Clutch squeal but not slipping.

[Elroy Blue]

Family member has a Hyundai I30 with 20k miles. It's always had a really light clutch since purchased at nine months old. Now two years old. It's a bloody awful thing to drive as the biting point of the clutch is quite high.
I noticed the other day when it was pulling off under load at the top of a hill, it made a pronounced, but short screeching noise. I took it for a drive myself and it does it every time on hill starts. However, it drives normally otherwise and there's no sign of it slipping. I put the handbrake on and brought it to biting point and there's no sound or sign of slippage.
Is this impending doom for the clutch or some other fault?

[TooMany2cvs]

Release bearing...

No point in replacing just the bearing - might as well lob a full kit in, since the exact same amount of dismantling's needed.

[Elroy Blue]

The clutch doesn't make any rattling or other noise at any time. It's purely when pulling off from hill starts and it's a short, metallic screech. Is that consistent with a release bearing (my mechanical knowledge on this goes as far as google)

[PaulKemp]

As said the amount of work needed to drop the gearbox to check for issues is the same for replacing the whole clutch.

A young friend recently had a gearbox rebuilt and did not replace the clutch.
Literally a week later the clutch started slipping, I replaced it and dual mass
What a bloody job that was on a cold driveway

[DuraAce]

Elroy Blue said:

The clutch doesn't make any rattling or other noise at any time. It's purely when pulling off from hill starts and it's a short, metallic screech. Is that consistent with a release bearing (my mechanical knowledge on this goes as far as google)

It is. As when pulling away the release bearing is under load against the clutch cover plates fingers. When clutch is up and released the bearing is not under load, hence it doesn't squeal in protest.

Could last forever, could fall apart in short order. Bit of a lottery.

Seen a couple fall apart, this then send the clutch release fork into the clutch cover plate. Rare, but can happen.

If you've an intention to keep the car for a while I would replace it and the rest of the clutch.

[Elroy Blue]

Thanks for the replies. We'll take it in to our local Indy and see what kind of cost we're looking at

[Elroy Blue]

Ouch. £550 from an Indy for clutch and bearing. A lot cheaper than the main dealer though. It's tempting to ignore the occasional noise and save the money (particularly as it drives ok), but we're probably going to get it done. Great timing straight after xmas