I have had a grinding sound in my tranny for some time now. I am going to get it fixed over the winter, but I have a question soem of you guys may be able to help me with before I do it.


Now, when I had my engine rebuilt by Morrie's Mazda in MN they also replaced the clutch. pretty much immediately after getting it back, one of my friends heard a grinding and said" sounds like your pilot bearing needs lubing". I took the car to mazda after I began to notice it, they blamed the grinding on a failing bearing in the transmission also, but not the clutch pilot bearing. they said this after just listening and not taking it apart, and this was during warranty coverage still.

The symptom is a terrible grinding sound that dissaepears when the clutch pedal is depressed, or when in 4th gear (it may not be in 5th either I believe).

Is this something that could be a direct result of Mazda replacing the clutch? something the mechanic may have messed up on re-installing? any signs to look for if this happend?

As you can imagine I only buy parts from Mazda now and do what work I can myself. I thought the RX-7 had a strong tranny, and most shops I called were surprised to hear the transmission had this problem.

thanks fior any help you can give.

 

throw-out bearing is bad....

 

You may be able to remedy the problem somewhat with some white lithium spray lube. Open the access panel under the bell housing, have someone push in the clutch pedal. Then liberally spray the T/O bearing and also the shaft it slides on. This isn't a fix, but could help quiet the bearing down until you have a chance and the time to replace it. But I concur with rxrotary, Throwout bearing not pilot bearing. But it could be the tranny also, bad bearing or worn gear can cause a coarse rumbling that goes away when the clutch is depressed(gears stop spinning when you disengage the clutch)

Art

 

I had a similar problem and it turned out to be the transmission filter. Might want to give that a check.

 

?, his isn't an auto.

 

Don't all transmission have filter's though?

 

Sounds like a bad main-shaft bearing to me.

 

thanks for the advice guys, I'll try the lithium spray lube. and my car is a manual.

Also, if it is the throw out bearing, would that not have been replaced along with the clutch? I mean, it is a fairly new clutch with about 10k on it, and I don't tear the clutch up.

 

If the sound is a metal to metalish grinding like sound you can hear with the car in neutral but comes to a halt when you depress the clutch pedal, it's the transmission.

One of the main input-shaft bearings is going south and when you depress the clutch pedal you reduce the load on the mainshaft, taking away load on the bad bearing.

 

crap...that's kinda what I figured, I was just hoping for some miraculously overlooked prblem, akin to the y-pipe coupler boost leak I had once.

 

Are you still in warranty coverage? If there is a record of it( their mech diagnosed a problem) they should be held up to their end of the deal. Also I tend to think it is a TO bearing as well. Every one i have had go bad gets quiter when the pedal was depressed. Just my thought. EDIT: Just reread the post and saw that it went away when in 4th gear AS WELL as when the clutch was depressed......Now i'm stuck inbetween choices. ( TO bearing or shaft?)

 

Sorry for the bad news,

Got the same thing in my transmission, that's how I know what it is.

Already bought a used JDM trans to replace it with. You might want to contanct drivetrain.com and see what their pricing is for a rebuild.

This usually happens as a result of a trashed 5th gear synchro.

 

Anyone ever had pineapple rebuild their tranny? I think the site said $400 plus parts needed.