm bolts that attach the hub carrier to the strut and seperate the 2, you may need a pry bar
if you pull the hub away from the axle you should be able to weasel it out by hand by pushing back against the cv joints
Nearside - you will need a pry bar between the engine block and the casing of the cv joint, there is a dust shield closer to the engine do not lever against this! after some polite persuasion youll hear a click and the shaft will be free put it somewhere safe!
Offside - A little easier, there are 2x 14mm bolts that hold the driveshaft carrier bearing to the engine undo these and slide the shaft out of the diff this side is heavy so ideally get someone to support the end whilst you feed it out from under the car
5. Engine bay
Remove the airbox, starter motor, clutch slave cylinder*, Gear linkages**, speedo sender***, and prepare to start getting annoyed with the cable loom!
I have a an uprated earthing kit on my car so I'm not sure how many earth straps there should be but remove them this will also give you access to the reverse sensor which needs unplugging.
At this point you are looking to remove anything that ties the gearbox to the engine or looms.
*Clutch slave / pipework- you have 2 options here; 1. completely remove pipes which will result in the clutch needing to be bled (which really isn't an issue on the 3SGE to be fair.) 2. remove all the brackets and cable-tie the complete assembly out of the way. There is an annoying clip that holds the clutch pipe into a bracket, the best way I have found of approaching these is to drown them in WD40 and leave for 10 mins then tap them in any direction to just release the stiction (yes it's a real word) this method will need to be used to release the gear link cables too
**Gear Link Cables**- Look down the back of the gearbox and you'll be able to see the link cables pull the retaining clips to seperate from the gearbox then if you look at the end there is a split pin going through the spigot, pull this out then remove the washer and slide the linkage cable off the spigot then bag and tag the removed parts
***Speedo Sender***- On Top of the diff you'll see a black connector that attaches to the speedo sender, disconnect!
Tea Break - You Deserve it!!
6. Strapping!
Its at this point we're about to start working on the bits that hold the gearbox to the car and annoyingly 3 of the 4 engine mounts are on the gearbox for ease I'll call them N-S-E-W with north being the one nearest the firewall, south being near the bumper, east being nearside and west is offside.
This is a good time to strap the gearbox to the engine hoist. Through a little trial and error when the box was out I found the best way to get it to sit balanced with one strap is.. pass the strap through the south engine mount bracket under the box then return it behind the splash guard (so you don't crush it) and to the left of the gear selector box then up to the hoist. ideally use 2 straps though I just didn't have a second one. The bellhousing end is very light compared to the other end so be careful to account for this.
Take up some weight on the engine hoist, a good way to measure if you have it in the right place is to loosen the East engine mount centre bolt and when you can turn it by hand the engine is correctly supported (do not take this bolt out yet)
Under the car there are 2 subframes the main east/west that the suspension arms attach to and the one we're interested in the north south.
7. N/S Subframe
South Mount -First thing to do is pull out the bolt that runs through the middle of the rubber (WD40 on standby).
North Mount -Glorious PITA!!!! first remove the center bolt, on the E/W frame there are 2 plastic covers under where the 2 subframes join, pop these off and you'll be presented with 2 nuts and one bolt (there may also be an exhaust mount attached too so take that off if it's there.) take the 3 nuts/bolts out and you'll be left with a free engine mount so take that out.... no wait you can't! thanks Toyota for blocking it in with the steering rack!!! What I did here is; take out the center bolt from the East engine mount so essentially the whole engine is resting on the engine hoist except the West mount and lift a teeny bit so that the N mount clears the steering rack (the other option is to drop the E/W subframe as well)
N/S Subframe -Just the 2 12mm bolts at the S end and it'll slide out!
8. A Little Support
Now you need to support the engine block, get a trolley jack under it as close to the bell housing as possible (be aware you need to remove some bolts so leave enough room for your trusty ratchet)
9. East Engine mount
take this mount off the gearbox completely, you'll need the extra room to slide the box out
10. Remove block -> gearbox bolts
Thankfully all of the bolts that attach the box to the block are surprisingly easy to access with a decent sized ratchet and various extentions. the only slightly annoying one is just under the throttle body and the loom gets in the way, a universal joint and deep socket may help here. be prepared they are flipping tight!
11. Final Checks
Axles, Air box, Starter, Clutch Slave & Pipes, speedo/reverse sensor, N/S Frame out, engine supported, all block->box bolts out.
12. Cracking and lowering
I highly recommend you wear a dust mask from this point on as the dust generated by the clutch is pure de-hydrated evil!!
we should be now ready to separate the box from the block and it may be a little reluctant, I helped it along with a flat head screwdriver gently prying it apart; when it slides off the locating pins it's going to want to twist backwards under the weight of the diff, so be ready with a set of hands there to stop it, then lower the box to the ground. It comes down pretty freely just as you're lowering make sure nothing is caught or catching.
13. Tea Break
1 remove dust mask
2 sip tea
3 replace dust mask
4 goto 1 else cup=empty then goto 5
5 do some work
14. Removing old clutch
I can't say it enough... PROTECT YOUR LUNGS, Wear a mask!!!
Quite simple and straight forward, get your helper/cybernetic monkey to hold the crankshaft with a socket/breaker bar combo (the bolt in the middle of the main accessory belt pulley thingy) then undo the bolts attaching the pressure plate to the flywheel this is heavy so once you have cracked all the bolts it's probably worth re-tasking your helper to support the pressure plate and friction plate so you don't have to worry about it!
15. Cleaning and inspection
Flywheels should be flat, really flat and one uniform colour, if you can see blueish spots its been overheated and could really do with skimming. If its warped due to serious overheating then it needs skimming, there's plenty of generic clutch/flywheel advice around the net so do a bit of research!
crack out the clutch/brake cleaner and get all that dust out!! (MASK) Brake cleaner leaves no residue, don't use anything else and don't touch the flywheel with oily hands!
Slide the release lever with the release bearing out of the main casing and pull the release bearing off the lever, apply a little copper grease to the contact points, put the new bearing on and replace lever in bell case
16. Replacing clutch
clean the new pressure plate with brake cleaner to take any contaminants off of it, figure out which way the friction plate goes and put it onto the flywheel, only put a few bolts in loosely for now as we are going to need to align it using your clutch alignment tool (or broom handle) the aim of this is to get the friction plate dead centre on the flywheel, spend some time doing this because it'll save you faffing about realising you cant get the box back on!
once you have it dead centre it's time to put the rest of the bolts through into the flywheel and tighten, I went for the star pattern tightening method: so if there were 12 bolts arranged like a clock it'd go 12, 4, 8, 1, 5, 9, 2, 6, 10, 3, 7, 11, only do a few turns per bolt per pass it's a slow process but it makes sure it goes on evenly.
17. Re-assembly
Getting the box back in is a bit of a faff but its fairly straight forward and you may need to rotate the flywheel by hand a little to make the splines line up. get the bolts in and torque up!
you can take the mask off now!
The very next thing you need to do is get the engine back on the engine mounts, re-attach the east mount to the gearbox but don't put the bolt through to attach to car. get the north/south frame in and remember the north mount will require the engine to be lifted a touch to get it past the steering rack get the frames bolted in but don't put the long bolt through the mounts yet.
Get the bolt through the east mount so the engine is supported at the west and east end. putting a trolley jack underneath the gear box can really help with aligning the north/south mounts which need to be put in next. When all the bolts are in very gently release the jack supporting the engine and the hoist supporting the box and the engine will settle nicely on the mounts, remove the lifting gear, and grab a cup of tea!
18. Tea Break!!
19. The Rest
The rest is pretty much the opposite of the dis-assembly. Work on one thing at a time and triple check you haven't missed anything. don't forget the speedo sensor wire at the back!!!
20. Refilling Gearbox Oil
DO NOT do this untill the drive shafts are back in and car is level again!!
Put the drain plug back in
remove the fill plugs, one is on top where the gear selector is it's the 24mm nut not the smaller breather cover, the other is located about halfway up the gearbox and is also 24mm
place your catch can under the box and slowly pour the gear oil into the top hole until it comes out of the side hole - simple as that!!
replace drain/fill plugs
21. Adjust Pedal
Follow the great guide here Gen6_clutch_pedal_adjust
Hope this helps!
Marc2turbo
