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clutch noise ??

11K views 24 replies 11 participants last post by  dutchie3 
#1 ·
hey guys, i just picked my car up from AMS, they are waiting for some materials to come in so i get her back for about a week.
i noticed though that when i have the clutch pedal to the floor it is silent, but if i let it out i can actually hear the clutch spinning/grinding... i dont recall ever hearing this before, but after leaving my car for two weeks i may just be trying to find something wrong. also while at a total stop at a light i had a few clunking noises.. i pressed the clutch and it stopped, that happened twice.
has anyone noticed this stuff? do i have a problem or am i being anal ??
 
#3 ·
I can't believe you haven't noticed the bearing spinning noise before, what's the matter with you!!!! :lol: j/k. Yeah I have it too and I'm sure it's normal. My shifter is clunky sometimes, just the way it is. Relax and enjoy the car. You're one of the lucky ones.
 
#4 ·
i know i have heard it on cars in the past, just never before on my ms3.... that part does not worry me nearly as much as the chattering....i said clunking before, but it was definately the clutch chattering. i remember that sound from my old taurus SHO.. those things were famous for clutch problems. its very odd, i'll just be at a light then clink clunk clink clunk.... i hit the clutch and it goes away, i'll stop at ten more lights and nothing. then out of the blue here it is again.... i dont get it. it may be a bad pressure plate, or my car may have been beaten to a premature death while not in my possesion ?! i'll update when i know more. in the meantime i sent a e-mail to AMS to see what they have to say .
 
#7 ·
[quote author=Boother link=topic=67244.msg1155731#msg1155731 date=1169131599]
The noise you hear is the input shaft in the transmission rotating when you let out the clutch. It is totally normal.
[/quote]

i agree this sound is normal with out car. When driving along side a wall or fence you can really hear it. when I first noticed it I wondered if it was a bad bearing in the turbo or something, but after closer inspection it was trans related and has been with me since day one.
 
#8 ·
well the bearing noise is tolerable, as it may have been there all along and i just didnt pay attention.
but i did get the chattering sound again today.. it happened after some spirited driving, not a pounding, just a run from 1st-3rd shifting at 6k no powershifts. at the next light i was stopped for about 30 sec. and i got it again, its a hard to explain noise. i cant tell if it is from the cluth or maybe the diff. is locking/unlocking or something, but i am concerned.
 
#9 ·
Its not the diff, its not doing anything while sitting at a light.

How about a heat shield or something else that the shop disturbed while working on the car. The A/C drops the idle a little and adds some roughness to it.

That sorta fits with the random element as far as things happening while sitting at a light and having had the car worked on recently.....
 
#10 ·
Mine does the same thing. An intermittent "chatter" only at idle. Push in the pedal and the tacka-tacka.....tacka-tacka-tacka stops.
It hadn't done it for awhile but I heard it tonight. Always settles down and quits before I can get the hood open for a better listen with the stethoscope.
I'm not sure if there is any corrolation with driving/shifting hard and said noise but the first time I heard it was after a couple of speed shifting runs and a missed 1st-2nd shift. I thought I might've dicked something up but told myself the car couldn't be THAT fragile. Something has loosened up, but what?
 
#11 ·
Yes the slight chatter is louder after hard driving, but I'm pretty sure that's normal and is just the input shaft (or bearing)spinning. I'm beginning to think you all are a little paranoid. :p Not every little sound means the world is coming to an end. I take back my post above.
 
#12 ·
i am not trying to make it sound like the sky is falling, i have just never had it it chatter like that in any other car.
 
#13 ·
Tru-boost,

Aren't you the guy who posted a question about problems when flat (power) shifting?

Now your car is making a noise from the trans or clutch and you wonder why?

I have to ask what the purpose of power shifting is?

Not trying to start an argument, but this all seems related and I can't understand why you need to power shift. A non-power shift can be done in under 0.3 seconds from time off the gas to gas at 100%. If you are doing this on the street I see no other purpose than to torture the trans and try to make a warranty claim before it expires.

Greg
 
#14 ·
yep that was me..... but the trouble getting into second happened after the noise started. the reason for powershifting in a turbo car is to keep your boost between shifts. you can be the fastest shifter in the world, but if you let off the throttle .... boost vents and has to re-build. this shifting method was supported by mazda as mentioned in the car and driver article. they said it yielded the best times and said "dont worry it wont break "
 
#16 ·
sure its strain, and you may get CLOSE results, but never the same, holding boost is faster period. i think it is common as others have chimmed in saying they hear it too. i boughht my car to drive it, i drive my 2003 taurus when i get groceries, the speed is for.....well speed!! idrive it hard.
 
#17 ·
I think what Mazda meant was "Don't worry it won't break in the few short hours you have the car, but if you have to live with it for any length of time, its probably not a good idea". :mrgreen:

Besides, in a non-competitive environment what is a couple tenths on your 0-60 worth?

$0 to me, must be more to you.

If you want to beat on your car have at it, but when it breaks make sure you bring that article with you to the dealer so they know Mazda says its ok to drive that way. :screwy:
 
#18 ·
how many runs back-back-back do you think C&D did ?? i bet no less than 20. if it is ok with that i think if i do it once or twice a week it should be fine. a tenth of a sec is worth othing in a non-comp. enviroment, but when track time.. or even street race time comes along, the practice pays off. or you can look like a fool grinding gears in front of a couple hundred people in the stands..

anyways back on topic and off of my driving habits... does anyone else hear this it seems to be more pronounced after driving hard even when shifting normal, but i have heard it a few times while stopped after a normal drive.
 
#19 ·
As they say, you got to pay to play. As long as you're fine with that, everything should be cool.

Yeah the noise is more pronounced after hard driving but it's still pretty subtle. I have to turn the radio completely down to hear it. If yours is louder than normal, that could be an issue. Can you capture some audio?
 
#20 ·
i will try to record it but as for now.. lots of snow here. and my car is going in for some more "experimental parts" soon. if it turns out to be a problem, i'm sure it is the pressure plate, which is luckily the one clutch component that is under warranty !!!
 
#23 ·
[quote author=TRU-BOOST link=topic=67244.msg1160905#msg1160905 date=1169406497]
how many runs back-back-back do you think C&D did ?? i bet no less than 20. if it is ok with that i think if i do it once or twice a week it should be fine. a tenth of a sec is worth othing in a non-comp. enviroment, but when track time.. or even street race time comes along, the practice pays off. or you can look like a fool grinding gears in front of a couple hundred people in the stands..

anyways back on topic and off of my driving habits... does anyone else hear this it seems to be more pronounced after driving hard even when shifting normal, but i have heard it a few times while stopped after a normal drive.
[/quote]

The Mazdaspeed 3 is only a bit less tricky to launch than a space shuttle. Most of the runs up the drag strip vanished in excessive tire smoke. Or they deflated when the driver, trying to stanch the wheelspin, inadvertently cued the waste gate. Or grabbed the wrong gear with the spongy shifter. Calls to Mazda yielded tips: Pop the clutch at 2900 rpm, upshift at 6000 — redline is 6700 — and flat-shift through second and third (which means don’t lift at all — the mechanical equivalent of dropping a Steinway on the clutch and half-shafts and violating our test procedure).

“Don’t worry,” the engineers said, “it won’t break.”

It didn’t — even after painting the pavement Bridgestone black with more than 30 hole shots. Working the shifter feverishly — the low ratios in first and second mean two shifts happen before 60 mph — we finally scorched a 5.8-second 0-to-60 time and a 14.4-second quarter-mile at 99 mph.
 
#24 ·
Have you guys looked at the transmission on these cars? For the size of the car, it is a HUGE transmission. Mazda finally did this right and built a transmission that is able to deal with the abuse. The problem is, big transmissions make noise. Mazda tried to solve this partially by using a dual-mass flywheel, but it is still going to make some noise. If they come out with a lightweight flywheel for these cars (I'm sure they will) you will hear ALOT more noise. It will sound like a cement mixer at idle.
 
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