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Oh no I think my 02 5mt finally tapped out..

2K views 10 replies 6 participants last post by  BOO$TIN$UBY 
#1 ·
Well I was driving home from work today, I pulled out of the Meijer parking lot and gassed 1st to get up to speed. Right at the end of 1st (6800rpm) I heard a loud "ka KACK KACK.."!Cry! and the car jerked a little bit (slowed down without me using the brakes :( ). I pulled over and looked at the bottom of my car to see if maybe the rear diff or something else took a crap. No physical damage. I did notice a different odor (not like the mobil 1 I run...something else oil based) in the cabin. I turned the car back on and granny shifted (more than I usually do..) home. I noticed that in all gears a gradual whine from the gearbox builds up, the car slows down a bit, then I hear a muffled (ka kack kack...) gear smacking noise near the gear box. After that happens it goes away for a little bit and then repeats. When I heard the gradual whining noise again I pulled it out of gear and then put it back in. I can shift into all gears without any extra effort and there are no grinding noises during engagement so I don't think it's the synchros or gearset. I'm thinking it's one of the differentials; possibly the center. I have driven the car hard many times where there was a loss of traction and I stayed on the throttle. This car has been drag raced and it's most likely damage due to my need for speed. I do save launching for the track just to keep the points on my license down, tickets, and wear and tear. I got my car at 26k miles. It got a new clutch and flywheel at 55k miles, along with a gearbox / differential fluid change. I just looked at my mileage and I'm 4k shy from 90,000 miles. I definitely got my use out of everything for me racing it, I'm just curious if any other fellow WRX drivers have run into this problem with the driveline. If not that's ok I'm still going to have someone diagnose the problem because there DEFINITELY is something wrong. I'm just hoping it's just a diff and not the whole 5 speed... I wish I had the money for a PPG gearbox with brand new Cusco diffs! Anyone feeling generous? :p
 
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#2 ·
Well I have an update on the whole situation. I looked under my car today because a buddy of mine said that it might be a cv joint that is bad (because of the smell). I didn't see a torn boot or grease on the wheels, but I did see a POOL OF OIL under the car !Cry! The strange thing is that I popped the hood and didn't see any oil leaking out of the cylinder heads or the bottom by the oil pan / filter. My friend thinks it is the rear seal on the engine. It may be a combination of things, but I definitely didn't see red fluid. Red fluid would be in my trans and diff. It looks like the oil is dripping off of my exhaust and front cross member. Sounds to me like it's engine related. The weird thing is the whining noise and the stutter (slow down feeling) I notice when the car is out of gear. The car does have an XPT Stage 2 map on it and has been data logged properly for knock, boost, etc. I'm going to take the car back to the place that did my clutch / flywheel since they were the last ones to work on it. I can't imagine that it would be any of their doing since I've had the car with the new clutch / flywheel for 30k miles. What a GREAT way to start the weekend :notgood:
 
#3 ·
My buddy had the same exact problem in his Nissan Sentra Spec-V. When he had a lighter fly wheel and new clutch installed. They over tightened the bolts on the flywheel, 3 sheered off and broke the rear main seal, put and nasty shake in the crank and also destroyed most of the motor. Get that checked right away!!!!
 
#5 ·
Now that I'm thinking about it I'm NOT going to take it back to where I got the clutch and flywheel originally installed. If the bolts did get sheared off and broke my main seal then I'm not going to let them do it to me again !Thumbs Up On Thanksgiving I was talking to my Aunt and my cousin about my cousin's car. He's got a 2000 civic with a Eaton Supercharger on it (it's not bad for a 1.7l honda :p). He told me that his uncle installed the new clutch for him at his shop. I personally drove his car and even though it's a 6 puck ACT disc it engages very smoothy with zero shutter. My aunt says that he tends to charge on the high side, but I'm sure we can come to a resonable agreement. If I have to pay out to get the rear seal fixed / whatever else is wrong then I'd rather pay the money to someone that my family trusts. I'm going to call him on Monday and explain what happened... since the economy is so bad in my state right now I'm not surprised that the local repair shops are resorting to B*tch tactics to get more business :beatentod I should have seen this coming; da**it Craig pay more attention; god, freaking idiot!
 
#11 ·
Well my buddies and I got my car to the repair shop. They confirmed that it was indeed gear oil. They did not see any engine oil. The guy at the repair shop said that the gear oil was leaking out of the back of the transmission, where the driveshaft connects into it. He was not comfortable cracking the tranny case open, so I have two options.
1. Find a repalcement used tranny.
2. Have him pull the the tranny and have his tranny builder look at it. I was also thinking about sending the 5MT to Andrewtech automotive, i hear they repair transmissions well...

I'm leaning towards getting the gearbox fixed, because all gears engaged and I didn't hear crunching noises. The clutch engaged without problems and the engine doesn't stutter, so it may not be the rear seal, clutch, flywheel at all. Definitely either something in the trans in the rear, by the driveshaft or the driveshaft itself. I can't imagine that the driveshaft splines broke but it's possible. I'm thinking the diff in the trans :beatentod
 
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