At idle my car will start making a metalicy rattle noise, coming from somewhere between where the driver sites and the enginebay. Its under the car and I havent had a chance to attempt to hunt it down. I noticed it goes away the second the clutch is depressed. I just purchased this car and its pretty modified. It has an ACT clutch that I know about. Am I just hearing the sheilding around the clutch/flywheel rattling or could it have a lightweight flywheel I dont know about (which I've heard can sometimes cause rattles like this)?

 

Maybe throwout bearing or pilot bearing? That would be my top 2 guesses.

 

Any way to confirm that aside from bringing it to a shop?

 

mine does the same damn thing

but only when hot... like if ive driven it hard... but only sometimes.

 

Mine does it cold or hot. The car has some other rattles so I'll start hunting everything down. I may run into whats causing it in that process. If not, what damage would be done from this rattle? The 5th gear syncro is cracked already and the tranny shows signs of age (little tough to downshift sometimes and it'll grind for a sec if I shift real fast)

 

this could also be your master/slave cylinders going out on you

 

had the clutch master and slave cylinder go out on my 89 pathfinder just 3 weeks ago. Totaly different. It squeeked, but only when depressed. The clutch pedal also started getting feather light and moved the catch point closer and closer to the floor. Had to pump it up to get pressure. This has strong clutch pressure and the engagement point doesnt change.

 

could be the rotor bearings having excess clearnancing

when you apply clutch pressure, you basically pull everything on the eccentric shaft tighter....

so if the rotors are flopping, it will correct it

replace throwout/pilot bearing, grease them well, then try again...if it's the same noise, my money is on your engine internal bearings

 

It's just a trait of this car.

My car has had two motors, two pressure plates, two clutch release bearings, two pilot bearings, two clutch discs and two clutch forks. Always the same low, growling noise with the tranny in neutral and the clutch out. Push clutch in and it stops. I don't think the noise comes from the clutch; sounds like it comes from the input shaft of the tranny to me. It's not a worry.

Every FD I have seen does the same thing if you know what to listen for...

 

My car does the same thing. I replaced the clutch a year ago with an ACT clutch. I installed new bearings at the same time. My initial thought was that the TO bearing was making the noise. I'm not worried about it

Have it checked out by a reputable rotary shop.

 

mine doesn't do it...perhaps you guys have worn input shaft bearings?

 

as always diagnosing sound on the internet is tough. my car does have the same groan that damon spoke of. i would not be suprised if it is the same.

 

LOL i have the same problem

my car will make a light growl like cawlllllllllllllllllllll, then when i press the clutch, absolute silence..i take my foot off and cawllllllllllllllllllll...

and i also have an ACT clutch too.. maybe its the clutch?

 

mine gets bad when down shifting and letting off the gas, but I think mine sounds like more of a heat shield rattle...

 

Pretty much all manual cars have an audible amount of gear noise when you have your foot off the clutch (that goes away when you push the clutch pedal in). But it shouldn't be "clunky" sounding. A light flywheel can lead to some light clunky noises as the gears bang around from the lumpy idle, but that is normal.

My car recently developed a very disturbing, loud clunking noise in the tranny. It still worked perfectly, but it made a very disturbing noise. The noise goes away completely when you push the clutch pedal to the floor. The thread-starter may be experiencing the same thing. I decided to buy a used tranny as a replacement, since I think the problem is an input shaft or countershaft bearing -- $$$ for tranny rebuild to fix.

-Max

 

Mine did it one time that I noticed. Only when the A/C was on, when I turned the A/C off it went away.

 

It's the ACT cuz I have it too!!!!

I thought it's some things else before. Was gonna have it check, but after this thread, won't do that

Thanks guys for asving me time and money

POM HB

 

I have the same problem, its either the throwout or pilot bearing. Or fork. Or some of the problems combined. Right now probably wont cause damage but with time it will cause gear shifting to become more difficult, and may hurt your tranny if you wait to long. My dads 55k original mile Touring doesnt have the sound but my tranny with 140k miles does! Its worn out.

 

Hmm you could be right cause I have the ACT extreme clutch and heavy duty pressure plate. Though I only noticed it doing it one time.

 

It is a growl. Guess its the clutch.

 

i had this too... a new clutch disk and a new throwout bearing did it for me!!

 

Tranny has 120k on it. Guess there's no real point in fixing it. Tranny is showing signs of age and has the typical cracked 5th gear syncro. Its either rebuild it now or rebuilt it later. Might as well not rush

 

I have the same problem too. I have an ACT clutch as well. The first ACT didnt do it at all. I'm not worried seems like everyone has a similar sound. Normally when the t/o bearing wears out you will get similar a noise.

 

A bent/partially broken fork is easy to tell by the vibration in the pedal and a sudden shift in the point of clutch engagement but that would not account for no sound with clutch in so that is clearly not the problem. The pilot bearing would probably make noise with the clutch in or out now that I am thinking about it. So that leaves throwout bearing or transmission internals. My transmission has always made a quiet but audible noise in neutral with the clutch out - but if this is something new for you to hear then I would guess that is not the noise you are hearing.

And I agree diagnosing a noise in person is hard enough much less over the internet.

 

I'm betting its a combo of both. The tranny may have a new clutch but its still all original and the syncro's are showing obvious signs that they're on their way out. If I shift slow I dont have any issues, but if I try and shift fast it wants to grind for a split second before going into gear. Also first gear I get a weird grumbly noise. Sounds like i'm dragging something almost. I'll just wait until it becomes bothersome.