Hi Folks,

The mother-in-law has a rattle/vibration coming from the box on her '99 focus (2 litre with MTX75 box). The rattle/vibration goes away when your foot is on the clutch. I originally thought it would be the release bearing, but doesn't THAT noise become apparent with your foot on the clutch? This noise goes away with your foot on the clutch so now I'm thinking about gearbox bearings etc? As far as I can make out, the mountings are OK and I've drained the fluid and refilled with no change.

Any ideas?

the simple guide to clutch noise

Step 1 With the engine running and the transmission in neutral, if the noise occurs it is in the transmission, most likely the front bearing supporting the input shaft.

Step 2 If that is not the problem, place your foot on the clutch pedal and begin to depress the pedal. If you begin to hear the noise at this point, the problem is the clutch release bearing. If not, proceed to the next step.

Step 3 Push the clutch pedal all the way to the floor. If you hear the noise at this point it is the pilot bearing or bushing. If you do not hear any noise during this test, the problem is not in the clutch system. Identifying these conditions early before removing and replacing the components goes a long way toward preventing a recurrence of the problem.

Cool, thanks for the diagnosis tips. The conditions are as per step 1 so it's the input shaft bearing - bugger. What's the general opinion of recon boxes Vs overhauling the box she has at a box specialist? The box obviously has to come off for either option, but just swapping to a recon box would mean box removal labour + cost of recon box whereas the rebuild option would include the removal labour + however long it took to strip and rebuild box + cost of new bearing(s).

Any idea how long it will be OK to leave and still be driveable (ie keep an eye on vibration levels etc) and what's the worst that'll happen when the bearing eventually packs in? I think I noticed the noise back in April when I did a timing belt change, hard to say how much worse it is.

Thanks so far.

can not answer that one as usually pass the work to the gearbox guys.

Fair enough - thanks for your replies :)