Transmission Diagnosis, Any Guesses??
 

As my car approaches its 3-year birthday it's begun to develop and peculiar squealing noise that I initially passed off as a clutch pedal in need of some grease. As time went on I've realized that it's something entirely different. I'm getting ready to schedule an appointment for service but I would feel better if I had some idea of what might be wrong since it can be hard to describe problems similar to "my car's making a strange noise" to a service tech.

Here are the symptoms as best as I can describe them:

First, the sound is a high pitched squeal that is made when the clutch pedal is only slightly depressed, long before the engage/disengage point. As it is depressed further (still before the engage/disengage point) the sound will stop. If the clutch pedal is released back to the previous spot where the sound was generated, the sound can be heard again. So it doesn't matter if "you're coming or going" the sound can repeatably be made at a particular spot relatively close to where the pedal normally rests.

If the pedal is moved quickly past the spot, which would be the case whenever I would just normally be changing gears, it will make a very short squeal like a "squeak" on the way in and again on the way out. This is why I just mistook it for a squeaky clutch pedal since I only ever heard the "squeak-squeak" sound.

I can generate the sound sitting still with the transmission in neutral and it will squeal for as long as I hold the clutch in the special spot. The pitch is not extremely loud but can easily be heard. It can be heard better with the window down. As I move the clutch pedal away from the spot in either direction it will simply get quieter until it fades away.

There are some circumstances where the sound won't be made. If I'm cruising along at about 40 mph and put it in neutral then it won't make the sound (or it's so quiet that I can't hear it). But if I then put it in gear, then I can get it to make the sound.

Any ideas of what it might be? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Scott.

throw out bearing is bad.

i think its the throwout bearing as well but it wouldnt hurt to have them try the tsb first

An after thought
 

I'd bet dollars to doughnut holes it is the clutch throwout bearing. It may also involve the pilot bushing. I speak from experience as I had very similar symptoms that were fixed by replacing both parts. If your RX-8 is still on warranty, it shouldn't cost you a dime. Another suggestion, depending on how much mileage you've got on the car, while they're replacing the two parts I mentioned, have them replace the other clutch parts too. The disassembly/assembly for replacing a throwout bearing/pilot bushing is the same as replacing the pressure plate and clutch plate.

The reason I mention the other clutch parts is that the dismantle/re-assemble labor costs for a new clutch are significant. Since its the same process for installing a clutch throwout bearing and pilot bushing, why not spend the extra money on parts and get a whole new clutch for far less than it will cost if the job is done later?

Thanks for the info guys. I've since Googled "throw out bearing" and looked at "howStuffWorks" and can see why it makes sense that it could be the bearing. Now I can schedule service with a little more information to give them.

I'll be sure to post a follow-up so that if anyone does a search and has similar symptoms they'll know what I did to fix it - hopefully

i would say ur throwout bearing as well.............n if uve been drivin it with that sound bein made for an excessive amount of time, u mightve damaged the pressure plate for the clutch...

coood u splain how dat coud hapin???? les the berin stoopped movin. aint kno probs.

beers :beer:

Sounds like you've been drinking alot. :beer05: :beer05:

I guess we'll find out soon. I dropped it off for service this morning.

I think I'll be posting symptoms on this forum from now on because it's really worked out great so far. After I posted the symptoms on this forum I copied and pasted the same post and e-mailed it to two different dealerships where I've gotten service done before. One of them came back with - I've never heard of that before, you'll have to bring it in. The other came back with the throw out bearing as the likely cause with an explanation as to why he thought that it was the cause. Guess who got my business ...

I'm sure it's possible that he'll get in there and find out that it's something different but at least I feel better that he's not going to just aimlessly start taking things apart.

I'm going to have them do the 45,000 mile service while he's there - my next to the last FREE service. For those that have the magic "get out of jail free" card that Mazda gave the pre-orders, the card says "FREE Factory-Scheduled Maintenance (First 4 Years/50,000 Miles.)" Do you think that I should make sure that I get it there with 49,900 miles and ask for the 50,000 mile service to make sure that it hasn't expired yet? What are you going to do - or what have you done?

Thanks,
Scott.

im using Schedule B and mainly going by months since those seem to be flying by faster than mileage and they will run out first for me.

Just to follow up ...

I got the car back and the problem was corrected by replacing the throw-out bearing. They may have also replaced the pilot bearing but the invoice was not clear about this. I was told that they ordered both the throw-out bearing and the pilot bearing but only one entry for "bearing" showed up on the invoice. In either case, there's no more sound. They inspected the pressure plate and didn't see any damage so everything should be fine.

Thanks for you help!