Ticking Sound

[trel]

As topic states, when clutch is disengaged in neutral, I can hear a tapping noise, originally I thought I had a sticky lifter. I put the clutch in and sound goes away.

Anyway, now while i'm driving, I can hear a funny noise almost like a tap/whine (it's a strange sound I really can't explain it, almost sounds like a car from the Jetsons lol). I could be stationery and rev the car and still hear this sound..

I'll try and record the sound and post on youtube later on.

Any ideas before I go to my mechanic?

Cheers.

[Hakosuka22]

Does it worsen as you go through the rev-range?

[Benzino33]

Hey, i got it too, taps and disappears as soon as the clutch it touched, even slightly.

its most probably a thrust bearing in your clutch. dunno if much can be done apart from replacing the clutch, but i dont think it poses much of a problem.

Ive asked around and people say it isnt bad, just annoying, im not sure tho

[Birds]

Does it produce the noise in any of the gears or just in neutral?

Thrust bearing noises 99% of the time occur when putting the clutch in, so you can probably rule that one out.

I would say you have a neutral rollover sound, probably one of the cluster bearings on its way out. It's definitely gearbox related - well done on identifying and providing a detailed description of symptoms, it's refreshing compared to the usual "I have a weird noise coming from somewhere in my car...help?" crap that gets posted in here. The unfortunate reality is that you will need the gearbox pulled apart / reconditioned to replace this bearing. And the other unfortunate reality is that rollover noises are difficult to get rid of completely, because the longer the gearbox goes on without getting this bearing replaced, the more it wears on static parts such as shafts and gears. Then after their tolerances are reset, these parts will make something of a similar sound even with new bearings...just quieter.

[trel]

Birds - Yeah mate, it does it in gear also. The other odd thing is when I cold start the car, this sound doesn't come on until the car has warmed up.

Guess it's time to rebuild the box...

[trel]

heh, so after a little bit of my own investigation i went into the garage and started the car up and decided to fiddle around and see if I could pinpoint where the noise was from.

Completely unrelated... Sound is coming from timing cover... Timing belt did get changed a year ago though. I went down to my mechanic and we tested cam timing solenoid... Pull connector off and its filled with oil!

I thought it was coming from box as I heard a noise emanating from it recently.

Thanks for the replies!

[Benzino33]

Completely unrelated... Sound is coming from timing cover... Timing belt did get changed a year ago though. I went down to my mechanic and we tested cam timing solenoid... Pull connector off and its filled with oil!

I thought it was coming from box as I heard a noise emanating from it recently.

So it wasnt the clutch or box at all? Has the noise gone away? Well my belts got changed at the start of the year so might get that checked out soon too

[trel]

yeah dude, the sound of the ticking in clutch was recently in some REALLY cold weather, im talking like 3 deg outside. In the warmer weather, no problem no noise.

But yeah, I'm just gonna buy some adj. cam gears while we do the solenoid, labour will cost same, as timing gear needs to come off anyway.

I hear its possible to gain anywhere from 10 to 20 extra kw with cam gears.

[Birds]

Cam gears can provide benefit as a support modification to others...you won't see a great deal of power increase from them unless you put in some higher lift / longer duration camshafts or have a tunable aftermarket ECU / piggyback. About the best you can do with them is advance the timing on a stock setup.