Tran Noise Normal?
 

Hey all,

I'm new to the RX-7 scene, bought a N/A, manual trans., '88 'vert last Saturday. I've been modifying and rebuilding motorcycles for years so I know a decent bit about mechanical work but most of my knowledge applies to sportbike and vintage Japanese motors. My previous car was a '95 Ford Escort Wagon so needless to say I could have cared less what happened to it.

I'm making my way through the systems on the car and fixing some of the neglected parts (first was the stereo, next will be the e-brake). I've noticed when starting the car in the morning (ie. slightly cool out, 60 F) that there is noticable noise coming from the transmission. When I put the clutch in (but leave the car in neutral) the noise disappears. Wondering if this is normal (transmission fluid just needs to warm up, hearing normal gear noise) or if something might be wearing out. From what I can tell from the maintenance records the car had a new clutch installed at around 60K. It now has 78K on the OD. Hope that is enough info.

Great site by the way. I belong to a number of model-specific motorcycle forums and this site blows them away with the amount of info and schematics available. I think I've spent six or seven hours this week reading threads.

-JonnyK

at first i was thinking either new fluid was needed or a synchro was bad, but i believe the trans being in neutral rules out a synchro issue. does it make any nosies in gear while driving? during accel? decel? coasting in neutral?

i dotn think 60F is cold enough to cause the fluid to "gel" up, but it could depend on whats in there.

I don't notice anything during accel. or downshifting or anything but it may be that the noise is low enough that I can't hear it over the engine or wind noise. I'm not ruling out that the noise may be normal start up stuff and I'm only being paranoid. It's not very loud and I wouldn't even have noticed it as separate from the engine noise if it weren't for the fact that it disappears when the clutch is disengaged (pedal down). It also goes away after a few minutes. My original guess was that the trans. fluid might be low. That will be the first thing I'll check when I get a chance to get under the car.

my car does this to but my problem was my pressure plate wasnt strong enough and the disc was chattering from not being engaged all the way.

Both of my RX-7s have done that, and it goes away when cold, i think it's just the grease in the throw out bearing warming up.

sometime i have sound when i accelerate coming otu of the trans, what does that mean?

I have what I think is a bad bering in the trans which makes a ratteling noise when I bog the engine. I also have a noisy throw out bering which whines when the clutch is out.

that is fine right, nothing major?

it sounds like a throw out bearing ... I had the same problem with a different car but if they had the clutch done they would have replaced all that junk... does it happen always in neutral cold or warm? low pitch?

Thanks for all the replies. I went out and did some driving to for "further diagnosis" (at least that is what I told my wife):D . The noise either goes away or is too low to hear when in gear and driving. It also is gone (ie. I can't hear it with my foot off the clutch and the car in neutral) by the time I get to the first stoplight (I live in the city, so just a few blocks). As long as I don't hear it getting louder or the pitch worse (like it's becoming more of a grinding noise rather than a soft whine) I'm going to leave it be. There are enough other little annoying things to fix on this car.

Anyone know of any good custom fit seat covers? The last owner must have let the car sit in the sun with the top down a lot because the vinyl is all split and chewed up. I went to the local car upholstery place and they want at least $800 in labor to recover the seats plus the cost of whichever material I want.

My experience. Stick your ear to the shifter knob, you should hear a steady smooth rolling sound (heavy),, like skate board wheels on smooth pavement. If you hear it like your skateboard is going over gravel peices or cracks in the sidewalk, you have gearbox issues. Another sign of gearbox is some gears maybe louder than others in different modes of force on them. If your synchros go out, it will grind when you shift into next gear when you shift properly.

The reason the sound goes away is because you remove the driving force from the gear box by holding in the clutch, again the throwout bearing going out will be a weak high pitched noise over the gearbox sound if it is dying.

I have killed 1 5sp trans, and had 1 die on me (gearbox). The 1 that died i squeezed 50more miles out with no R no 3 and no 5, the Rx7 is an excellent machine.