Background:
I bought a used 97 SE last May. The car had about 65K miles and 2 previous owners-- one of the owners lived on the hilly streets of San Francisco for a few years. I put a new clutch in only a few months after getting it (at about 70K). By December I noticed a loud noise coming from the engine when the car was in neutral and the clutch was disengaged. The noise continued to get louder over the next several months. During a tune-up in June, one mechanic claimed the noise was caused by a faulty clutch bering. Yesterday I took the car back to my original mechanic who had installed the clutch. After discussing the problem with a transmission specialist, he determined that the tranny is completed trashed and needs a full overhaul. The noise supposedly has nothing to do with the clutch bering (which makes sense since its loudest when the clutch is disengaged).

Question:
Has anyone heard of similar transmission problems on 97s? Is it possible that really hard city driving, especially on hills, could cause a tranny death at only 75K miles? Or could this be foul play on the part of the previous owner (e.g. detaching the odometer cable and racking up extra miles)?

Any thoughts welcome to soothe the pain of a $1500 tranny bill...

Thanks.

PS- I also need to replace my driver side mirror-- anyone know where I can pick one up on the cheap? Thx.

 

What kind of noise? I assume whe you say "clutch disengaged" you mean that the pedal was to the floor, and the clutch plate was disengaged from the flywheel?

 

go to www.car-part.com for the mirror.Their should be plenty. Just do a search for the best price.

 

Sorry-- I guess I'm using the word "disengaged" incorrectly. The noise is loudest when the car is in neutral and I'm not touching any pedals. It sounds like the engine is revving at 3K or 4K RPM when its only at <1K RPM. Then when I step on the clutch, the noise disappears (or gets much softer).

Thanks for the reply... any ideas would be appreciated!

 

Thanks!!

 

I had this, and a couple other people did also. In my case it was the input shaft front bearing that has failed. To replace one bearing took me $100 in parts (bearing plus all disturbed seals/gaskets) and initially about 15 hours in labor to drop the tranny, take it apart, replace the bearing and put it all back together.

$1500 is a little on the high side (I did the work myself, so I know what's involved) but cheaper than Nissan. Make sure that 1500 is for ALL 6 bearings. (2 input shaff, 2 mainshaft, 2 diff) and it siomply cannot be overstated that input shaft and especially diff endplay measurement is *CRITICAL* to tranny life. Also gotta check that mainshatf endplay if he disturbs the bearings.

He prolly doesn't have the tool for the mainshaft bearing check, so I personally wouldn't replace those mainshatf bearing unless they showed signs of wear. If they ARE replaced, then the special tool must be obtained to check mainshaft endplay.

 

Good to know I'm not the only one who's had this problem. Thanks for all the info. Very helpful!

Cheers-