My 3rd Gen gearbox seems to be fine. Gear changes are as mooth as they have always been. I have noticed recently that you can hear a spinning noise coming from the gear box when you push the clutch down with your foot. Its a spinning sound. Does this have something to do with the pressure plates alignment; something that can be easily repaired? Or does the noise indicate a serious problem with the transmission? The sound isnt that loud, but it is loud enough to notice. Standing outside the car you can easily here the sound when the clutch is pressed down. Surley no noise should be coming from the clutch?

 

Sounds like you have a bad throw-out bearing. I highly doubt its in the trans if its changing sound when you press on the clutch. It requires the removal of the trans to change it.

 

^^^ yup

 

I throw out bearing in your future. Get a stock one and change the pilot bearing&seal and clutch while your down there just to save you time and money later on.

 

Odds are that its the throwout bearing. How many miles on the car and/or t/o bearing? Slowly accelerate the engine while clutch pedal is pushed in. Does the noise increase in pitch as engine turns faster? Is it kind a "whirrring" sound? If so, thats 2 more factors in favor of t/o bearing. (IMHO)

If something like pressure plates of clutch were suddenly out of alignment, I think you'd be feeling a really nasty and BIG vibration as rpm was increased. You'd know something was extremely wrong and immediately kill the engine.

Check out pg. J-56 of the manual transmission manual. Mazda calls it a release bearing.

.... and don't call me Surely

 

airplane!

 

mine does that too but when I let the clutch out not push on it I was told the same thing and need to get it fixed. Just gonna replace the clutch while im at it.

 

Thanks for the advice regarding the bearing. I may just leave it and replace the lot to save opn labour costs in the future. Glad to know it isnt a massive issue; hell, these cars can be money pits!!

 

You have no Idea

 

I second the t/o bearing. I had the opposite where the sound came when i let the clutch out, and went away when i pushed the pedal in. But my noise was coming from the tranny...when it was put on a lift you could really hear it. I replaced the tranny and it was fine...but i think yours is in the clutch/pilot bearing/throwout bearing area. It's probably fine to leave for a little while, but i wouldn't ignore it completely. Those things can become fused to your tranny input shaft.

Good luck.

 

With the clutch pedal down if you hear noise it's the throw-out bearing and/or the pilot bearing.

With the clutch pedal up and if hear noise (typically stopped while in neutral) it's inside the transmission. If it's a bearing inside the tranny the noise will also go away when the clutch is depressed.