bullitt6996

Hey guys,

I've just moved to texas, and about a month ago I noticed that my Mustang would weird hollow scraping chatter when upshifting on cold mornings. Noise is present with clutch in, and shifting, more so 1-2, 2-3, but goes almost completed away once car has been driving for a while. I recently took it into the shop here, and they said they rebuilt my transmission and did a clutch replacement. But the noise was still there! Did I get boned by this shop or is this something else? It's nothing I really feel in the shifter or clutch pedal, and it's very confusing....


**Update**

I haven't done the oil in a looooong time, just went out there and did it, only had 2 quarts of the blackest crap I've ever seen! I wonder if the low oil could've been the noise, took it for a test drive and heard nothing at all. The car was still a little warm, so will test again tommorow....

tbear853

You haven't done "what oil" in a "looooong time" that's so long that it only had 2 quarts of the blackest crap left?

Are you speaking of engine oil?

Do you know how long, how far, one would likely drive a newer type Ford 4.6 to only have 2 quarts of black crap left?

A long ways past any reasonable oil change interval"S" I imagine.

As to the transmission, how much did they charge for rebuild with new clutch thrown in? It's not abnormal for these transmissions to be some "clunky" and not want to be shifted fast when cold. What fluid did they put in after rebuild?

bullitt6996

That would be the engine oil sir...and yes I feel stupid about that. But they used synthetinc in the tranny

tbear853

Maybe I came off like I was bashing you but I wasn't meaning too as it is your car ..... just somewhat astounded is more like it.

Anyway .... there are some threads about fluid level in the transmission, it should be like 3/4" or so (double check me) below the lower edge of the fill hole now as I understand it, and use Mercon V which is a synthetic ATF. Filled to even is reportedly too much and this excess fluid and it's "windage" supposedly inhibit synchro action ..... as I understand it.

Our '08 has a "clunk" like feel when cold shifting 1-2 and more so 2-3, and I am in the habit of pausing in neutral between gears ..... just to give it time to slow the clutch disc down which is what the synchro is doing.

Not sure if any of that fits with what you hear.

There are also some times when I hear a rattle like when cold, it goes away warm ..... sounded like a loose shield but I am pretty sure it's just the separator plate or rather "block plate" that fits between the bell housing and engine block rear that vibrates against the bell housing between the two lower bolts, I've been meaning to loosen them, pry open a hair, and insert some rubber.

bullitt6996

Checked it this morning...noise is GONE!! I suppose it could've been the piston slap issue Ive read about, not enough oil would've affected piston/cylinder clearance enough to make the annoying noise...

ford4v429

wow, 3~4 quarts low- yikes! GLAD the noise went away- bet ya the sound was the thrust bearing on the crankshaft, and its likely worn pretty severely- think thrust wear can be checked easily in the car, if its a few thou out of spec, probably fine, but if its 1/8 inch or something crazy the thing coulda worn clear thru. I would avoid sitting at lights with the clutch depressed for any length of time- theres a lot of forward thrust on the crankshaft when the throwout bearing is pushing the clutch fingers in...

hopefully, the thrust bearing is fine, I would try checking by gently pushing the crank rearward with a block of wood(careful not to bend a pulley), putting a indicator on it and depressing the clutch to see how far it moves forward- another, albeit filthy, way to check for damage:

if you still have that nasty oil filter, might suggest carefully cutting it open and looking at how much metal if any, is clogging the media. I lost oil pressure in my old 396 one day, cut the filter apart that day before driving any more, found metal, so pulled the engine apart and found 5 conrod bearings had spun, one really bad, but damage was limited to rod resizing and cleaning up the crank... pretty minor compared to what could have been.

good to hear if nothing else that a 4.6 can tolerate that kind of situation and still be kickin