Rattling sound from gearbox area

Adam Vinnicombe · Sep 26, 2019

Hi all I'm new to this forum stuff so hopefully I'm posting in the correct area?
I have a 2001 ford mustang GT with 46,000 miles on the clock and it's developed a rather annoying rattle like stones in a tin can. The rattling noise is in any gear and it starts at around 2,000 rpm BUT only when crusing or very very light throttle. If I accelerate with 1/4 throttle or more the rattling sound is not there its only when you feather the throttle. The engine pulls strong, no smoke, no rattling sound when in neutral. Also when in neutral you can not reproduce the sound it's only when in any gear and driving. Now when the rattling starts I have held that rpm steady and slowly pressed the clutch in and as the clutch goes down the rattling gets weaker until the clutch is disengaged and the noise stops.
Any ideas on what could be going on?
I did take it to a garage and they charged me £170 just for them to say "I have now I deal mate, could be chain slap" but I don't think it's that cause I can't get it to reproduce the stones in a tin sound when in neutral.
Many thanks
Adam

Paladin1001 · Sep 27, 2019

Check your transmission mount. Mine is bad and it is making a weird noise. I only found it because I was looking into my clutch being hard to operate. My mount is broken completely through and it makes a weird noise like you describe.

Adam Vinnicombe · Sep 27, 2019

OK I will have a look at the mount. Cheers mate

Paladin1001 · Sep 27, 2019

Adam Vinnicombe said:
OK I will have a look at the mount. Cheers mate

Good luck.

Adam Vinnicombe · Sep 28, 2019

Cheers mate

Silver95bird · Sep 28, 2019

also check all the heat shields on all of the cats. they sometimes come loose and rattle around like crazy.

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ttocs · Sep 29, 2019

I just replaced a cat because it was broken and rattling like a mofo. If you got down under the car while it was running you could tell where it was coming from.

Adam Vinnicombe · Sep 29, 2019

Unfortunately I don't have any cats fitted. I've checked all the exhaust heat shields.
Can it be chain slap, piston slap or a bearing gone?
Like I said at the moment it only happens when in gear and only under light throttle opening. When your accelerating at any pace there is no noise also if you come off the throttle there is no noise it's only when you try and hold a steady speed

Silver95bird · Sep 29, 2019

chain slap, piston slap, bearings.... if say maybe if it was 146,000 miles and not 46,000 miles. not likely. chains at maybe 150k. unless this car was run without oil. a lot.

the other bad exhaust rattle i found was around the hangers and where the pipes go over the rear axle.

and maybe a leak where they decided to put that stupid gasket in the passenger side at the manifold, but thats not a rattle noise.

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Adam Vinnicombe · Sep 29, 2019

The noise is definitely coming from under my feet. Had the hole exhaust system checked out when I had the new O2 sensors fitted.
A little update. I took the cover of the clutch lever arm and looked inside and found nothing loose BUT with the engine running I found two things. First was the clutch lever is vibrating a lot. Of course it moves back and forth but it can also move up and down and is virbrating around with the engine running. Second is if I depress the clutch everything sound normal but as I allow the clutch pedal up the clutch release level/fork starts to shake and there's a grinding noise in the bell housing. Any ideas?
I have driven the car with the clutch fork cover plate of and the noise is still there but louder

Paladin1001 · Sep 29, 2019

That is starting to sound like throw out bearing noise. I have read of issues with the throw out bearing with these cars.

Adam Vinnicombe · Sep 29, 2019

OK I will look into that. Can this be fixed on a driveway using Jack's and axle stands or will the car need to go to a garage?

Silver95bird · Sep 29, 2019

look inside the inspection cover and see if the the throwout bearing is at least in one piece. i had one explode on me, luckily i was just going to start the car when it jammed, and then snapped the clutch cable. and of course it was -8* that morning.

cheap autozone chinese junk. i put the ford racing clutch in it, and its been much better.

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D3VST8R96GT · Sep 29, 2019

RPM or speed dependent? Front u joints

Adam Vinnicombe · Sep 30, 2019

It's rpm related and only when there is a light load on the engine as in when you are cruising.
Gearbox mounts are good, the throw out bearing is in one piece BUT when at idle and looking through the fork cover you can hear a clicking sound and when you do the release fork jumps at the same time.
Also this morning I went under the car and grabbed the drive shaft, it does not have any play in the up, down, left or right directions but if I twist it one way then the other it dose make a clonk noise but is this normal and is just taking up the play in the gear teeth?

Adam Vinnicombe · Oct 4, 2019

F#&k it this happened this morning. I've been having a very bad rattling sound from the gearbox area in any gear at light throttle settings for a while now then this morning thus happened. The car is in neutral and at idle speed, as soon as I push the clutch in the noise stops and comes back the second the clutch pedal is aloud to come up. Please see the video on the link below

ttocs · Oct 4, 2019

that sounds bad

RAU03MACH · Oct 4, 2019

Adam Vinnicombe said:
F#&k it this happened this morning. I've been having a very bad rattling sound from the gearbox area in any gear at light throttle settings for a while now then this morning thus happened. The car is in neutral and at idle speed, as soon as I push the clutch in the noise stops and comes back the second the clutch pedal is aloud to come up. Please see the video on the link below

That sounds like a throw out bearing on the clutch
Mine made that same noise until I replaced it

Adam Vinnicombe · Oct 4, 2019

Can I drive the car?
Can this be fixed on a driveway?
I have a repair bill for a new clutch witch was done only 4,000 miles ago BUT that was 11 years ago in time when the car was still in the states before it was shipped over to the UK but no mention of any bearings being done

ttocs · Oct 4, 2019

TOB is normally included with the clutch kit. With that being said no matter what brand clutch you get I have been told to only use ford racing TOB when replacing it, even if it has one in the kit.