New transmission at 13k miles!!!
 

Haven't posted in a while but I wanted to let some people know of a problem I was having that I've heard others have had.

For the past 5k miles or so, I noticed a very audible "CRUNCHING" noise from my transmission when shifting from 3rd-4th under heavy load (above 5.5k RPM)

For reference I do not AutoX, Track, Drag, or race the car. I drive about 85% highway mileage (I commute to work) and on the weekends I drive "spirited" but most would call my driving rather conservative. I've also owned only manual transmission since I started driving back in 1999 and have never had a single clutch or transmission problem.

Anyhow, I took the car to Andres Barriga from Kab Customs, he had recently installed my Greddy Evo3 exhaust and when I asked him about the transmission he took it for a spin and said it sounded like 3rd-4th syncrho was going bad. He told me to take it to the dealership.

I took it the next weekend to Toyota, and they confirmed that the synchros were bad. They said it happens from "missing shifts" but I don't buy that excuse. I've owned several MT cars and have "missed shifts" from time to time and have driven those cars to over 160k miles on the stock transmission and clutch. If our transmission is that delicate then this car is not meant for anything other than looks...lol

Toyota didn't give me any issues about the replacement and within a week I had a brand new transmission under warranty.

This is just to notify people that if you are having any type of "grinding, crunching" or difficulty when changing gears under load or hear any type of audible noises, please don't hesitate to take the car to the dealer. If the car is under warranty and have you have not abused the car, they should honor your replacement transmission.

Hope this helps!

don't tell me this...just hit 12k miles and I'm having this same sound why is this car so fragile

I know I feel the same way, I love the car but feel that their R+D was not thought out enough and they skimped a bit on some parts to limit cost. A few people I know have had this problem, it's slightly different to the problem people were having with 1st-2nd gear being difficult and clunky. This noise is a rather loud "crunch" reminds me of when your knees and joints crack and crunch.

The only mod I have that is relatively transmission related is the Perrin Shifter Bushing. The dealership did NOT complain about that part and said it had nothing to do with the transmission issue. So that may be music to some peoples ears who have that concern.

As for the transmission, I live in South Florida and went to Weston Toyota and have had bad luck with them until I filed a complaint. Since filing the complaint they have fixed every issue I've had including the speaker rattle from the doors when you listen to anything with any Bass in it.

Good luck! My advice is to take it in! If they cover it under warranty then you get a brand new transmission!!!

I'll give it a shot once I get some other things figured out and it's definitely the crunch...sounds almost like a quick pulse on a blender guess I'll just put my back seats back in cause they may get suspicious if that's all pulled but it's mostly just for looks don't do too much crazy stuff with my car

Yes, that is the exact noise I am referring to. That sounds exactly like it. I would really get it checked out because if it's your synchro's then each time it makes that noise it's shearing metal off into your tranny and eventually you'll be locked out of that gear. The sooner the better, plus....brand new transmission!

Go Home Todd, you are drunk!

My car does this now. It's barely at 3k miles. Guess I'll be taking a trip to the dealer to have it looked at

For the people that got a new transmission, did the problem still surface or its resolved? I'm thinking about taking mine in on the next oil change, should I put my clutch height at stock position or it's fine leaving it?

clutch height, like where the pedal is? Just leave it.


Unless its so low that it isn't disengaging the transmission or something.

can you post paper from toyota as far as receipt describing the details ??

Forgive me for OT, but: That door rattle kills me. Do you remember what they did?

Looks like I have same problems on my car too... 6k rpm, shift 3->4 gear :(

Its really funny, I had this on my 2001 Impreza after 180k km, brz around 7k km..

Ive had 5th gear crunching since 4k miles... at 13k now, still crunches from time to time... but hasn't gotten worse... even with a few track days... im gonna keep it like is until it fully breaks... DDing it i have no issues.


Mine is inaudible... you can feel it when going into 5th though

I got a new transmission because of a fifth gear grind.(Syncro)
I've had the new one for a few months now and no problems at all. It is much smoother through all the gears than the first one. It doesn't even clunk going into first.

Just out of curiosity, is there any correlation between changing trans fluid and having these noises? Are all incidents with stock fluid?

Im using stock oil..

Are the replacement transmissions the same as stock or is there an updated one going back in?

My noise went away after changing transmission fluid to motul.

Ive been down this road as well. I hadn't used 3rd to 4th let alone 4th very much at all for the first 10k miles of my car. 5k miles in I noticed 4th crunching and it started to get pretty bad by 7k or so. The dealer noted it and around 5 or 7k miles. I had the dealer mark me having issues multiple times with the car being completely stock. Eventually I switched to motul and it was noticeably better. It took a few hundred miles before it felt better and then a few thousand miles later I had switched back to OEM fluid to see how it felt and it instantly felt horrible. It took a while for Toyota to agree to warranty it. The at first said it was normal even though it did it at every single shift (100% of the time!!!) at 3,800+RPM. This is below highway speeds! They said to just shift below that. After the dealer talked to the regional service head he got them to agree to replace it. The new transmission had grinds from 0 miles on the first test drive. I put Motul in it immediately after and it seems to be getting better. My girlfriends car has the same issue but going into third gear. We swapped in Motul and the issue got significantly better within 100-200 miles. She had ~ 3,500 miles on the car at the time.

Just as the OP I have never had transmission issues before. Even on my S2000 that I thoroughly abused I sold it at nearly 80,000 miles with the OEM clutch (people commonly replaced them at 40-60k) and it felt brand new. I am extremely easy on my transmissions and clutches.

On this topic I was told that Toyota has put a halt on transmission replacements at this time and is further investigating the issue. I was told I received one of the last transmissions.

Wow, sorry for not seeing all these posts. I went back twice for the door rattle, mine STILL does it a little bit. I told them however to go ahead and stick sound dampening tape underneath the window controls, and around the door speaker assembly. It is MUCH better now, it will only rattle if you have obnoxious bass blasting. So it's much, much more tolerable now. I can actually listen to music and crank it and it's fine.

Unfortunately no, they didn't give me a detailed paper. I could give you the service paper the tech gave to me? It doesn't state much other than the labor codes and such.

I had stock fluid in mine, and still do with the new transmission, I will be replacing the oil very soon though. Most likely Motul.

I think it was the same as stock, I still get the 1st gear "clunk" which I think is actually normal. Also, 1st-2nd gear is a bit harder to get into when the transmission is cold, needs some love....lol but so far have not had any issues.


Oh wow, I did not know this. Crossing my fingers that this transmission doesn't give me issues later on.....thanks for the input!

my 2015 BRZ at 800 miles does has the snapping noise...with heavy load (4k-5k) shifting up hill. i was wondering what heck was that. i had been driving stick for 15 years!

You know what really grinds my gears?

When I shift from 3rd at high rpms into 6th. WTF is going on?

About 21k miles right now.

I had mine replaced last summer by Deerfield Toyota. If you don't like driving out to Weston, you might give them a try.

I had crunching from 3-4 and 5-4. Stock fluid and and replacement fluid made no difference.

I'm at 14k miles on my car and just went to the dealer because 3-4 and 5-6 are crunching. They told me it is more common now and that my new trans will be here in 2-3 days. So needless to say I am happy that it is getting fixed!

Problem is, they replace it with the same crap transmission so you get to go through this all over again-- right around the time your warranty expires.

This has concerned me for a while. It's my first stick and I wasn't sure if the clunk going from N to 1 was normal. Should I be concerned? This transmission just sounds noisy as hell.