I just bought a '97 5-speed with 207,000 miles on it. The car is in incredible shape and has been taken very good care of. They had the clutch changed at 150,000 and had the trans. fluid changed as well. I pulled it over the pit yesterday to check it out underneath and everything looked good except there is some play in the driver side axle where it sticks into the tranny. The seal is dry though. How concerned should I be about this?

 

at 207K I'd be concerened, but dont worry about it until it starts making noises, theres really nothing you can do to prevent it if it is going to happen.

 

I would plan to have it pulled and replace the diff bearings. If you do it soon, it's possible the other bearings will still be undamaged and you won't need a full rebuild.

Dave

 

Good idea... Since you have some knowledge on rebuilding the transmissions, would the input shaft bearing cause a whine in gear and when its not in gear or both ?

I get a whine in 1st and I can kind of hear the whine in the other gears im not sure but I have opened the transmission a few times for random reasons and inspected the driver side bearings, obviously I cannot see the other side of the differential without attempting to remove it, but there was no chips or spalling at all on the rollers...

/threadhijack... at least its related.

 

Whining sounds are usually damage on the gear faces. Bad input shaft bearings in my experience tend to be a grinding sound, but it could be bearing related. For gear whine it can help to use a heavier oil.

The input shaft bearings are deep-groove roller ball bearings, so you can't really see much of their working surfaces. The only way I know to inspect them is to remove the shaft from the case and see if they spin smoothly. Generally, if another bearing in the tranny starts to wear (and axle play indicates more than enough diff bearing wear for this), the flakes of worn bearing metal jam the input shaft bearings, ruin it, and make noise. This is why I advocate checking your tranny oil for metal flakes, and if you see small/tiny amounts of metal flake, that replacing that oil can extend the life of that tranny.

But much of this is generalization and conjecture - the only real answer is to open it up, clean the parts, and inspect closely. Even when looking at a disassembled tranny it's very hard to say which bearing or gear failed first. The parts with the most obvious damage are not necessarily the ones that went first.

Dave

 

I can hear a slight whine in all the gears as well but wasn't sure if this is a normal sound or not. I've owned auto's up until this one. There are no other noises, no grinding, and it shifts as smooth as can be. I think I'm going to drop the fluid and check it for any metal flakes and start saving for either a rebuild or a reman. tranny. I'll keep the fluid changed regularly until I get it done.

 

If the gears are damaged, you'll probably hear the noise only while pushing in one direction - either coasting down in gear, or accelerating. It may be audible when not in that gear because the mating gears are always engaged and rotating together. The difference is that when you're not in that gear the torque transmitted through them is very small.

Looking for metal flakes is a good first step.

Dave