V40: Help needed to identify a specific part

[NEONULTRA]

Hey everyone,

To make a long story short, about a week ago my car has been starting to make this weird constant whining noise coming from under the hood, which sounded a lot like a stuck VVT of some kind.
With the help of a stethoscope, I managed to trace the noise back to this specific part you see in the pictures I uploaded along with this post, but now I don't have any idea of what I'm looking at, does anyone know this part?

Tips on how to repair / fix the issue are also very welcomed, I noticed the presence of a bleeding valve on top of the part, so I wonder if I'll have to flush anything along with replacing it.

My car is a V40 1.8 Estate from year 2000.

Thanks in advance to those who'll help!


EDIT: Realized this right after posting, but just to make myself completely clear, I’m French, so in the picture where it says “Driver’s Side”, I mean the right-hand side of the engine when standing in front of the car looking down at the engine, opposite of the timing belt, so what is indeed for most members of this forum the passenger side

[Darlo 1]

From what you describe and from the picture you have put up it is quite possibly your clutch release bearing that is your noise, how long it will last is anyones guess but it is a gearbox off job to replace, the part you have arrowed is the clutch slave cylinder.

[NEONULTRA]

Thanks for the reply! This gets really interesting. The car has (almost) not been rolling for the last two weeks because of a problem with the brakes, one of my back calipers’ piston got stuck, at least that’s what I suspect highly. The whining noise in the engine area started a few days after that, and having to do with the clutch, the two problems are obviously linked.

Now I’m wondering what I should do. Is the clutch release bearing located close to the slave cylinder? I’m asking this because the noise truly seems to come from inside the slave cylinder itself, so I’m wondering if I should give it a shot and try to replace it. Does that sound reasonable or just completely stupid?

It feels a bit like a last resort anyway, sadly any gearbox-off job will most certainly be too pricey for what the car is worth.

[gatos]

As Darlo said, that is the clutch slave cylinder

[magnuz]

That looks to be the renault gearbox in your car. So the clutch slave cylinder will not be generating the noise itself, but the noise from the clutch release bearing will most likely be transmitted along the release bearing arm, & that is why you can hear the noise at the slave cylinder. Try squirting a small amount of WD40 ( or similar) down the hole where the arm enters the belll housing towards the clutch release bearing,(try not to get it on the clutch friction material) & see if it make a difference to the tone of the noise. If it does change tone, or goes quieter, then that is most likely where the problem is ? If the noise does go away after squirting with WD40, you will most likely need to change the bearing in the near future for a longer term solution to the problem ?

[NEONULTRA]

It is indeed the Renault gearbox, the one with the slave cylinder outside of it. And yes, chances are it doesn't have to do with the slave itself, had someone press down the clutch while I was at the engine listening, and the noise fades away with the clutch engaged (in fact it almost disappears), so it is definitely clutch-related. Wasn't suspecting the release bearing at first because the noise is constant (i.e. with car idling in neutral), and I thought the release bearing was only solicited when the clutch was being used.

So I guess I won't avoid a trip to my local garage this time ... definitely not knowledgable enough to perform a gearbox-off job