Gear Grinding...

[lilojoj]

so today i was parking my car and accidentally went too far over the curb and scraped under the front a little. i checked and it looks like nothing even happened to it. i was still a little mad at myself for letting that happen. so when i was leaving i was still a little mad and wasnt paying that much attention to my driving. its still a new car so sometimes the shifter just sticks a little so when i was shifting from 2nd the 3rd it got stuck a little and wasnt in all the way and i let out the clutch a little because i was just shifting like normal and the gears grinded just a bit. think i should get it checked out? is it really that bad even if it was just a little? thanks for any input.

[vonivo]

no not at all it is fine. dont just sit there and grind the gears but a little oops every once and a while isnt going to hurt anything

[LinkNuc]

Agreed, even us that have driven sticks all our lives still ocassionaly grind or have a brain fart like pull into your drive way and let off the clutch right as your are pushing the off button...no big deal, unless you crack the garage door...lol.

[NYblkcoupe]

I learned on my stick 97 accord, and i grinded that thing every once and awile. I had it for a while to and it never had any problems. Grinding happens, just don't do it alot.

[lilojoj]

thanks!

[NYblkcoupe]

No problem

[JDRosenberg07]

yeah dude your fine... what most people dont know is that when you hear the grinding your not actually grinding the gears. All of the gears are already connected and are turning each other. The clutch and each gear has teeth that line up and engage thar gear, so your not grinding the gear itself, your just grinding the teeth connecting the clutch and the gears.

This link explains it a little better, and it has a diagram.

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/transmission1.htm

[motaman]

Sorry, but that is incorrect.

The clutch consists of two plates and the flywheel surface. One plate (the pressure plate) is mounted on springs in a housing that is screwed to the flywheel, and the other (the clutch disc) is on a spline shaft that provides power into the transmission, and is sandwiched between the pressure plate and the flywheel. The pressure plate moves away from the disc when you push the clutch pedal, releasing the clutch. It does this via a bearing (the throwout bearing), which presses fingers (the diaphragm) that act as levers attached to the pressure plate. There are no gears in the clutch, or connecting the clutch to the transmission.

The grinding is caused by the gears inside the transmission (see the simplified drawing on the link that you provided) trying to engage while the input side is spinning under power. The synchro gear cluster cannot synchronize the shift if the input side is not freewheeling (clutch completely disengaged). The grind is the gears trying to mesh together at incompatible speeds.

The grinding is most definitely the gears in the transmission.

It is also relatively harmless if it happens occasionally due to operator error. If it happens frequently, it is a sign of a problem. The clutch may need to be adjusted, or there may be work needed inside the transmission.

I used to be a fleet mechanic in a past life - I've replaced hundreds of clutches.

[Sentientbydesign]

I think he meant that the gears that are grinding aren't the primary drive gears, they are the engagement gears with syncros. Still bad to grind those, but somehow not as bad as the drive gears.

[motaman]

On reading his post again, I think you may be right. The 'teeth' he mentions may in fact be the synchro gears. 'Clutch' means drive gear and 'gear' means driven gear. I didn't quite get his explanation of the process.

On the up side, now everyone knows a little more about how a clutch works and why gears grind!

Thanks!

[Shift_Altima]

no big deal, unless you crack the garage door...lol.

or bang your head on the steering wheel because you turned on your car while tying your shoes..

[JDRosenberg07]

On reading his post again, I think you may be right. The 'teeth' he mentions may in fact be the synchro gears. 'Clutch' means drive gear and 'gear' means driven gear. I didn't quite get his explanation of the process.

Yeah i could have gone into greater detail about what i meant...lol i have a tendency of explaining things in a kind of vague way that i understand that others wouldnt necessairly get...lol My bad

[TrueFaith]

Just a heads up to any 6MT drivers out there that aren't aware. I read in a AAA Car Doctor column a few days ago that driving with your right hand resting on the shifter can lead to transmission damage and is the leading cause of a manual transmissions popping out of gear. Surprised the hell out of me since I've been driving manuals like that for decades, but I'm making a concious effort to reform my behavior in my new 2.5 6MT.

[LinkNuc]

That's complete BS only driving with your foot resting on the clutch is bad, and will lead to decreased life for the clutch. (MOM!!!!) AAA is f'n retarded, my dad's a mechanic I'm an engineer, and we both don't trust anything AAA says...It's actually gotten personal the last couple of years...I'm sorry AAA can suck a fatty.

[JDRosenberg07]

Just a heads up to any 6MT drivers out there that aren't aware. I read in a AAA Car Doctor column a few days ago that driving with your right hand resting on the shifter can lead to transmission damage and is the leading cause of a manual transmissions popping out of gear. Surprised the hell out of me since I've been driving manuals like that for decades, but I'm making a concious effort to reform my behavior in my new 2.5 6MT.

Thats interesting... i bought a used 93' 325i with a 5MT a couple years ago and i rested my hand on the gearshift all the time and never had any problems with the transmission and that car was 15 years old when i traded it in for my A/C.