My 2005 Insight has developed a noise, my mechanic thinks it's the manual transmission

11726 Views 217 Replies 16 Participants Last post by FadedBlue, 2 mo ago

FadedBlue

Discussion Starter · Mar 11, 2022

Last summer I thought my IMA battery was dying and bought a grid charger, but it turned out the problem was actually a broken ground strap, so I could have fixed the car for like $10, but spent quite a bit more with buying the grid charger.

Also to get my car to pass inspection last summer, I had to have the one of the motor mounts replaced. Perhaps the broken motor mount was the reason for the broken ground strap.

Anyway since I had the car inspected and the motor mount replaced, I have been noticing a noise during acceleration. Once I am at a steady speed I don't notice the noise. I thought the noise might have been related to the motor mount being replaced, like maybe one of the other motor mounts is shot and the motor is moving around during accleration. However I just took it to the shop to have the oil changed and asked them to check out the noise. The mechanic thinks it is the transmission. I was hoping it might be something cheaper, but thought I would ask the forum for an opinion. Do you think this might really be the transmission? Is this a common problem? Or do you think it might be something else?

If the transmission is going bad and making a noise during acceleration is that something that needs to be addressed soon? The reason why I ask that is a bunch of years ago, I had a 1995 Civic that was noisy in 5th gear, but I just ignored the noise in 5th gear for at least 100K miles, until I needed to get the clutch replaced. Anyway with that car, I bought a rebuilt transmission from a place in California, I think it was called Synchrotech transmissions. So is a noisy MT in an Insight something that is just a slightly annoying noise, but you can ignore it (like I did with my 1995 civic) or is this a sign that the transmission might fail at any moment and leave me stranded? Also if I were to replace the transmission, what would you recommend? A used transmission? A rebuilt transmission from say Synchrotech? Or rebuilt by a forum member?

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FadedBlue

Discussion Starter · #41 · Apr 15, 2022

5

Well at least I managed to order the correct spark plugs.

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FadedBlue

Discussion Starter · #42 · Apr 20, 2022

eq1 said:
Did the noise start only after you had the rear transmission mount changed? Hard to say what noise is the noise in your video, as there seems to be a lot of extra noise. But one of the noises, a kind of throbbing, thumping noise on acceleration, seemingly commensurate with engine speed, sounds to me like it could be engine/transmission mount related, like maybe when the rear mount was replaced it wasn't properly centered and 'balanced' with the other mounts, so maybe the engine/transmission are little off-center/kinked and rock and move in a weird way upon acceleration, putting weird stresses in weird places and making weird noise. Just a guess, hard to diagnose these things unless in-person.

You might consider crawling under the car and looking at the position of the rear mount - does it look centered, in a 'state of repose', at rest, or maybe the rubber stuff in the middle, like the 'arms' in the bushing, look stressed? Is the aluminum mount body seemingly straight/aligned properly with the holes/car body? Take a look at the front side mounts too and see if you can see any weird angles and potential stresses when the engine is just sitting there, hanging...

As far as crawling under the car to look at the rear mount, I guess I should consider getting a floor jack and jack stands. Also if this turns out to be the transmission and I might consider being crazy enough to try to swap the transmission for a rebuilt transmission myself I would need a floor jack and jack stands as well. I was looking at jack stands on Amazon. I am not so sure they look that safe to get under the car with using wrenches to do things like adjust the rear engine mount or remove/install a transmission. I also saw something that looked much safer than jack stands from a company called QuickJack. I was helping a friend work on a Cobra replica a while ago and he was using something under his car that might have been a QuickJack. I should ask him what he uses.

Rainsux

· #43 · Apr 20, 2022

Of course Scott will be able to diagnose it quickly. I bet you haven’t even called him yet.
I have a Quickjack and it works great. WAY more expensive than a good floor jack and four jack stands.
I have a Quickjack and it works great. WAY more expensive than a good floor jack and four jack stands.

sam

FadedBlue

Discussion Starter · #44 · Apr 20, 2022

Rainsux said:
Of course Scott will be able to diagnose it quickly. I bet you haven’t even called him yet.
I have a Quickjack and it works great. WAY more expensive than a good floor jack and four jack stands.
I have a Quickjack and it works great. WAY more expensive than a good floor jack and four jack stands.

sam

Yes, I have not called Scott yet. Scott gave me his number and a pricing information about a rebuilt transmission and estimated shipping costs across the country. I do suspect that the problem is the transmission, but I am not in a hurry to fix this. Others have suggested that I check on other items like the engine mounts, an exhaust donut gasket, etc. I don't think it hurts to check those items first before dealing with the transmission.

There is always the option of me just taking the car to a transmission shop for a rebuild. However it might be fun (or tourture) to try to swap the tranmission myself. A Quickjack looks much safer than jack stands. I was under my friend's Cobra replica bolting the transmission to the mount and connecting the drive shaft during an engine swap. I suppose I might be able to borrow his Quickjack. Maybe, maybe not? He is about an hour from where I live. I did see the other day that Quickjack had a refurbished 5000 unit for somewhere around $950, but this morning they don't have any refurbished units. I also saw one for sale on Facebook marketplace about an hour from my house. From measuring the distance between the jacking points, it looks like I would need the 5000TL unit. I am not sure which model my friend has. If he has the smaller model Quickjack, that might not work with the Insight jacking points.

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FadedBlue

Discussion Starter · #45 · Apr 23, 2022

3

Well I got the correct bushings now. One of the old ones was worn a bit and the other one had a hole worn thru it.

I changed them, the noise is still present. Well I guess it doesn't hurt to try cheap fixes first.

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FadedBlue

Discussion Starter · #46 · Apr 23, 2022

Rainsux said:
Of course Scott will be able to diagnose it quickly. I bet you haven’t even called him yet.
I have a Quickjack and it works great. WAY more expensive than a good floor jack and four jack stands.
I have a Quickjack and it works great. WAY more expensive than a good floor jack and four jack stands.

sam

Yeah, the Quickjack is WAY more expensive, but it does look MUCH safer. Plus the new TL models can get you 24 inches of lift. I was thinking maybe I can start doing more maintenance on my cars. I have 4 cars. The Insight is the oldest and who knows what might go wrong with it next. So I saw Home Depot had Quickjacks on sale and I had some credit card points that I could turn into a a Home Depot gift card and ... well I ordered a Quickjack 5000TL.

Originally Home Depot said it would arrive in less than a week. But the tracking info I just got now says 2 weeks.

While I am waiting, I read the Quickjack manual. There are a couple of places in the manual that say:

⚠ WARNING As an added safety precaution, you must always use auxiliary safety stands under the Vehicle while elevated on both QuickJack Frames.

While I don't recall seeing pictures of people using auxiliary jack stands on their website, I guess I need to buy jack stands anyway. Since it seems the only safe places to jack an Insight are the 3 places along the pinch weld where the Quickjack goes, I guess you need to put the auxiliary jack stands under the Quickjack?

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So Sam, do you use auxiliary jack stands with your Quickjack? And if so where are you putting the stands? Under the Quickjack?

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discovery

· #47 · Apr 23, 2022

Have you checked the inner CV axels? If the bearings inside them go bad they start to make noises as well. Cheap diagnoses can be achieved with stethoscope from harbor freight/ amazon/ Ebay. Again, you'll need jack and stands

Rainsux

· #48 · Apr 24, 2022

FadedBlue said:
Yeah, the Quickjack is WAY more expensive, but it does look MUCH safer. Plus the new TL models can get you 24 inches of lift. I was thinking maybe I can start doing more maintenance on my cars. I have 4 cars. The Insight is the oldest and who knows what might go wrong with it next. So I saw Home Depot had Quickjacks on sale and I had some credit card points that I could turn into a a Home Depot gift card and ... well I ordered a Quickjack 5000TL.

Originally Home Depot said it would arrive in less than a week. But the tracking info I just got now says 2 weeks.

While I am waiting, I read the Quickjack manual. There are a couple of places in the manual that say:

⚠ WARNING As an added safety precaution, you must always use auxiliary safety stands under the Vehicle while elevated on both QuickJack Frames.

While I don't recall seeing pictures of people using auxiliary jack stands on their website, I guess I need to buy jack stands anyway. Since it seems the only safe places to jack an Insight are the 3 places along the pinch weld where the Quickjack goes, I guess you need to put the auxiliary jack stands under the Quickjack?

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So Sam, do you use auxiliary jack stands with your Quickjack? And if so where are you putting the stands? Under the Quickjack?

I have NEVER used auxiliary jack stands, or felt the need to. It’s really stable. I use the rubber blocks and put the front one under the reinforced pinch weld and the rear one just inside the body seam.
Sam

FadedBlue

Discussion Starter · #49 · May 15, 2022

discovery said:
Have you checked the inner CV axels? If the bearings inside them go bad they start to make noises as well. Cheap diagnoses can be achieved with stethoscope from harbor freight/ amazon/ Ebay. Again, you'll need jack and stands

Well 2 of the 3 boxes for my Quickjack showed up on April 26th. I have called Home Depot too many times trying to get a new 3rd box sent to me. They keep giving me a different story, but assure me I will eventually get the 3rd box...

Anyway assuming I ever get the car off the ground what is your idea for checking the CV axles? Listen to the rubber boots on the axles with the stethoscope while turning the front wheels?

FadedBlue

Discussion Starter · #50 · May 15, 2022

Well if the problem does turn out to be the transmission and I get a rebuilt one from Scott, what else should I be doing at that time?

Probably replace the clutch too? The car has about 235K miles. I just looked at HondaPartsNow.com.

The clutch is currently unavailable and the pressure plate is discontinued.

Are there aftermarket versions?

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I suppose I could consider replacing the top left and right motor mounts too? The bottom mount was replaced already.

The manual mentions using a transmission jack to lower the transmission. Could I just use a floor jack to do that?

Somewhere else I saw someone suggesting an impact wrench should be used to get the spindle nuts off of the axles. Could I just use a breaker bar or a breaker bar with a pipe? I already have a breaker bar and pipe that I use to change the blades on my commercial mower. I guess I could consider getting an impact wrench if necessary.

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eq1

· #51 · May 15, 2022

FadedBlue said:
Are there aftermarket versions?
I suppose I could consider replacing the top left and right motor mounts too? The bottom mount was replaced already.
The manual mentions using a transmission jack to lower the transmission. Could I just use a floor jack to do that?
Somewhere else I saw someone suggesting an impact wrench should be used to get the spindle nuts off of the axles. Could I just use a breaker bar or a breaker bar with a pipe? I already have a breaker bar and pipe that I use to change the blades on my commercial mower. I guess I could consider getting an impact wrench if necessary.

You might try rockauto for the clutch, most people go with an exedy KHC11 I think it is, and some of the other brand names will actually be an exedy (I bought a 'Brute' clutch and it was an exedy). There was a thread not too long ago that mentioned clutches being discontinued, including the exedy, but there were 'some left' somewhere, you'll have to search for that thread...

I don't think I'd replace the front mounts unless I saw visible damage, certainly leakage (they're fluid-filled), but any cracks have to be carefully inspected, as superficial cracks develop quickly and easily but they're harmless. I replaced mounts that had "superficial cracks" but they turned out to be fine, the new ones made no difference.

I used a floor jack when I dropped my transmission to do the clutch, with a DIY block of wood shaped to fit the transmission. Didn't work very well. As I recall there's lifts you can buy that work from the top, like a crane, I resolved that making something that worked from the top, like a couple 2x4s and a ratchet strap or something like that, would be better than a floor jack with DIY block. I personally wouldn't buy a specialty tool, I'm too cheap.

I had no problems breaking 'spindle nuts' loose with breaker bar and socket, just do it before you lift the car.

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Bull Dog

· #52 · May 15, 2022 (Edited)

Back in 2015, I removed the transmission on my 2006 Insight at home with my dad's help. We lowered it down with a floor jack. The manual transmission weighs about 60 pounds. It is isn't unreasonably hard to manage.

The axle nuts are 32mm. If the car is already on jack stands, you can have a helper apply the brakes while you loosen the axle nuts with a breaker bar.

Edit: If you would like to go with the high quality, tried and true, we have a few Exedy KHC11 clutch kits available.

eq1

· #53 · May 16, 2022

Here's a link to a post in a thread I wrote when I did my clutch job, this particular post (gripe) describes my process of trying to bench press the transmission into place: clutch kit, 'Brute Power' brand?

There's some talk about finding the right replacement clutch, symptoms, stuff like that, though that was in 2017.

Balto

· #54 · May 16, 2022

You could just be me and lay a pad down and then install a 2 post lift in the backyard, oooo my wallet 😢😢😢😢😢...

Ironically, all told, with the work j have done since getting it installed in January has saved me 3x the cost in labor I would have payed at a shop

!

FadedBlue

Discussion Starter · #55 · May 18, 2022

eq1 said:
You might try rockauto for the clutch, most people go with an exedy KHC11 I think it is, and some of the other brand names will actually be an exedy (I bought a 'Brute' clutch and it was an exedy). There was a thread not too long ago that mentioned clutches being discontinued, including the exedy, but there were 'some left' somewhere, you'll have to search for that thread...

I don't think I'd replace the front mounts unless I saw visible damage, certainly leakage (they're fluid-filled), but any cracks have to be carefully inspected, as superficial cracks develop quickly and easily but they're harmless. I replaced mounts that had "superficial cracks" but they turned out to be fine, the new ones made no difference.

I used a floor jack when I dropped my transmission to do the clutch, with a DIY block of wood shaped to fit the transmission. Didn't work very well. As I recall there's lifts you can buy that work from the top, like a crane, I resolved that making something that worked from the top, like a couple 2x4s and a ratchet strap or something like that, would be better than a floor jack with DIY block. I personally wouldn't buy a specialty tool, I'm too cheap.

I had no problems breaking 'spindle nuts' loose with breaker bar and socket, just do it before you lift the car.

Look what I found used on FB marketplace for $40. A low lift transmission jack. It was a bit of a drive though, over 40 miles from my house.

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I saw that there were places that would rent transmission jacks for $30 or $40 a day (well I am sure a rental jack would be a better jack), but getting a used cheap one for $40 sounds ok and I could alway consider selling it later on FB marketplace and probably get my money back.

It looks like this one from Harbor Freight that is on sale for $99.99: 450 lb. Low Lift Transmission Jack

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FadedBlue

Discussion Starter · #56 · May 18, 2022

Bull Dog said:
Back in 2015, I removed the transmission on my 2006 Insight at home with my dad's help. We lowered it down with a floor jack. The manual transmission weighs about 60 pounds. It is isn't unreasonably hard to manage.

The axle nuts are 32mm. If the car is already on jack stands, you can have a helper apply the brakes while you loosen the axle nuts with a breaker bar.

Edit: If you would like to go with the high quality, tried and true, we have a few Exedy KHC11 clutch kits available.

Hmm, 32mm axle nuts. I just looked at my sockets. I have large SAE sockets, but my largest metric socket is 19mm. I will need to get some larger metric sockets then.

Rainsux

· #57 · May 18, 2022

With the large sockets sometimes an SAE one is close enough, especially a 6 point. Try what you have.
Sam

Willie Williford

· #58 · May 18, 2022

32 mm is right at 1.259 in.
1 1/4 would probably work. IMHO

eq1

· #59 · May 18, 2022

As I recall I bought one at O'Reilly's or some typical autoparts store, they sell big sockets like that individually.

FadedBlue

Discussion Starter · #60 · May 19, 2022

The largest socket I have is 1-3/16, which is too small.

As suggested I could buy an individual 32mm socket. I bought some large individual SAE sockets to work on my mower.

Besides the 32mm socket, would I need any other sockets larger than 19mm? If I need some other large sockets besides the 32mm maybe I could buy a set that includes 32mm and anything else I would need. If I bought a set, I would probably consider an impact set in case some day I get an impact wrench, but in the mean time I think you can use impact sockets with a regular rachet.

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