Got a bad bearing. How long can I ride it? Any chances of it failing suddenly? Its getting cold and I really dont feel like pulling the transmission out right now, would rather wait till March when my Civic goes to storage.

 

I have had it go out on both my MX-6 and my 280ZX. For me it got worse and worse but still driveable until one day and just BAM.

On my ZX it didn't damage anything more but I changed out the whole clutch anyways. On my MX-6 it threw something hard enough to put 2 holes in the bell housing, one into the tranny and one to the outside. So it cost me a clutch kit and transmission.

I know I shouldn't, but my suggestion is if you NEED to drive it, be careful and the second it gets any worse change it. A bad throw out can damage the pressure plate. Honestly I would change it now to prevent future issues.

 

You don't have to remove the transmission from the car in order to change the clutch. (might as well do the whole thing, not just the bearing)


How long has it been going bad?
What kind of noise is it making?
How many miles do you plan on putting on the car between now and March?


Are you sure it's the release bearing (aka throwout bearing) and not the input shaft bearing? (which requires removing the transmission, splitting it open, etc etc)

 

Release bearing on a civic hardly goes bad. The one i took out with 170k miles was still good but i changed it anyways with the clutch job.
The noise you hear is probably the transmission input shaft bearing. That is the reason why I pulled my transmission out. I replaced it with a used one and did the clutch at the same time.

 

well, a friend told me it was a throw out bearing. been bad for about 3 weeks.

It makes noise when I drive and connect the clutch out of gear. The noise stays the same as I go through the gears. Sounds like metal rubbing.

I have an internal linkage issue as well so when I pull the tranny I would need to analyze all that is wrong and order parts as necessary, I estimate that downtime to be two weeks, not something I want to do with winter approaching and not having a backup car as my Conquest is in storage for winter.

My civic is my winter beater/road trip car, I might put on about 3k miles on it.

 

sounds like an input shaft bearing to me. I just did this replacement this past weekend and let me tell you, its not fun. Thought it was my throw out bearing at first except the noises would happen opposite of what a throw out bearing would do . If clutch is pressed in and noise goes away, input shaft bearing. Or if you take car out of gear and take your foot off the clutch and starts to make noise after full release of clutch then its the input shaft bearing. You can drive on it, it will just get worse. I drove on mine for about an year and all it did was get louder and finally started to leak fluid past the seal because of the play in the shaft. Took me a good weekend to fix.

 

meh, i spoke to my friend who diagnosed it. i think he mistook when my foot was on and off the clutch.

that's fine, i've been dying to rebuilt my conquest tranny but there are very little parts available for it. rebuilding this one should be just as much fun. although i never had to deal with a transverse mounted transmission. this should be fun.

 

Yeah I miss the good old rear wheel drive days when you could have a trans out in 15 min. =(

I'll be doing the same job soon, in the dead of winter, great fun.

jackal did you have a hoist to support the motor or did you use a different method? I have no hoist, was thinking about a couple jacks and 2x4's under the oil pan but now I'm not sure that'll be enough...

 

Wont the motor be fine with its mounts?

 

you just picked out the wrong yearmodel to work on. my 95 had the trans out in 15, i know i have had an 01 prelude out in 20.

parts arent readily available. im looking for a d17 trans at the moment.

imput shaft bearing is the most common problem, make sure it isnt the throwout bearing. they can be readily mistaken .

 

You can use jack stands, i used a hoist but i still need a jack to keep the motor from moving. Plus the hoist was only holding the motor by one bolt. I used Mitchell on demand to walk me through and said to hoist the motor but to be honest jack and stands will work as well. Only trouble i see you running into by using a jack is taking the sub frame out since if you are already supporting the motor with jacks you got to move them to pull the sub frame since the sub frame will wrapped around the stands, maybe just leave the sub frame on the ground and not pull it away? The mounts are not enough to hold it up since 3 of 4 have to be removed to get the tranny out.

 

You might be able to get away leaving the front mount on but still i wouldnt advise plus that one tends to be the one that fails all the time.

 

i have poly mounts on the engine, that I plan to replace with stock mounts. cant stand the vibrations with the damn transverse. got like 3 huge floorjacks I can use so no problem.

pulling this damn tranny is starting to sound harder and harder. is there a write up for this? the one in the faq has broken images.

 

Your friend does not know what he is talking about if you hear it while your driving ...... it's the input shaft bearing