Ok. My buddy and I have done about 4 good clutch jobs on 99-00 Si's B series motors no problem.

My friend with a 93 Civic EX SOHC needed a new clutch right before winter. I didn't really know him back then, and he took it to Honda for them to do a new clutch. Honda installed new clutch for about $600!!!

Anyway, as of lately, his clutch I believe he said was "sorta slipping" I don't think that much at all. Keep in mind I can't see that he put more than 6 or 7 K miles since the new clutch. He doesn't really beat on the car. But the biggest problem is that the tranny would make a rubbing metal type of noise when the car was in neutral, and sometimes when shifting. Some shop that put on his Ground Controls said that it was probably his throw out bearing. Seemed logical.

Ok, so my buddy and I ripped out his tranny. We discovered that our Honda dealer did a SHITTY job at this clutch. It was missing a 19mm rear tranny mount, another small front arm mount bolt that holds a bar on the block and the tranny. The other one was in cross threaded, so it broke when we removed it. Also the boot that goes around the fork outside the tranny housing near the slave cylinder was missing.... hhmm.. Honda screwed it up. When we got the tranny out, one of the notches to hold the throw out bearing on the fork was broke, as you can see in the picture. I also noticed that the fork that pushes the throw out bearing has some burrs where the notches sit, but I didnt think it was that bad. We also saw that the flywheel bolts were burred and some of the notches on the 12 point star were stripped. The flywheel was resurfaced by them.




On the stock pressure plate we noticed that the fins on the pressure plate, half of them bent in some, not lined up with the others. You can also notice the marks that the bearing left.



Ok, so we install new bearings and the new clutch. Everything was torqued back to spec, and all the bolts that we had were reinstalled. Because it's sunday, and our buddy had to leave, we didn't worry about the missing bolts. So we start up the car, put everything back together, and the clutch feels great. So we start to drive and the "rubbing" or "kinda grinding" noise is still there only when in neutral idling. If the clutch is engaged, the noise goes away. The noise is there, but goes away at times mostly in first. Second and Third gear the noise is gone. To get a better idea of the noise, http://home.attbi.com/~mechanik08/soundofclutch.MPG i took an MPEG of the noise with my camera.

Sorry this is so long, but what do you people suspect? I don't think it would be our couple of missing bolts, as the noise goes away when clutch is engaged. What if they cut the flywheel too much? Something wrong with the throwout bearing fork? Would that cause this noise!

Thanks for replies!


[Modified by mechanik, 12:34 AM 4/29/2002]

 

It sounds like the throw out bearing is bad but since you changed it, maybe the fork is messed up. If the t.o. bearing is not hitting the clutch straight on, I guess it could make a wierd noise.
Did you replace the piolt bearing in the center of the flywheel? I hope so. The other spot where noise comes from is the main imput shaft bearing in the tranny. Normally it makes it's noise when tranny is in neutral and the clutch pedal is NOT pushed in. With tranny out, if u can wiggle the main shaft, it's bad.
Document everything and go complain to Honda. They sound like a bunch of butchers.

 

I agree with Earl. It's most likely the mainshaft in the transmission. The reason the noise stops when the clutch is pushed in is because the transmission quits spinning, hence the noise stopping. This same thing happened on my EX. I ended up just buying a used tranny and swapping it out rather than trying to rebuild the tranny.

As for Honda, it seems like they did a shitty job on the install, but I don't think they can be blamed for the transmission problems.

EDIT: Just watched the video, and thats EXACTLY what my car was doing. 100% sure its the transmission.


[Modified by CivicEx95, 3:27 AM 4/29/2002]

 

Thanks guys - your explanations sounds very logical. I am about 99.2 % we installed all the new parts correctly - new clutch, new throw out bearing, new pressure plate, new pilot bearing.

So by looking at the pictures and seeing that the pressure plate got messed up with the throw out bearing, being that we replaced all that, the problem lies within the tranny (mainshaft). So you guys think the mainshaft went bad, nothing to do with an install or anything misaligned (which I don't think much could be misaligned, since we torqued down the flywheel, installed clutch disc and PP on down pins, used tool, etc etc. ) ?

One last thing, it is possible that say when Honda was installing it, the dumb techs were trying hard to line up the mainshaft into the engine and bumping into **** and bending the mainshaft? Or is that not really likely?

Thanks


[Modified by mechanik, 2:56 PM 4/29/2002]

 

Highly unlikely (unless they put a different tranny than yours back into your car). I still would be upset about their unprofessional installation