"Normal" 3rd gen manual trans noise fix

The worst is when you hit a pothole or significant bump right as you go to shift. It will shockload the synchro and grind bad. Happens very rarely, but it does happen.

 

Rarely? Lol, I'm near Pittsburgh. We have stretches where there's more pothole than intact road.

 

Rarely that it’s bad enough to cause grinding in a shift. At least for me. The clanking noise from bumps and potholes I hear/feel all the time.

 

Yeah, I actually wasn't active at all last week in the forums so it's my fault. It's not that big of a deal to get back under and do this mod on the shield. I need to remove it again anyway as I forgot the slave cylinder bleed nipple cap. Now I can take care of this and the cap in one go.

 

I have a nickname of three time tony. So, I can feel that. Haha!

 

If you want it done right, do it yourself.... three times! hahaha

 

I am cheap though, and know who to blame. Hahaha!

 

Glad this thread is getting some traffic finally.

 

I haven’t received my washers yet, so no idea if they will make any difference (they may not since I have a dampened shield), however I did receive the TSB shield and installed it. Very expensive but it for sure works better than my stock shield with the Noico type stuff I added to it. My stock shield with the stuff I added was 12 oz, the TSB shield was almost a pound, right at 15.6 oz. It feels substantial. Installed it yesterday and went for a road trip. Due to the high drivetrain speeds from my regear, the transmission has always had the whine at about 70+. It’s still there but muffled a lot more than it was.

We’ll see if the washers help muffle it more. This isn’t the same noise as the pothole in neutral noise (though I have that too, I pay attention to it less and try to stay in gear for bumps), but the shield carries all the noises all the same so any improvement in noise muffling should help with all transmission noises across the board.

So I guess, all this to say I think the TSB shield is nice and a good idea, albeit very expensive. Less messy than the sticky butyl foil stuff I added which is nice.

 

LOL from PA too, this is the truth. The state flower is the orange traffic cone.

 

I'm going to have left over cushioning washers, as they come in a 50 pack. I imagine that I can get away with throwing 4-8 of them in an envelope and shipping them for the cost of a stamp. So I guess DM me if you'd like to try and throw some cushioning washers on your heatshield and I'll get some your way. We can get some more data on how well the cheaper fix works for different people.

Do you guys think washers between the transmission and the heat shield will do the trick or will also having washers between the heat shield and bolt head make a difference?

 

I would do both, want to eliminate as much metal to metal contact as possible.

 

Well, I can say adding both made a night and day difference.

 

I'm gonna have to do this mod....the rattle/clang is driving me up the wall....

 

You could start with the washers and see if that eliminates enough noise for you, if not, the sound deadening heat shield can be a back up.

 

Switch to redline MT90. If you have stock fluid. It doesn’t compare to MT90. Way smoother shifts.

 

I’ve had about 6 different fluids. It’s not a fluid characteristic, it’s a transmission design characteristic that shows itself only at the exact right time if you happen to shift right as the tires hit a strong bump.