clutch noise

crazylady333

hey guys,
Driving a suzuki swift, a little 1L dinger, but lately noticed a noise coming when presure is off the clutch. when i press the clutch the noise goes away. Now from what i can figure the clutch its self is fine keeps trying to pull away when the handbreak is up, not labouring on hills or high gear low speed, someone somewhere said it might be the 'bearing' or somat like that?? any ideas on what the somat like that might be, or how serious the bearing is, how to fix, how expensive or even what 'it' is bearing ?? clutch cable was replaced 9k miles ago if that makes any odds Any ideas, all suggestions welcome thanks folks

mike65

Tis the release bearing, the noise will never go away but you'll proberly be able to change gears happily until the cows come home. The fix is a clutch out job so not cheap.

Mike.

Mr.Diagnostic

That would be the opposite of the release bearing noise. In most cases it would be a gearbox bearing that will make noise with the clutch pedal at rest and get quiet when pressed.

Any mechanic should be able to tell what it is just by listening. It would only take a few seconds.

nudelude

When you press the clutch in it stops the engine from turning the gears in the gearbox. When you let the clutch out (in neutral) the gears start turning again. If the gearbox(or car) has a lot of mileage on it and is well worn it will often give a kind of hissing sound. If this is the case and its probably nothing to worry about if you already own the car. If you were examining the car as a prospective purchase you could use this information to either bargain on price or find a better example. Topping up the gearbox oil may help.

mike65

Whoops! Got it the worng way round.

Mike.

crazylady333

thanks guys but am more confused than ever now...(thanks mike!!) see im thinking bout selling the car so dont wanna go to mechanic, my own one is at hme, but any in dublin charge both ur arms and a leg r 2 jst to look at it (no offence to any..but its true). like it driving fine, there is no difff in changing gears, grating (if u cant find it grind it) a little tadlite mre than usual but nt so as u wud notice. Then again im a girl...

crazylady333

nudelude wrote:

When you press the clutch in it stops the engine from turning the gears in the gearbox. When you let the clutch out (in neutral) the gears start turning again. If the gearbox(or car) has a lot of mileage on it and is well worn it will often give a kind of hissing sound. If this is the case and its probably nothing to worry about if you already own the car. If you were examining the car as a prospective purchase you could use this information to either bargain on price or find a better example. Topping up the gearbox oil may help.

outa curiousity, and if ur bored, what do u mean by turning the gears in the gear box?? the car has 67K up on it but ive kept it well, and what d hell there is seperate oil for the gearbox??? where does that go???? the general oil level-dipstick (which i presume is for the engine) is fine....Havent noticed any other places for stuff to go or needing to be refilled...

nudelude

The attached article has most of what you need to know. If its a bit techey skip to the picture halfway down and you'll see a gearbox with the gears on the inside. http://www.search.com/reference/Manual_transmission To top up the oil you will see the top of a bolt on the side of the gearbox. Undo and remove. The buy a bottle of gearoil from a motor factors. They come with a tube on the top so that yuou can squeeze the oil into the hole which will be perpindicular (at 90 degrees) to the ground. Fill until the oil spills back out. 67k is on the upper end of mileage for a 1 litre car and noise is to be expected. Hope this helps.

JHMEG

Change the gearbox oil (use manufacturer's oil). If it doesn't cure it, live with it.

Btw, txt spk isn't popular here, where we're not limited to 160 chars per post.

cormac_byrne

JHMEG wrote:

Change the gearbox oil (use manufacturer's oil). If it doesn't cure it, live with it.

N.B. for clarity we should point out that gearbox oil is different from engine oil. It will clearly be labeled 'Gearbox Oil' / EP90.

Engine oil is much lighter and no good for gearboxes.

Over the years I've driven several Triumphs which behaved as described, to avoid listening to the hissing, I generally shift into first gear immediately upon stopping. So when waiting at lights etc... I am in first gear with foot on clutch as opposed to neutral with foot off clutch.

My advice, top up the oil, then unless it deteriorates, ignore it. Maybe next time the clutch is being done also have the gearbox reconditioned. (As the gearbox probably has to be taken out to get at the clutch anyway)

crazylady333

hey, ya that article is top class. thanks a million. I do actually understand it...well most of it. I must go now and see if I can locate that bolt thingy. Wish me luck!!! Sorry for the previos text talk, force of habbit I suppose. Thanks guys

crazylady333

by the way, that bolt thing, can I get at that from the inside of the car ie lift the carpet near the handbrake or gears, or do i have to go under the car to get at it?? I presume its not under the bonnet...

daedalus2097

The gearbox in most cars nowadays is actually nowhere near the gear stick... It's usually a bell or cone shaped lump on the right side of the engine (when looking at it from the front of the car), so you do need to open the bonned to see it. It'll be much wider at the end closest to the engine, and will have a couple of cables or rods attached to it for your gear stick and clutch.



That's a Renault engine but the basic layout should be the same. The gearbox is the big, darker coloured lump at the right, bolted onto the side of the enging with a number of large bolts.

crazylady333

sorry your dealing with a complete idiot here. Your more than welcome to give up, yeve been so helpful so far. But if you want to plug on, can you tell me is it the big mad 2inch long thing (on the screen) to the right and back attached to the white hoses/pipes on the left or is it the small black container in between that lumpy thing and the shiny metalic cylindrical shape thing?? and is this bolt a plug or screw in srew out thing, or is it an actual bolt ie spanner /wrench to get it off?

cormac_byrne

crazylady333 wrote:

by the way, that bolt thing, can I get at that from the inside of the car ie lift the carpet near the handbrake or gears, or do i have to go under the car to get at it?? I presume its not under the bonnet...

yes maybe in a rear wheel drive car, but not in a front wheel drive car.
(afaik the Swift is FWD)

I found this on google

"I had a Suzuki Swift 5 speed and the only way to fill it was to remove the speedo cable from tranny and then fill through there with a long funnel from under the hood."

Basically this means he couldn't find the bolt covering the filler hole (or there isn't one), so he disconnected the speedometer cable and poured the oil in there instead.

tranny = transmission = American work for gearbox
hood = bonnet

The speedo cable runs from the back of the speedometer on the dashboard to the gearbox.

I'm presuming for that trick to work it must be connected near the top of the gearbox. (If the speedo cable was underneath, like on a RWD Triumph, disconnecting it would cause the gearbox oil to spill out ... and lots of swearing)

crazylady333

oh im slow Ive jst coped it. Its the massive thing literally to the right of the engine, underneath the shiny cylinder..i thought that was just another part of the engine. I looked at that part but there didn't seem to be any bolt that would allow me to put oil in, they all seemed to keep it attached to soemthing else, and the bolts were pretty similar, ie none stood out as being an opening for anything. As far as disconnecting the speedo cable thing (by the way really apreciated the simple translation there) goes I think I'll just leave it. It doesn't seem like I should just go pouring oil into random places. If it gets worse I'll take it to the garage, but like i said it is running normally so as long as its safe its fine, I'll leave it. Still and all learned loads thanks for all the help, it's really apreciated. On that note does anyone know if there is a place in Dublin you can do a begininers mechanic course? I would prefer to take it in person ie not online. Then i can stop bothering you guys Thanks again

cormac_byrne

see

http://www.teamswift.net/viewtopic.php?t=11004
&
http://www.teamswift.net/viewtopic.php?t=6463

for locating the correct oil filler plug, the speedo connector and an alternate filler plug.

Not using the correct filler might overfill the gearbox. Maybe someone else might comment if this is a bad thing or just wasteful???

You will also find how to locate the drain plug. This is on the bottom and is for draining the old oil, before replacing with new stuff. (reinsert drain plug before pouring new oil in)

If you don't care about the oil quality then ignore the drain plug.

cormac_byrne

car maintenance courses
many of the VECs have evening classes

http://www.nightcourses.com/search.html?from_page=main&query=car&county=all

crazylady333

I'm doing that at the moment (first gear instead of neutral) so its fine. When you say it will be clearly labelled 'gearbox oil', you mean the carton of oil, not the tank under the hood? As long as the car isn't abot to explode or anything, I'll get over it. I was just kind of wondering what was wrong with it, and it seems I have my answer so its all good. Members are so helpful its great

Ger the man

Had the exact same problem myself. New gearbox did the trick.

crazylady333

that site is brillant. I went looking before but found nothing like that. Do you reckon there is much of a difference between the courses? Like i know the very basics, checking and filling oil, water, power steering fluid, brake fluid etc. I can change a tyre and things like that. Is there a differnece between NCT maintance and normal maintance?

crazylady333

jst checked that team swift site out, it is brillant the pics on it are very detailed. I'm in the process of selling it and have a viewing tonight, so I may attack it 2mrw if im feeling brave enough, but I presume like if i unsrewed any wrong parts its just a matter of putting it back on. I managed to replace rad pipe myself so its some bit of a start.. Can't go too far wrong or do too much damage, can I...