96TAragtop

Hi Guys,

I started having a weird problem yesterday on my way home from work.

1st started, when I tried taking off from a light. I had a hard time getting the car in 1st gear... almost like I didnt have the clutch all the way in or something... it went in with a 'clunk', and took off fine. Upon shifting to 2nd, it had the same feel... grinded into 2nd this time (It's NEVER, ever done this. My tranny has always been in good shape. Im very nice to it). 3rd & 4th were fine. Never had the problem again after that.

HOWEVER-

Now, its making a horrible wobble/honing/vibration sound. Its really hard to explain the noise. But you feel it in the clutch pedal and shifter. It only does it under the following conditions:

1) On it's way into gear, up OR downshifting.
2) Clutch pedal in, shifter in a gear, and revv the engine.
3) Only mid-upper engine RPMS (3500+ if I had to guess)

If its in neutral with the clutch pedal out, it doesnt make the noise when revving. Also, once it's in gear, it seems fine. Shifts fine, and sounds fine once in gear. Doesnt make the noise when shifting, as long as rpms are down a bit.

Here are my thoughts:

Throwout bearing??

When I bought the car, it had a bad clutch. Dealer agreed to replace it. I fought them HARD later, to get it done. They didnt want to pay for it. I wouldnt doubt it if they only replaced the disc. New disc has only 24k on it, without much abuse. Im not terribly hard on clutches & trannies. DOnt race much, dont speed shift or do clutch dumps and such.

Thoughts?

THANKS!
~George

tanmanski

Could be bad synchros, although I've never experienced a real bad vibration because of failing synchros, only nasty noise & a mild shudder type thing.....having any trouble with gears grinding? Hard to get into gear is classic synchros though.

96TAragtop

I really dont think it's synchros. I did at first too, but I really now think its the throwout bearing.

It goes in and out of gears fine. Synches whirr like they should, and all seems totally normal. It did grind that ONE time.... and then the noise started after that. Shifting is fine again. Leads me to believe the bearing had some sort of fart, and wasn't letting the clutch do what it needed (hence the grind), then once it went back to normal, it had a permanant problem.

Im just not sure at this point. I do know it will need to come out, regardless. So I guess we'll see then

Thanks for the reply! Iguess it could still be anything.

George

IllusionalTA

Sound like a broke clutch to me.. Pull it and check er' out..