Car: 97 Maxima with MEVI

Just replaced my OEM slipping clutch 3 months ago with an Exedy Stage 0 kit bought off of ebay. I decided to go with whatever works since I picked up a different ride.

I still love my max though!

It has been running perfectly fine until I dumped the clutch a couple days ago while doing a sharp left turn.

Now during idle i can here a chatter coming from the transmission area. However the noise goes away when you step on the clutch and comes back when the clutch is let off. This is in neutral idle.

Other than the chatter the car runs and drives perfectly fine and can still spin the tires through all the gears.

So far I've come to the conclusion that the exedy throwout bearing is a pos.

Any idea guys?

I just installed the same clutch last week. I re-used my old t/o bearing since it was barely used, but I noticed the new one with the Exedy kit is made by SKF. You can't get a better bearing than SKF. If it's a bearing problem, I doubt it would be a quality issue.

Dave

Oh yeah, ouch. I've done that. The throw-out bearing always gets f'd when you remove it in my experience. Perhaps I'm rough.

But now I always do the t-o bearing with a clutch, absolutely.

Sorry, mis-read. I'll shut up now.

lol

Any other suggestions. I would hate to have to rip apart the tranny just for a simple release bearing.

Will leaving the tranny at a chatter damage my tranny in any way?

symptoms are classic t-o bearing.

Don't think anything much'll get hurt if you leave it except your street cred.
the chatter will get worse!

This's what will eventually happen to a bad TO bearing. I took this tranny out after the clutch pedal wasn't doing anything... The Bearing was pretty much toast


And here are the lil bearings:


I would suggest you replace the TO bearing. Goto your nearest dealer, they usually have them in stock.

Jae

Wow - bet that wailed like a banshee before it died eh?

Yeah, pretty loud and obvious, but my friend likes holding down the clutch while @ stoplights. With about a day's work (shoulda been faster, but I never worked on his car before) we put in a TO bearing from the dealership. Been working great (and silent!) ever since.

Jae

No, those symptoms he described are exactly the OPPOSITE of a T/O bearing problem.

The throw out bearing DOES NOT TURN when your foot is off the clutch. Since it doesn't turn when your foot is off the clutch, it can't make any noise. It just sits there doing nothing. when you put your foot ON the clutch is when it starts spinning, that is when it would make noise if it were a problem.


Noise when your foot is off the clutch sounds much more like the classic and exceedingly common input shaft bearing problem. As for the advent of this problem after you happened to dump your clutch, perhaps the bearing had been wearing away previously, and the shock of the clutch dump cause one of the retaining pieces in the bearing gave out (they hold the ball bearings in place between the inner and outer bearing race).

One other thing that I just thought of, though quite unlikely, is that your throwout bearing post is somehow cracked, bent or otherwise deformed, and is rubbing against the input shaft. the input shaft stops spinning when you put your foot on the clutch (which is why the input shaft bearing stops making noise when you put your foot on the clutch also). just another possibilty (albeit very remote).

LOL. My bad... Upon further reasoning Nealoc's right about the input shaft.
Jae