My friend has a 97 Eclipse GS and has been having a noise for just over a year now. From what I understand, when it first started it only happened while cold. He claims it also used to always go away when he depressed the clutch pedal.

I have no clue how accurate that is and I can only go off of what I could hear. When I got a hold of it. It wouldn't make the noise while at a standstill, but would make a tremendous rattling. It was very inconsistent and would randomly just come and go without rhyme or reason. Engine rpm, clutch position, or road speed didn't seem to have any effect or make the noise different. Just a strange rattle coming from the transmission.

So on Friday I jacked up the car and with a stethoscope and started listening for the noise. It definitely seemed to be coming from the gear clusters. So it ripped the tranny out and tore into it some. All the bearings I could get my grubby little sausage fingers on without pressing out the clusters seem good. I then noticed a wear mark on the reverse idler gear, it seemed to be hitting the big gear on your cluster. And sure enough, it you moved it up to where it appeared to be hitting and spun the tranny it seemed to make the noise I was hearing (on a smaller, slower scale of course) So my question is, what would cause this? I took a picture so you can see what I see.



Any input would be much appreciated, I'm so lost at this point I'm just about to head over to the local scrap yard and get a different trans.

I think you answered your own question man. Granted, I don't have the trans in front of me, either, but from reading your post, you have a proper diagnosis that it's the gear or the bearing.