QuestionMy timing sucks and everything is closed until Wednesday.
My 1995 VTECH Acura Integra is making a high pitched noise somewhere between a whine and a chirp in neutral and also audible in 1st & 2nd gears. It's a manual transmission and the noise vanishes as soon as I depress the clutch.
This morning, I was late for an appointment and drove about 45 miles with the radio blasting; after the appointment it was quiet and I noticed the noise. It may have been present on the first leg of my trip but if it was, I didn't hear it. I drove myself home--another 45 miles.
I'm a complete dipwad when it comes to cars. I searched for my symptoms online and suspect it may be the bearings. Please tell me I do not need a new transmission. (It's 4 a.m. and the thought is keeping me from falling asleep...)
Did I do further damage by driving it home?
If not, can I drive around until Wednesday when everybody's back to work?
Since the car is only worth maybe $3500, does this mean the car is totalled? I've never had transmission troubles before and the car only has about 111k miles on it.
Also, several weeks I had a hard time explaining to my father (who is out of town for a few weeks, but usually takes care of this car) a problem I've been having with 5th gear.
Sometimes, I depress the clutch in 4th, slide it back up to neutral, and go for home in 5th. I push the gear shifter as hard as I can push--HARD--and there's no more distance for it travel, so I depress the clutch and ERRRRRRRRRRRR, I've grinded gears.
With practice, I've become more sensitive about guessing whether or not I've made it all the way into 5th and either push harder on the shifter until it gives (rarely effective), or returning to neutral, releasing the clutch, depressing it, and trying again for 5th. Sometimes it takes a few tries.
My dad couldn't got frustrated with my crappy attempt at explanation and gave up, so I gave up too.
Is it possible that ignoring the 5th gear problem created the neutral whining problem?
Any answer at all is greatly appreciated at this busy time; not much help is available for the next three days and I appreciate that you also have a family and preparations to make for the fast-approaching holiday.
AnswerIt sounds like you could have a problem in your clutch. Most likely you have a worn out release bearing. This is basically a bearing that slides back & forth on a mainshaft in the transmission. Everytime you depress the clutch pedal, you engage the release bearing into the pressure plate. This is fairly common to make noise when they are worn out. If it has to be replaced, your mechanic will replace the clutch disc, clutch pressure plate & clutch release bearing all at the same time. It just sounds like you are in the market for another clutch - nothing worth loosing sleep over.
