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So I was out driving the other night, driving it pretty hard like I normally do. I got on a straight section of road which had 0 traffic and I decided to wind her up. Went through 1st to 5th, shifting between 6-7k rpms. When I was in 5th @ 6-6.5k rpms, I heard a loud noise that quieted down a little as I slowed down. Kinda like a scratchy/grinding noise. Anyway I drove it back home and had no problems shifting along the way. I did notice that the noise wasn't very noticeable in 1st-2nd but became very apparent in 3rd-4th....never used 5th as I was almost in my driveway.

My first thought is I blew something in my tranny...it does have 270,000+km on it and I don't exactly treat it nice. But here's the interesting part...I came back from a work shift(2 weeks) and decided to try and see if I could pinpoint the noise. Only in 3rd-4th did I notice anything, and it was very slight. Hmmm, drove it home and parked it for 4-5 more days. On my last day off I drove it again. This time nothing...no sounds. I did however notice the clutch chatter wasnt as bad as before. So I'm thinking I have either partially unsprung my sprung clutch...lost a spring. Or maybe a whole puck plate. I will probably remove the inspection plate and take a look on my next days off weather permitting, just to see if there is anything sitting in there.

Has anything like this ever happened to you or someone ou know?
I should point out I have a economy brand XTD stage 3 clutch

Pritchett wrote:So I was out driving the other night, driving it pretty hard like I normally do. I got on a straight section of road which had 0 traffic and I decided to wind her up. Went through 1st to 5th, shifting between 6-7k rpms. When I was in 5th @ 6-6.5k rpms, I heard a loud noise that quieted down a little as I slowed down. Kinda like a scratchy/grinding noise. Anyway I drove it back home and had no problems shifting along the way. I did notice that the noise wasn't very noticeable in 1st-2nd but became very apparent in 3rd-4th....never used 5th as I was almost in my driveway.

My first thought is I blew something in my tranny...it does have 270,000+km on it and I don't exactly treat it nice. But here's the interesting part...I came back from a work shift(2 weeks) and decided to try and see if I could pinpoint the noise. Only in 3rd-4th did I notice anything, and it was very slight. Hmmm, drove it home and parked it for 4-5 more days. On my last day off I drove it again. This time nothing...no sounds. I did however notice the clutch chatter wasnt as bad as before. So I'm thinking I have either partially unsprung my sprung clutch...lost a spring. Or maybe a whole puck plate. I will probably remove the inspection plate and take a look on my next days off weather permitting, just to see if there is anything sitting in there.

Has anything like this ever happened to you or someone ou know?
I should point out I have a economy brand XTD stage 3 clutch

Your clutch doesn't know the difference between 1st gear, 2nd gear, 3rd gear ect... If your noise is only in 3rd/4th you have a transmission noise...

How old is your clutch?? Chatter going away is most likely something different...

Obviously the clutch doesn't know what gear it's in, that's not what I meant. I was referring to the speeds obtained with those gears. The clutch has approx 900km on it, it's a couple of years old but was only installed approx 6-7 months ago.

I don't know if the pilot bearing is capable of making a noise like that.

Pritchett wrote:Obviously the clutch doesn't know what gear it's in, that's not what I meant. I was referring to the speeds obtained with those gears. The clutch has approx 900km on it, it's a couple of years old but was only installed approx 6-7 months ago.

I don't know if the pilot bearing is capable of making a noise like that.

You really don't understand how a clutch/transmission works... Trust me if the noise is only in 3rd and 4th its not clutch/pilot bearing related...

Since your clutch is was recently new and you had clutch chatter and now its gone... Thats a sign that the clutch has been broken in and finally seated nicely...


Here is a break down...
Pilot bearing supports the input shaft of the transmission.. Its mounted in the flywheelt.. It is only in operation when your clutch is disengaged and there is a difference in rpm's between the transmission input shaft and engine... Usually you'll hear most of the noise idling stopped with your foot on the clutch at a light while still in first gear... The noise from a pilot will usually go away or lessen when you idle stopped and put the transmission in neutral with your foot on the clutch..

Throw out bearing... Since all our cars have hydrolic clutches the throw out bearings are turning all the time... The noise from the throw out bearing depending on how bad it is will change with engine rpm and with how much you push your foot down on the clutch peddle...

Clutch its self wont ever make a bearing/howling kind of noise... It may cause a rattle that is noticed idling in neutral... This happens for 2 reasons... 1 a really heavy after market clutch disc may cause gear clatter noise in the transmssion... The other is if the cushion springs are worn out and loose... Both are really only noticeable idling in neutral foot on or off the clutch... transmission gear clatter would go away if you put it in any gear though... Its very rare you'd ever hear a cushion spring that loose though.... Usually they come loose and fall out long before you'd ever know anything was wrong... When this happens it usually gets lodged in the pressure plate and your clutch wont release....

Transmission bearings and gears all make different sounds but it all depends on load, road speed and what gear your in...

If I had to guess I would say you have an input shaft bearing noise thats just starting to pop up...

I swapped my engine, changed my bearings(throw out and pilot), installed my clutch, and mounted my tranny. I do know how they work. I wasn't giving it much thought and was throwing out ideas about different things that rotate there and could go wrong.

Once again...When I say gear's I don't mean the gear itself, just the speeds associated with those gears. I'll rephrase and say it happens...err used to happen between 45-200km/ph. Do tranny's fix themselves? Cause it doesn't make the noise any more. Unless my clutch seated when it made the noise to begin with, then I'd say no cause it wasn't seated when I took it out that night. But we can go back and forth like this forever, I need to get under there and start with the inspection plate. If that's all hunky dory, then I'll wind it up a little again to see what happens. Thanks for your time and input

Well I had her out for another run/beating and it didnt go well. I think your right about it not being the clutch. It doesn't make the noise it used to make at all anymore, however now when I shift into 2nd it acts as if I'm not using the clutch. Just a nice crunch/grind as it pops into 2nd. Every other gear is fine, not like that means I don't have to pull it out though.

yeah definitely transmission related. your syncros are probably on their last legs.

fyi clutch and flywheel spin at a speed relative to engine rpm, and have nothing to do with vehicle speed. aka 1st gear at 5000rpm would have the flywheel spinning at the same speed as it would in 5th gear at 5000rpm. its the gears inside the transmission that relate to wheel speed and are what make it possible to go faster in a different gear at the same rpm. any problem related to 1 but not all gears would have to be related to internal transmission problems (most of the time). the only impact higher gears have on the clutch would have to be the engaging pressure, and amount of bite needed to catch the flywheel.

Yeah, the tranny's pooched. So now I come to a difficult desicion

1. Pull the tranny and replace it with either a Domestic version or jdm version equipped with an LSD.
2. Pull the engine/tranny and replace all the mounts, replace clutch with less aggressive/better brand plus #1
3. #2 plus engine work
4. Part it out and sell it all for way less then invested.

The car needs body work, but I do see potential in it. Even with just the ZE, this thing comes alive. I can only imagine what a turbo build would be like. I also have a garage now, so I wouldn't be in as much of a hurry to get it in and running. Engine work plus turbo will run about 8-10g's I'm thinking, not including the bodywork, paint and body kit. I love the mx-3 but I need to decide on a limit...

yeah definitely transmission related. your syncros are probably on their last legs.

like he said. your syncro mesh is on the last its got. i have the exact same problem with 3rd gear. my syncro mesh is pretty much hooped so everytime i shift into 3rd its a nice grinding noise.

mx3's are great cars. they handle well and can be made to be quick for a relatively cheap amount of money. that being said i dont think i could justify 8-10 thousand on an engine/turbo build plus another 2 or 3 thousand on body/paint. for that kind of money im sure you could buy something newer and better. in all honesty as fun as a turbo build would be the car is still fwd and most of the power youd be adding from a turbo would be wasted on wheel spin. you need to figure out if you want a one of a kind highly modified almost 20 year old car with almost no resale value or something newer.

id slap in a junkyard transmission and keep up with basic maintenance and drive it till it dies, or until you find something you like better. ive been thinking the same as you recently. one of my friends asked me why i spend so much money on modifying my car, and the parts i plan to buy and im having trouble coming up with an answer. as great as my car is and as much as i like it, its still a low end car and is slower then many cars i could get for the amount of money ive spent on modifying it. for example my friends bmw late 90's 3 series 2.5l is probably just as fast as my ze mx3, is bigger and is much more comfortable to drive in, he also gets better fuel mileage then me. its also worth about what ive spent on upgrades to my car...

FYI exedy oem is a great clutch...

I understand you there. There is a lot of cars you can get that might be better and faster for the price you would spend on building a mx-3. but the guys who are going all out on there cars are doing it for fun and a hobby and to have a nice mx-3. and the fact they are all almost 20 years old is what makes building them and keeping them alive that much better. people appreciate when someone can keep a car alive after this long, there honestly becoming rare. yah no resale value but anyone who knows cars will notice them and notice there not everywhere anymore. That's how i see it.

Well I've found a donor car in my city, the guy needs 570 bucks for a lawyer. Says the tranny has 30,000km on a rebuild and the motor(k8) has been bored 0.03, not that I'd want the engine. New disty and cv's a year ago. I think it might be worth it, I've asked for pictures and will continue to look for more possible donors. There is one at a used dealer/repair shop, 93 gs...mint, guy did all the bodywork and paint plus dropped in a fresher k8, cause the other one ticked....lol. He wants 4500...lol dream on bud

well the donor sounds good. hope it works out for you. $500 for a freshly rebuild tranny is a great deal, and im sure you could make the rest of your money back on parting it out + scrap metal...

go for that donor car with the 30k tranny. that sounds awesome. id buy your front bumper n hood if u dont need it. and hahaha!! 4500. i cant even get 3500 for my fully done klze. lowered and everything too.

Ya...I'm going to I think. I don't get back to the 8th of march and he hasn't replied to my email yet. Are you serious about the hood and bumper? Cause I'll have no use for them.