Help me Diagnose a Problem (plz!)
Help me Diagnose a Problem (plz!)
Hey all,
I have an ongoing issue that I will try to explain as best I can here. About 5,000 miles ago (35k) I noticed that there was a growing "noise" coming from the car when idling. At first you could barely hear it, but over the next few weeks and months it became more pronounced. Engagement in 1st gear was also being affected.
The noise was sort of a "grating chatter". It would get a lot worse if the car was driven for an extended peroid of time. It would totally disappear once the clutch was disengaged (clutch pedal in). After getting some opinions from people and doing my own research I thought it was probably the throwout bearing going out and so I replaced the clutch and flywheel.
Now the problem seems to have morphed itself. I do not have the same "grating chatter" at idle that I once did...however, 1st gear engagement is still noisy if the car is hot, and there is a bucking effect if I stay in 1st gear and drive slowly. If I do a hard pull past 5000 revs then I get a very weird vibration in the car. I did a leakdown test and #1 cyld was at 25% (rings maybe?? dunno). Compression and other leakdown tests were solid. New clutch has around 800 miles on it, and was properly broken in for 700.
At this point I have no idea what it could be. The transmission seems fine, my shifting is silky smooth...and I have never had any problems getting into gear. My TC does not whine either. When we took out my old clutch and flywheel, they both looked great actually...I could probably resurface the flywheel and resell it easily.
1. Could this be my Downpipe (HKS) rattling against the oilpan? I have ordered an engine dampener and I might heat-wrap my downpipe to see.
2. Could this be a transmission problem?
3. Could this be a valvetrain problem of some sort?
4. What could cause bucking on a new clutch?
One thing I am really confused about is this: Everything seems to be heat related. If the car is super hot in hot weather (live in Phoenix), its 10x worse. But at night, the car almost drives like a dream (with minor vibration at 1st gear engagement).
Please help! I need some serious guru opinions here...although I do a lot of reading and research, I do not consider myself a qualified mechanic.
I have an ongoing issue that I will try to explain as best I can here. About 5,000 miles ago (35k) I noticed that there was a growing "noise" coming from the car when idling. At first you could barely hear it, but over the next few weeks and months it became more pronounced. Engagement in 1st gear was also being affected.
The noise was sort of a "grating chatter". It would get a lot worse if the car was driven for an extended peroid of time. It would totally disappear once the clutch was disengaged (clutch pedal in). After getting some opinions from people and doing my own research I thought it was probably the throwout bearing going out and so I replaced the clutch and flywheel.
Now the problem seems to have morphed itself. I do not have the same "grating chatter" at idle that I once did...however, 1st gear engagement is still noisy if the car is hot, and there is a bucking effect if I stay in 1st gear and drive slowly. If I do a hard pull past 5000 revs then I get a very weird vibration in the car. I did a leakdown test and #1 cyld was at 25% (rings maybe?? dunno). Compression and other leakdown tests were solid. New clutch has around 800 miles on it, and was properly broken in for 700.
At this point I have no idea what it could be. The transmission seems fine, my shifting is silky smooth...and I have never had any problems getting into gear. My TC does not whine either. When we took out my old clutch and flywheel, they both looked great actually...I could probably resurface the flywheel and resell it easily.
1. Could this be my Downpipe (HKS) rattling against the oilpan? I have ordered an engine dampener and I might heat-wrap my downpipe to see.
2. Could this be a transmission problem?
3. Could this be a valvetrain problem of some sort?
4. What could cause bucking on a new clutch?
One thing I am really confused about is this: Everything seems to be heat related. If the car is super hot in hot weather (live in Phoenix), its 10x worse. But at night, the car almost drives like a dream (with minor vibration at 1st gear engagement).
Please help! I need some serious guru opinions here...although I do a lot of reading and research, I do not consider myself a qualified mechanic.
Well that is what I thought too...except for the horrible vibration when engaging the clutch before I replaced both the clutch and flywheel (ACT and Toda Steel). Now it does not rattle when idling, but the engagement problems seem to persist...and when its hot (the car and outside temp) it seems to be worse.