This terrible cricket squeaky sound is coming from the driver's side area, but goes away when I slightly push the clutch in. When I mean push the clutch pedal in, I mean in a way that its not disengaging the transmission, just before resistance is felt (about 2 inches of travel or so). Is my pedal loose, or something else causing this? Should I just spray some break-free or wd40 up in there?

 

Lube the piviot ball through the dust boot with some white lithium spray grease...just a little, not a ton.

 

Have you checked for crickets?

 

throw-out bearing

 

That noise can also come from a worn throwout bearing or pressure plate. What happens is that the "finger" on the pressure plate vibrate, causing your cricket-like noise. I had the same issue last summer and replaced the throwout bearing over the winter and the noise disappeared.

 

Ha, no actual insects, but I have found extremely dense webbing in the wheel wells....could be north american black widow or daddy long leg spider webbing. That stuff was denser than fake, halloween decor webbing.

 

Throwout bearing eh?
Let me ask you guys, can this be related to the (sometimes) grinding noise when putting it in reverse? Obviously my foot is pressing the clutch pedal all the way down, yet it some times makes the grinding noise you hear when operating the clutch/shifter/accelerator incorrectly. The problem with this car is the motor mounts and transmission mounts are "squashed" so the vibration is horrid. I plan on getting a new clutch when I have the mounts replaced some time in Nov/Dec.

 

the t5 has a non synchronized reverse gear iirc, so thats why you get some grinding when going into reverse

 

Ah, thats good to know. At least I know its not gonna bust on me while in traffic or something.

 

You're right, reverse is not synchronized. Pretty common on manual transmissions actually since when you shift into reverse you are stopped(at least you're supposed to be).

 

If the grease on the pivot ball doesn't do it, try the throwout bearing.