Hey there, just bought my first xj and have been doing some fine tweaking. One of may main concerns when driving it is that the tranny is exceptionally loud. I understand that it is an 88 and noise is expected. I just want to know if there is anything I should worry about with it? it shifts fine and drives fine, just wondering if the whining while driving is an issue? Also when the clutch is engaged it makes a small grinding noise, I read on another forum that it is common, but people also said it could be the throwout bearing? Thanks.

 

 

Just to be clear - when you say clutch is engaged you mean "when you're pushing the pedal down", right?
If the grinding sound happens when you have your foot on the pedal and goes away when your foot is off the pedal, then yes, it's probably a noisy throw-out bearing.

Could you describe the "exceptionally loud" when driving? Is this grinding or like someone recently described "sounds like a finely tuned Turbine engine"?
Is this a constant sound - in other words, it's about the same in any gear and might vary with RPMS - OR is the sound isolated to one or another specific gear and varies dramatically or stops depending on what gear you're in?

 

id say it is more of a grinding noise yes. how intensive is the bearing repair?

 

Like Thernland said - the MT90 is GREAT gear oil for your AX15. It's pricey but worth the money.
​​​​​​​I'm using it in mine and I love it.

 

yes, engaged as in pushing the pedal down, and is that a difficult repair? and yes id say like a turbine engine type of noise, and its not specific to a certain gear.

 

ill have to give it a shot when I put some work in on it this weekend, thanks!

 

The throw-out bearing (and pilot bearing too) are replaced during a typical clutch job. If you're replacing the TOB you will want to get a full clutch set (under $100 for a decent one) and replace the TOB, pilot bearing, disc and pressure plate.

It's a big job, there's no way around it - you have to pull the tranny back from the engine. A shop might charge several hundred bucks for the labor.

You can do it yourself and even buying a tranny jack will cost maybe $300 total.

 

 

good to go, it sounds like something I am not suited for haha. I have a good shop out in town I usually go to that works a lot with older vehicles, I'm going to take it for a quote tomorrow. Thanks a lot guys!

 

I'd start with changing your tranny fluid to MT90 - that's only a bit harder than an oil change and will cost you roughly $60 (A gallon of MT90 is about $50 on amazon and a fluid pump that attaches to the bottle is like $10)

My TOB has been noisy for the last 6m and will be noisy for a couple more until I have a weekend to do the clutch job.

 

 

okay that's not too bad, I gave myself a budget of 900 to fix a couple kinks, so far I'm only 80 into it. I will give the fluid a shot next weekend!

 

Is that hood ornament legal?

 

hhaha oh yeah! anyone on here ever head out to anza Borrego??