Vibration in clutch & shifter
02-23-2005, 05:55 PM
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Vibration in clutch & shifter Hello all,
I recently bought a 2000 Trans Am. It has a 6 speed with the hurst shifter and the day before yesterday I noticed the car was acting strange.
When I am launching in 1st (not race launching, just normal street driving) the car will stutter almost like I'm not giving it enough gas and it's about to die. The whole car kinda shakes. It will do this unless I keep the RPMs almost perfectly at 1100 (Any more or less it shakes). It only does this in first gear. All the other gears run fine with no stutter, even at that low of an rpm. The car shifts really well other than this, except that every once in a while I have to put the car in 1st before I can shift into reverse, which is no big deal.
I also now notice that if I rest the weight of my foot on the clutch pedal to depress it slightly, it vibrates really bad like something is thumping on the back of the pedal. The clutch does not slip at all. Once I get moving, I can go WOT in any gear and it pulls very hard with no slip at all.
The only mods I have done are a Borla cat-back, !CAGS, and a short stick replacement for the Hurst shifter. As far as I know and can see, there are no other modifications done to the car. I bought it with 69k miles and it now has 71k. It didn't start doing this until a couple days ago.
Any help at all would be greatly appreciated.
I recently bought a 2000 Trans Am. It has a 6 speed with the hurst shifter and the day before yesterday I noticed the car was acting strange.
When I am launching in 1st (not race launching, just normal street driving) the car will stutter almost like I'm not giving it enough gas and it's about to die. The whole car kinda shakes. It will do this unless I keep the RPMs almost perfectly at 1100 (Any more or less it shakes). It only does this in first gear. All the other gears run fine with no stutter, even at that low of an rpm. The car shifts really well other than this, except that every once in a while I have to put the car in 1st before I can shift into reverse, which is no big deal.
I also now notice that if I rest the weight of my foot on the clutch pedal to depress it slightly, it vibrates really bad like something is thumping on the back of the pedal. The clutch does not slip at all. Once I get moving, I can go WOT in any gear and it pulls very hard with no slip at all.
The only mods I have done are a Borla cat-back, !CAGS, and a short stick replacement for the Hurst shifter. As far as I know and can see, there are no other modifications done to the car. I bought it with 69k miles and it now has 71k. It didn't start doing this until a couple days ago.
Any help at all would be greatly appreciated.
02-23-2005, 10:45 PM
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Sounds like your clutch is going out. Possibly the pressure plate. I've been having issues with the pedal going to the floor on high RPM runs for months now. Lately I'm getting the same symptoms as you. I've done all the fixes and bled the hydraulics numerous times. I'm guessing it's something internal.
02-24-2005, 08:11 AM
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I was thinking it was probably the clutch going out. Was hoping it might be some easy fix. Yeah it is the stock clutch, or if it has been replaced it was replaced with an OEM clutch.
02-24-2005, 08:23 AM
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If you have the tools and the time, you could pull the transmission and check the pressure plate bolts...one or more of them could be loose.
I just had a new LS6 clutch installed and I am having to redo the shops work because they didn't torque (or even tighten) all of the bolts. They are all torqued diffrerently and I was even able to unscrew three of the transmission to bellhousing bolts by hand.
I just had a new LS6 clutch installed and I am having to redo the shops work because they didn't torque (or even tighten) all of the bolts. They are all torqued diffrerently and I was even able to unscrew three of the transmission to bellhousing bolts by hand.
02-25-2005, 01:15 PM
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I've got a warranty plan for the car so I'm wondering if it would be worthwhile to take it in for service. What are the chances that the dealership or whatever would be able to 1) find the problem and 2) properly fix the problem?
I don't wanna pay the mandatory 90 dollars to look at the car to have them say, "that's standard manual transmission wear" or some other excuse.
I don't wanna pay the mandatory 90 dollars to look at the car to have them say, "that's standard manual transmission wear" or some other excuse.
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02-28-2005, 11:07 AM
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Well, I'm having some more issues that are really starting to worry me now, sorry for the long post but I'm trying to cover everything. The only mods I have are in my sig. I have a factory hurst shifter that I put a shorter stick on. I have also done !CAGS with an adapter piece, not just a cheap resistor. So I have a stock clutch, flywheel, rearend, transmission, etc.
For a while now since I installed my new exhaust, sometimes when I brake really hard coming down off of a highway ramp, if I have the car in neutral with the clutch out just braking, there is this weird sound coming the shifter area. It sounds like lightweight metal rings or plates spinning and sliding around on a tube or something, they also kind of slap around a bit. And very rarely, after the metal spinning sound, sometimes I will feel a thunk in the transmission. The first thing I thought of when I heard it was little metal rings spinning loosely on the driveshaft. Being that it sounded lightweight, I didn't think it was a major problem.
Friday night, the transmission started acting really bad. Now it is almost impossible to shift into reverse. Requires lots of wiggling and both arms pushing on it to get it into gear. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gears are also hard to get into sometimes while driving. Most of the time all 6 gears shift smooth and easy, but sometimes 1st, 2nd and 3rd need a little muscle. Since I bought the car I have never missed a shift. Since this started happening I have missed 3rd gear three times now and 2nd and 4th once each. Also, sometimes when I have the car in 4th on the highway and I shift out of 4th and into neutral and coast and then put it back into 4th without going into any other gear, it will occassionally grind really hard. 3rd gear will do this too but even less often than 4th gear.
Now the original problem I posted in this thread was the vibration in the clutch pedal and the car shaking when I was launching. This only happens in 1st gear and If I can keep the RPMs at exactly 1100 the car launches perfectly smooth. If I give it more gas to about 1500 rpm or so, it shakes, and anything less than 1000 rpm will shake.
The clutch never slips, the car never slips out of gear, no bad smells or anything. No fluid leaks that I can find.
I don't know if any of these three issues are related but considering they are all transmission related, I am beginning to get really worried. If you guys know of ANYTHING please let me know.
I'm assuming my shift forks are bent making it hard to shift.
I'm also hoping that something with the reverse lockout is messed up like a fuse or something loose.
And hopefully the vibration in the clutch is just a loose pressure plate.
For a while now since I installed my new exhaust, sometimes when I brake really hard coming down off of a highway ramp, if I have the car in neutral with the clutch out just braking, there is this weird sound coming the shifter area. It sounds like lightweight metal rings or plates spinning and sliding around on a tube or something, they also kind of slap around a bit. And very rarely, after the metal spinning sound, sometimes I will feel a thunk in the transmission. The first thing I thought of when I heard it was little metal rings spinning loosely on the driveshaft. Being that it sounded lightweight, I didn't think it was a major problem.
Friday night, the transmission started acting really bad. Now it is almost impossible to shift into reverse. Requires lots of wiggling and both arms pushing on it to get it into gear. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gears are also hard to get into sometimes while driving. Most of the time all 6 gears shift smooth and easy, but sometimes 1st, 2nd and 3rd need a little muscle. Since I bought the car I have never missed a shift. Since this started happening I have missed 3rd gear three times now and 2nd and 4th once each. Also, sometimes when I have the car in 4th on the highway and I shift out of 4th and into neutral and coast and then put it back into 4th without going into any other gear, it will occassionally grind really hard. 3rd gear will do this too but even less often than 4th gear.
Now the original problem I posted in this thread was the vibration in the clutch pedal and the car shaking when I was launching. This only happens in 1st gear and If I can keep the RPMs at exactly 1100 the car launches perfectly smooth. If I give it more gas to about 1500 rpm or so, it shakes, and anything less than 1000 rpm will shake.
The clutch never slips, the car never slips out of gear, no bad smells or anything. No fluid leaks that I can find.
I don't know if any of these three issues are related but considering they are all transmission related, I am beginning to get really worried. If you guys know of ANYTHING please let me know.
I'm assuming my shift forks are bent making it hard to shift.
I'm also hoping that something with the reverse lockout is messed up like a fuse or something loose.
And hopefully the vibration in the clutch is just a loose pressure plate.
03-01-2005, 09:38 PM
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There is no way to be sure if it is just the clutch. You are going to have to pull the tranny and check out the clutch at a minimum. A bad clutch might be causing all of your problems. Worst case would be clutch and tranny problems.
04-14-2005, 01:37 PM
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Originally Posted by Tallon535
nobody has any suggestions?
04-14-2005, 02:57 PM
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i have a spec stg 3 and have the same problem. However, if i give my car some gas off the line like around 12-1300 rpm...it doesnt chatter...try giving it some more gas...i have the stock flywheel btw
04-14-2005, 03:51 PM
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Tallon535,
Sounds like you have a combination of a couple of problems.
1. You have a misaligned clutch-happens when an aftermarket clutch is installed with factory flywheel and no work on the flywheel and possibly some loose bolts on that flywheel/clutch assembly.
2. The clutch has uneven wear-rare, but heard of with aftermarket clutch and stock flywheel. Also, there may have been a few factory parts from the original clutch not changed when the new clutch was installed. Another problem could be starter alignment/wear/missing-worn teeth & internal parts caused from being under torqued during removal/installation. The latter 2 explaining the noises you hear when driving.
The reason you may not have noticed this is the dealer may have had the problem temporarily fixed whiched inturn caused the problem to worsen, ie...spraying a shot of brake cleaner to the flywheel.
I very seriously doubt you have major clutch problems or tranny problems, just some TLC and thourough inspection of the entire clutch area.
I would reccommend having this looked @ by a reputable shop and not the dealer, then let the dealer know the diagnosis and have them foot the bill or help out.
I hope this helps, and please let us know what happens and provide us some feedback.
Sounds like you have a combination of a couple of problems.
1. You have a misaligned clutch-happens when an aftermarket clutch is installed with factory flywheel and no work on the flywheel and possibly some loose bolts on that flywheel/clutch assembly.
2. The clutch has uneven wear-rare, but heard of with aftermarket clutch and stock flywheel. Also, there may have been a few factory parts from the original clutch not changed when the new clutch was installed. Another problem could be starter alignment/wear/missing-worn teeth & internal parts caused from being under torqued during removal/installation. The latter 2 explaining the noises you hear when driving.
The reason you may not have noticed this is the dealer may have had the problem temporarily fixed whiched inturn caused the problem to worsen, ie...spraying a shot of brake cleaner to the flywheel.
I very seriously doubt you have major clutch problems or tranny problems, just some TLC and thourough inspection of the entire clutch area.
I would reccommend having this looked @ by a reputable shop and not the dealer, then let the dealer know the diagnosis and have them foot the bill or help out.
I hope this helps, and please let us know what happens and provide us some feedback.
04-14-2005, 08:43 PM
#14
you will have more vibrations since u dont have a rubber isolated shifter anymore. thats where your vibrations and noises are comming from.
clutch chatter also caused by burn spots on the flywheel from hard clutch dumps.
my transmission used to act just like that, i didnt even grind many gears at all, dealership rebuilt my transmission. was good for first few months. now it sucks again.
just dont give up you will eventually find the source of your problem. though i would bet your money on excessive wear. make the dealership rebuild it. or find someone who can do it well.
clutch chatter also caused by burn spots on the flywheel from hard clutch dumps.
my transmission used to act just like that, i didnt even grind many gears at all, dealership rebuilt my transmission. was good for first few months. now it sucks again.
just dont give up you will eventually find the source of your problem. though i would bet your money on excessive wear. make the dealership rebuild it. or find someone who can do it well.
