Transmission Bearing Noise? Input Shaft Bearing?

[ether.real]

Hello all, looking for advice on my 1996 Civic DX hatchback. It has a 5 speed manual transmission, with 152k miles.

I am concerned about what sounds like a bearing, here are the symptoms:

-grinds when the car is in neutral, with the clutch out. Goes away when I press the clutch in.
-I cant hear it when the car is moving.
-worse when its cold, and at first start. Quiets down if the car is warmed up for a while.
-Everything shifts fine.

I have heard that this can be due to the throwout bearing, however this bearing got replaced when I had the clutch replaced, and the sound did not go away. Another suggestion is the Input Shaft Bearing, and my current research seems to confirm this.

So my questions are as follows:

Am I better off replacing the bearing, or the entire transmission?

What risk is there to driving on the bad bearing? Does it slowly get worse until it breaks, or does it carry a risk of catastrophic damage?


Thanks in advance,
ether

[RonJ@HT]

Symptoms fit with a bad input shaft bearing in the transmission. Consider replacing the transmission as the fix is apparently difficult unless you have experience disassembling and assembling transmissions.

[ether.real]

Thanks Ron. Can you tell me what the risk is of driving on it?

[RonJ@HT]

The risk is transmission failure and possibly clutch damage.

Click here for a thread about somebody who replaced the bearing.

[ether.real]

Thanks. I guess the next question is, will the damage be gradual over time, or do I risk more drastic circumstances?