nephthys

It was my intention to do more searching before posting but I'm starting to feel overwhelmed and I'm pretty clueless.

I'm hoping anyone can offer some suggestions.

Last friday I started up my car to let it warm up while I got dressed to go out. Got outside and could hear from all the way down the driveway this weird 'flipflipflipflip' noise. My dad asked me to post some comments he emailed to me.

"Transmission noise:

The sound is that of a playing card in a kid’s bicycle spokes and not a screeching like I would expect from a throw-out bearing.

Also, a throw-out bearing generally makes noise (usually screeching) only when the pedal is pressed (clutch disengaged).

This noise occurs faintly at first when the clutch is slightly released then gets louder as the clutch is fully released (pedal all the way off the floor).

The noise occurs in neutral or any gear so it seems linked completely to the clutch/pressure plate assembly

Any ideas or confirmation of which part is bad?
"
Here's an .avi we took while the car was running, the noise is pretty audible.

http://www.red**********/badnoiseunderhood.avi

What we've gathered so far has something to do with the clutch assembly, pressure plate, a broken clutch finger or a bad input shaft bearing.

Help!

- Nephthys/Lindsay

nephthys

Also, My dad found a post somewhere online of a 1990 maxima owner (same trans?) who was reporting what seems like the same issue. I don't know where he found this from but he emailed this to me.

"In the manual transmission models the input shaft bearing has a bad tendency to go out. The input shaft bearing is a bearing that is located inside the transmission case on the main shaft (input shaft) which is what goes into the clutch. When these go out you can hear a few different noises. Probably the most common is the basic sound of a bearing without grease. You can hear a noise from the tranny that goes away when you press the clutch pedal in. The other noise sounds like a metal tapping noise that also goes away when the clutch is pressed. The noise is caused from the ***** in the bearing moving around in the bearing case. The pieces of metal that hold the bearings in place break causing them to move freely inside the bearing. When this happens the problems can be not so to bad to very bad depending on how long you take to get it fixed. When the bearing breaks the car will still run and drive fine. The downside, however, is if driven too long there is the possibility of breaking the seal which will make your gear oil leak. There is also a possibility of the shaft getting too much play and actually breaking part of the case off (this happened to me from driving it too long with a bad bearing because I didn't know at the time what it was). If this happens to you, you will have to buy a new transmission."

nephthys

Actually screw it. I'm having it towed to a trans shop.

nephthys

Ok, maybe I'll look at this weekend.. and take it to a shop next week, heh. So conflicted am I..

djradam

sorry, can only give moral support: good luck! post after you find what's wrong

nephthys

Thanks. In theory, I have 3 friends coming over Saturday for tranny removal and inspection. Whenever I figure out the problem and then fix it I'll definately post about it. I just hope my car runs for autocross season, which means I have a month..

Nismo1182

My old KA tranny had the same problem, it was the input shaft or syncros.

nephthys

Nismo, Thanks. I broke down and had it towed to a shop. I think it's the input shaft. Guess I'll find out soon enough though! heh.