Does anyone know what this noise is? I shifted my 6-spd into reverse and as a I started letting up on the clutch to back out, the car didn't move and I heard some weird awful coming from the area of the clutch. I put it in neutral and tried shifting into reverse again, and everything was fine. I'm a new stick driver, so I'm guessing I didn't have the car properly in gear. But does anyone know what that noise might have been?

 

You probably had it in 6th.

 

If it was a grinding noise then you probably didn't engage reverse properly.

 

Mine does this all the time. Its hard to get it in reverse. You think its there but it grinds. YOu can kind of tell by the engagement that its going to be a problem. Take it back to neutral, rev it slightly, then hit it hard back into reverse and you are ready to go

 

Yea, some people have been having the same problem. Happens to me when I least suspect it, all the time...and most times I'm positive I put it in reverse correctly. It's kind of odd, because on 2nd try it always works.

-arattle

 

Yep, happens to me a lot. I'm probably wrong, but I seem to remember something about reverse being on a separate clutch or something. Maybe the gear teeth are different than the others. You can usually feel when it hasn't quite engaged. When this happens, I just very slowly let the clutch out until it catches. Now, I do this very slowly, so it doesn't feel like anything is grinding. I had a Probe GT that did the same thing.
-peace-

 

If I recall correctly, you should be able to search for "grinding in reverse" or some such variant. It seems to be a known "issue" which many people have gotten around by simply popping it in reverse 2x before letting out the clutch or shifting to 1st than reverse...so you're not alone. Just go with what you get to work consistently.

 

Didn't know it was an "issue". I mentioned this before but what do you guys think about Mazda putting a sound assoicated with putting it in reverse like the Celica gts? Doesn't have to be loud, and we aren't in reverse too long. Happens to me at least once a week. More a nuisance than anything else.

 

Been there, done that. Plaza parking lot - 2 weeks after picking up the car. Drive in really cool, line up to back into space and <excruiatingly nasty noise emanates from car>. One of the onlookers just had to be a Police cruiser too!

The remedy for me since then is:

- line up and come to a complete stop
- shift to neutral
- let the clutch out for a second
- then shift to reverse making sure that it goes all the way in (at night you can sometimes see the reversing lights come on in a reflection etc.)

There's a note on this in the owner's handbook. I have made this routine. The noise sounds both bad and expensive!